The Effects of Humor and Goal Settings on Individual Brainstorming Performance

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2006

Department

School of Business

Abstract

The efficacy of goal setting is widely accepted by researchers, managers, and the “man-on-the-street.” Given this agreement, the simple maxim to “set goals” seems obvious. However, individual, task, and context characteristics affect the characteristics of goals that lead to high performance. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effects of goal characteristics and a specific context variable, humor, on an individual brainstorming task. With respect to goal characteristics, we examine the effect of goal specificity (vague goals, specific attainable goals, and specific stretch goals) on individual brainstorming performance. With respect to humor, we examine the effect of the presence or absence of humor and the interaction of humor and goal characteristics on individual brainstorming performance. In addition, we examine the interaction between goal characteristics and humor on the task. We found that performance on a brainstorming task was highest when goals were both specific and challenging (stretching). While humor did not affect performance on specific goals, humor did improve performance with vague goals and humor radically improved performance with stretch goals. The research results suggest that humor may be an effective managerial lever for certain tasks and contexts. This paper reports on a study that examines the effects of goal characteristics and a specific context variable (humor) on an individual brainstorming task. The literature abounds with research on this topic, so we cite just a few specific studies on the relationships among goal setting (specificity and difficulty), performance, and humor. Next, we present the procedures, methods, and results of our study. Finally, we will discuss the implications and limitations of this research and present ideas for future research in this area. The impact of goal setting on performance is well established in organizational behavior and management research (Ambrose and Kulik, 1999; Locke, 2004; Latham, 2004). Performance is higher for specific, difficult goals than easy goals, "do your best" goals, or no goals (Locke, Shaw, Saari, & Latham, 1981). Reviewing extant literature, Locke et al. (1981) found that 99 out of 110 studies empirically demonstrated the effect of goal-setting on task performance. Specific, clear goals establish and communicate expected performance levels. When people know what is expected, they can focus their efforts on the target (Latham, 2004). Moreover, knowing performance expectations reduces anxiety concerning the performance appraisal process (Latham, 2004). Goal difficulty moderates the relationship between goal setting and performance (Wright, 1990; Ambrose and Kulik, 1999; Campbell and Furrer, 1995). People are motivated to exert more effort over time when presented with difficult goals (Latham, 2004).

Volume

9

Issue

2

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