Alignment of
SMART goals at the work place
What is a SMART Goal?
Goals
are the most essential part of every aspect of business & life and provide
a sense of direction, motivation, a clear focus, and clarify
importance.
SMART is an acronym that stands for;
SMART is an acronym that stands for;
Salient features
|
Questions to be raised
|
|
Specific,
|
Well defined,
clear, and unambiguous
|
1. Who
is involved in this goal?
2. What
do I want to accomplish?
3. Where
is this goal to be achieved?
4. When
do I want to achieve this goal?
5. Why
do I want to achieve this goal?
|
Measurable,
|
With specific
criteria that measure progress towards the accomplishment of the goal
|
1. How
many/much?
2. How
do I know if I have reached my goal?
3. What
is my indicator of progress?
|
Achievable,
|
Attainable
and not impossible to achieve
|
1. Do
I have the resources and capabilities to achieve the goal? If not, what am I
missing?
2. Have
others done it successfully before?
|
Realistic
|
Within reach,
realistic, and relevant to life purpose.
|
1. Is
the goal realistic and within reach?
2. Is
the goal reachable given the time and resources?
3. Are
you able to commit to achieving the goal?
|
Timely.
|
With a clearly defined timeline,
including a starting date and a target date. The purpose is to create
urgency.
|
1. Does
my goal have a deadline?
2. By
when do you want to achieve your goal?
|
Therefore, a SMART
goal incorporates all of these criteria to help focus employee efforts and
increase the chances of achieving that goal.
Literature review
Reed (2012)
suggested that goals are related with performance enhancement because they
organize effort, directs attention and encourages determination and plan
development. In determining the relationship between goals and performance
levels two main concepts are important namely the concept of Goal difficulty
and the concept of Goal specificity.
Murphy (2013)
suggested that ambitious goals can contribute to the motivational increase of
the individuals and thus enhance the overall performance levels.
Lawlor (2012)
stated that development of SMART goals helps the organizations and employees to
make the goals quantitative in nature, which helps easy attainment of the
goals.
Conclusion
Everyone sees SMART goals as a
positive force in goal setting. Yet we find that the SMART technique doesn't
work well for long-term goals because it lacks flexibility. When it comes to
achieve a long-term task; setting up SMART goal will not be flexible and
practical as well.
Further merely making a goal SMART
is no guarantee of success. Its’ obvious that SMART approach doesn't
promote the sense of urgency or excitement needed to succeed. The SMART
approach compels the employee to act in pursuit of the goal but it limits the
opportunities for creativity.
Within an organization, well thought
out goals and objectives direct to achieve the best possible results of short
–term, structured targets. If employees have a goal that they really want to
achieve, they think SMART!
References
Legal island. 2017. HR updates.
[ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.legal-island.com/articles/uk/features/hr/2017/feb/is-setting-smart-goals-really-that-easy/. [Accessed 3 January 2020].
My Assignment Help (2016) Literature Review : Goal
Setting [Online]. Available at: https://myassignmenthelp.com/free-samples/literature-review-goal-setting
[Accessed 06 January 2020].
[Accessed 06 January 2020].
Project smart. 2014. A Brief history of smart
goals. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.projectsmart.co.uk/brief-history-of-smart-goals.php. [Accessed 5 January 2020].
Suppose the goal is Completing SMAR but not time bound. Whats your suggestion for that kind of situation?
ReplyDeleteyes, Chathu,
ReplyDeletewhat we identify is SMART is ideal for achieving short-term structured task. i.e; manufacturing of a product while there's a given time frame and a targeted quantity.
A comprehensive discussion on SMART Goal setting with Pros & Cons .You have defined Goals on Specify and difficult .You have able to provide citations of Reed , Murphy and Lawlor and literature for SMART Approach is measurable on short term gains have been fairly justified .This approach might be appropriate on short term goal setting and believe that strategic views must not be align with SMART Approach .Noticed that new literature - online readings have brought up for the discussions .
ReplyDeleteI believe SMART goal concept is a better guideline for achieving targets.
ReplyDeleteSmart goal setting getting correct direction,good article.
ReplyDeleteYou may have to be smart in going for SMART goals in public sector health care as the employees are smarter than you when you talk about goals and “T” would not be a reality. But should be able to change to some extent.
ReplyDeleteGenerally goals will not have the desired impact on an employee’s performance, for that you’re going to need SMART goals.
ReplyDeleteThere are a number of reasons why organizations should set goals for employees, chief among them is to evaluate an employee's performance and to establish a definite roadmap for their progression. By their nature, SMART goals are: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and have a set time frame.
ReplyDelete