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Among the most robust findings in the behavioral science literature is that setting a specific, difficult goal leads to higher performance than urging individuals to" do their best"(Latham & Locke, 1991; Locke & Latham, 1984; 1990). Moreover, research has repeatedly shown that the higher the specific goal, the higher the individual's performance. Only when individuals reach the limits of their abilities does the linear relationship between goal difficulty and performance level off (Garland, 1982; Locke, 1982; Seijts, Meertens, & Kok, 1997).

Latham and Lee (1986) found that the positive effect of goal setting on performance generalizes across laboratory and field studies, soft and hard criteria, individual and group goals, and goals that are set by an individual (self-set), assigned by an authority figure (eg, supervisor, and experimenter) or set participatively. In short, the beneficial effect of goal setting on performance has been replicated across a wide variety of participants, tasks, criterion measures, settings, and countries using a multitude of research designs (Bandura, 1997; Locke & Latham, 1990). Thus, it is not surprising that numerous authors have concluded that goal setting theory is among the most valid and practical theories of motivation (Lee & Earley, 1992; Miner, 1984; Finder, 1998).