Page Title

The Effect of Goal Conflict on Performance

January 31, 2003 

"The purpose of this research is to explore how goal conflict is related to goal commitment and performance.  We explore this issue in the context of a longitudinal, field study.  As is common in many organizational settings, participants in the study are asked to juggle their time to meet multiple, competing performance goals, including family-work tradeoffs.  In a complex situation goal commitment is hypothesized to influence performance indirectly through the mediation of goal-directed behavior.  Lastly, we also examine the emotional consequences of performance.

 Goal conflict is the degree to which individuals feel that their multiple goals are incompatible (Locke, Smith, Erez, Chah, Schaffer, 1994).  AS such, it constitutes an important facet of the more general role conflict construct, which has played a prominent role in organizational behavior studies (Jackson and Schuler, 1985).  Several types of goal conflict have been identified.  One type occurs when an externally imposed goal conflicts with one's personal goal.  A second type of goal conflict occurs when people are asked to achieve multiple outcomes (e.g., meeting a quantity quota vs. not making any mistakes) when performing a single task.  A third type of goal conflict involves trade-offs between several types of tasks or outcomes when multiple goals or tasks exist (e.g., devoting time to selling product A and product B, given limited available time.)

 We believe that there is little consensus as to how goal conflict influences performance.  The early studies suggest that goal conflict will influence performance through its negative relationship with goal commitments, while the later studies propose a direct relationship of goal conflict on performance. 

 Our model of how goal conflict impacts goal performance is consistent with goal-setting theory.  One of the most frequently stated conditions necessary for goals to lead to higher performance is commitment to a specific, difficult goal.  In an effort to demonstrate the incremental contribution of goal conflict as an antecedent of goal commitment, our model also includes expectancy, self-efficacy, and need for achievement as three important personal antecedents of goal commitment. 

 In complex task environments, managing and executing behaviors that are instrumental to performance are likely to be important consequences of goal commitment (Latham and Locke, 1991; Early and Shalley, 1991; Wright and Kacmar, 1994; Austin and Vancouver, 1996).  Our model also shows a direct effect of self-efficacy on goal directed behaviors.

 We also posit that performance has emotional consequences that may subsequently influence motivation and future performance.  WE propose the following hypotheses to test our model:

H1.  Goal conflict will be negatively related to goal commitment.

H2.  Self-efficacy, expectancy and need for achievement will be positively related to goal commitment.

H3.  Goal commitment and self-efficacy will be positively related to goal-directed behaviors.

H4.  Goal-directed behaviors will be positively related to performance.

H5.  Performance will be negatively related to negative emotions and positively related to positive emotions.

 The sample for this study consisted of salespeople working for a distributor of medical supplies.  Customers consisted of physician practices in the western part

Of the United States.  The majority of salespeople's time was spent calling on existing customers and taking orders to replenish inventories of medical supplies regularly used in the practice (e.g., paper products, gloves, syringes, etc.).  The sales force was also responsible for identifying opportunities to sell medical equipment (e.g., examination tables, examination lights, wireless patient monitors, etc.), usually under $10,000.  Approximately 90% of total sales were in medical supplies, though equipments sales for as much as 20% of total sales for some salespeople.

 The present study was conducted in a field setting in which the distributor's salespeople were assigned a performance goal for a promotion on a piece of equipment with an average selling price of $5,400.  The promotion lasted 90 days.  Salespeople received extra monetary compensation ($300) for each piece of equipment they sold during the promotion period.  In support of this promotion, physicians were offered a special reduced price for the promoted product. 

 It is quite important to note that the selling process for equipment is quite different from that for medical supplies.  A typical sales call to pick up orders for supplies usually took less than 15 minutes to complete.  It consists of checking storage cabinets for inventory levels, checking with nurses and/or an office manager for additional order items, and ensuring that all needs were being met for the regular flow of supplies.  Selling a piece of equipment is different.  A formal sales presentation to explain product features and benefits is necessary.  IN short, a different call routine was necessary; one requiring a different set of competencies from those typically needed for medical supply replenishment.  As a result, there was the potential for goal conflict. 

 The average salesperson in the sample was 40 years of age, earned $41,000 annually, 75 percent were college educated, and 85 percent were male.  This is largely a veteran sales force with an average organizational tenure of just over 10 years. 

 This study measured the following: 

-Goal Conflict - a focus group was conducted with salespeople from the organization to develop items for this scale.

Self-efficacy -   We asked study participants to indicate whether or not they expected to achieve each of ten levels of output sales performance (from 1-10 units).

-Expectancy - A single item asked salespeople to estimate the probability of reaching their self-set goal for the promotion.

-Need for Achievement - Achievement motivation was adapted from Steers and Braunstein's (1975) measure. 

-Goal Commitment - Goal commitment was measure using the 9-item measure developed by Hollenbeck, Klein, O'Leary, and Wright (1989).

-Goal-directed behaviors - We also asked focus group participants what behaviors they could engage in to enhance their performance during the promotion.

-Performance - Company records were consulted following the 90-day promotion to measure the number of units each salesperson sold during the promotion.

-Emotions - Positive and negative emotions were measured using a scale developed by Bagozzi, et al., (1998) and validated in other goal-setting research (Pergugini and Bagozzi, 2001; Pergugini and Conner, 2001).

 All of the hypothesized antecedent relationships with goal commitment were statistically significant.  As predicted in hypothesis 1, goal conflict was negatively related to goal commitment.  Hypothesis 2 was also supported in that self-efficacy expectancy, and need for achievement were all positively related to goal commitment.  Goal commitment and self-efficacy were positively related to goal-directed behaviors, supporting hypothesis 3.  As predicted in hypotheses 4, goal directed behaviors were positively related to performance.  As predicted in hypothesis 5, performance was positively related to positive emotions and negatively related to negative emotions.  These paths also indicate that high performance results in mild positive emotions, whereas low performance results in strong negative emotions. 

 An interesting issue for future research is to examine the set of personal goals an individual may establish within a particular role and the causes of perceived conflict(s) between the goals.  The results of this study reinforce the need to include individual difference factors, such as goal orientation in research conducted in complex task settings (VandeWalle, Cron and Slocum, 2001).  It is worth noting that the goal commitment-goal directed behavior and goal directed behavior-performance relationships, while statistically significant, as are not as strong as the self-efficacy performance relationships.

 This is one of the few studies to examine people's emotional reactions to performance.  Although emotions may contribute to attitudes, such as job satisfaction, that are frequently considered in organizational studies, emotions --have very rarely been explicitly considered (Slocum, Cron, & Brown, 2002, pp. 77-89)."

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Reference: Slocum, J.W., Cron, W.L, and Brown, S.P. (2002).  The effect of goal conflict on performance. The Journal of Leadership Studies, 9, No 1.

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Created: 2008-01-09, Updated: 2009-02-17