Performance and mastery orientation : implications for teams in complex decision making situations

It is generally accepted that difficult performance goals can lead to significant performance improvements while vague goals or do-best goals do not (Locke, Shaw. Saari, & Latham, 1981). This conclusion has led to widespread use of goal setting as a motivational tool. However, much of the extant goal-setting research has been based on relatively simple tasks (Pritchard, Jones, Roth, Stuebing, & Ekeberg, 1988). Similar performance gains have not been found with complex tasks (Kanfer, 1990). Researchers attempting to understand the negative effects of performance of goals on complex tasks have turned to learning or mastery goals which do not appear to impede functioning like performance goals. Moreover, learning goals foster mastery oriented self-regulatory behavior, self-efficacy, task involvement, and intrinsic motivation. Consequently, learning goals are highly desirable alternatives to performance goals on complex longitudinal tasks. All of the extant studies on this issue have been conducted at the individual level, and while performance goals lead to similar performance gains at the group level (Weldon & Weingart, 1993), researchers have yet to compare learning and performance goals at the group level. With the increasing presence of teams in today’s workplace, coupled with greater levels of job complexity, examining whether learning goals lead to similarly beneficial outcomes among teams represents an important area for examination. The objective of the present study was to examine learning and performance goals among teams as they work on a complex longitudinal business simulation.