Crew goal setting for security control

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness of simple goal setting in airport security control. As outcome, crew performance in terms of productivity (Experiment 1, field setting) was studied. Furthermore, the moderating role of negative and positive priming due to a previous task on the impact of goals (Experiment 2, laboratory setting) was analyzed. This research builds a bridge from goal setting theory to practice and prepares the grounds for its application in security or emergency organizations. In Experiment 1, supervisors of Security Officers at a large European airport communicated goals to their subordinates without any prior intervention or training. Goals were applied to a short “peak” time span (40 min). Dependent variables were objective team-level measures of productivity, namely passenger density and throughput. Experiment 2 featured two different tasks that primed speed (negative priming: puzzle; positive priming: car race). The Frankfurter Aufmerksamkeitsinventar served as main task for obtaining speed and accuracy measures. The results show that pre-intervention goal setting can be used easily and effectively by supervisors to increase subordinates’ team performance during short interventions. Goal setting for short time spans is effective even without providing feedback. However, negative priming by a previous task may undermine the beneficial effects of goal setting.