An exploratory field experiment of the effect of subconscious and conscious goals on employee performance

Amanda Shantz and Gary P. Latham

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2009, vol. 109, issue 1, 9-17

Abstract: The effect of both a primed and a conscious goal on performance in the workplace was investigated. The primed goal was pilot tested. People on their way to work (n = 52) shown a photo of a woman winning a race performed better on a brainstorming task within a 2-min time period than people in the control group. A laboratory experiment (n = 71) revealed that this primed goal significantly increased the participants' subconscious need for achievement, as measured by a projective test, relative to those in the control group. A 2 (primed goal vs. control group) x 2 (conscious goal vs. do best goal) factorial design involving call center employees (n = 81) revealed a main effect for this primed goal, as well as a main effect for a conscious goal for money solicited from donors.

Keywords: Subconscious; Conscious; goal; setting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749-5978(09)00002-8
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jobhdp:v:109:y:2009:i:1:p:9-17

Access Statistics for this article

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes is currently edited by John M. Schaubroeck

More articles in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().