Difficult Goals Research Articles

The Role of Effective Project Management in Strengthening Competitiveness

Objective: The complexity, or complexity of our world is not only due to the increasing number of changes in our lives. We are faced with more and more difficult and complex tasks and goals every day, and it is very difficult to perform better and better in the face of these tasks and challenges. Project management is precisely about helping to turn complex tasks into well-executed processes that always end with a result. Project management is more than a set of methodologies: it is a dynamic discipline that organises complex tasks, mitigates risks and directs efforts towards a common goal. Its relevance can be demonstrated in many areas. We can measure the success of our project management system on a number of points, from efficiency to the quality of teamwork and management satisfaction. Defining criteria for success is also an important challenge for researchers today. This paper addresses similar issues, thus trying to shed light on the importance of project management, while also trying to highlight the barriers and obstacles. Project management can be a major competitive advantage for companies in the 21st century, but only if it is carried out professionally and well, i.e. if it is given the right framework and support. Method: After a secondary literature review, this paper presents the results of a primary research study covering two countries. The research instrument was a questionnaire that assessed the project perception of Hungarian and Slovakian enterprises and the transformation of this perception in a complex way, based on the perceptions of enterprises in both countries. In addition to classical basic statistical methods, the study drew conclusions with the help of analysis of variance. Results and conclusion: In this study, we set out to assess the project perceptions of Hungarian and Slovakian businesses based on the opinions of SMEs. The sample clearly shows that Slovak enterprises attach more importance to the project approach, as indicated by the mean scores for each statement. The results also show that there is a high heterogeneity in the perception of enterprises on project management and project approach, especially when grouped along different size categories. All these results also show significant differences by country and segment, which are presented in detail in the research part of the study. Research implications: Our research results provide a good basis for businesses and educational institutions on how to look at their projects and their management. The study aims to strengthen the ability to think in terms of projects and to think in terms of projects, drawing attention to the most important directions and paths. Originality/value: The main focus of the study is on how such knowledge is perceived by the stakeholders interviewed and whether the answers can be used to draw conclusions that are of interest and informative for the wider society.

Mental Contrasting Strategies Promote the Pursuit of Difficult Goals: Japanese Cultural Context.

We examined whether mental contrasting inhibits the pursuit of difficult goals in an Eastern culture-Japan-rooted in self-improvement. Our pilot study found that, compared with American participants, Japanese participants did not perceive a difficult situation as a cue to abandon their goal and pursue alternative objectives. Studies 1a-1c found that mental contrasting encouraged Japanese participants to pursue difficult goals. When Japanese participants perceived their own goals as unattainable, they were more likely to pursue these goals if they mentally contrasted their desired future with the inhibiting reality than if they simply imagined their desired future. Study 2 showed that mental contrasting encouraged Japanese (but not American) participants to pursue difficult goals. Study 3 evidenced the causal effect of beliefs about difficulties on the impact of mental contrasting on motivation to pursue difficult goals. Culturally formed beliefs about difficulties underlie the effect of mental contrasting on difficult goal pursuit.

Hope: a solution to the puzzle of difficult action

ABSTRACT Pursuing difficult long-term goals typically involves encountering substantial evidence of possible future failure. If decisions to pursue such goals are serious only if one believes that one will act as one has decided, then some of our lives’ most important decisions seem to require belief against the evidence. This is the puzzle of difficult action, to which I offer a solution. I argue that serious decisions to φ do not have to give rise to a belief that one will φ, but can instead be accompanied by a hope to φ. Hope can motivate and rationalize the various actions that we associate with serious commitment. It can also account for the existence of special pressures to adopt an agential stance toward one’s future. Because hope can be cognitively rational when belief is not, there is no problematic tension between the ideal of epistemic rationality and the phenomenon of difficult action.

Gamification, intrinsic motivation, and task performance of employees: the moderating role of goal difficulty

ABSTRACT Previous gamification research has explored intrinsic motivation, goal setting, and performance separately. This study bridges the gap by investigating how gamification affects intrinsic motivation and task performance, especially with varying goal difficulty levels. To address these research questions, the literature review delves into three key inquiries: (1) Are external interventions capable of affecting intrinsic motivation? (2) Gamification of PMS: Does it matter? (3) Does combining goal setting with gamification make sense? The study employs an experimental framework utilising a between-subjects design of 2 × 3. Participants are drawn from the IT sector, and they are divided into groups exposed to gamification (experimental) and those not exposed to it (control). Additionally, the study investigates the moderating role of goal difficulty by classifying participants into categories of easy, difficult, and impossible goals. The findings of this study emphasize that goals should be challenging but still achievable for gamification to effectively fulfil its intended purpose. These findings integrate the concepts of goal setting and intrinsic motivation to provide a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of gamification. The study’s implications for practical application and potential avenues for future research are also explored and discussed.

Effects of goal-setting on sustained attention and attention lapses.

In three experiments, we examined the effects of goal-setting on sustained attention and attention lapses. We measured both behavioral task performance and subjective attentional states during a four -choice reaction time task (Experiments 1 and 2 administered online; Experiment 3 conducted in-person). Experiment 1 compared a vague goal versus a specific goal. The specific goal reduced lapses in the form of long response times (RTs) but did not impact task-unrelated thoughts. Experiment 2 expanded on E1 by making the specific goal progressively harder. Behavioral lapses (i.e., long RTs) were reduced in the harder-over-time goal condition compared to the control condition. Additionally, while RTs increased with time-on-task in the control condition, RTs in the harder-over-time goal condition remained stable with time-on-task. Experiment 3 aimed to replicate the results of E2 in-person and adjusted the difficulty of the harder-over-time goals to be slightly harder. The results largely replicated E2. Overall, setting specific and difficult task goals led to a reduction in lapses of attention and increased sustained attention performance.

Ambitious people are more prone to support resource-intensive aid programs

AbstractIn line with Significance Quest Theory (SQT, Kruglanski et al., 2022) and Costly Signaling Theory (CST, Zahavi, 1995), the present research aims to investigate the relationship between individual differences in ambition and support for costly (in terms of investment of personal resources) aid programs. Consistent with SQT, which holds that the quest for significance is a universal need that may lead to any type (e.g., violent or prosocial) of extreme behavior in order to satisfy it, we hypothesized that ambitious (vs. less ambitious) people are more motivated to engage in resource-intensive aid programs. In four studies (Total N = 744), both correlational (Studies 1 and 4) and experimental (Studies 2 and 3), we found a significant positive relationship between levels of ambition and support for resource-intensive aid programs; this relationship was mediated by difficulty perceived as important, i.e., the attribution of high value to difficult tasks and goals (Study 4).

Round number reference points and irregular patterns in reported gross margins

AbstractWe find irregular patterns in the distribution of firms’ reported quarterly gross margin percentages. Specifically, there is significant bunching around percentage integers that are highly round (e.g., multiples of 10, such as 30%, 40%, etc.) or are neatly divisible (e.g., 25%, 75%), compared to what is predicted by counterfactual distributions. Further investigation reveals that highly round gross margin firms are smaller, exert higher effort, achieve higher productivity, have more difficult goals, and pay their CEOs with a higher portion of fixed income. We also find that highly round gross margins are associated with superior performance. Additionally, we do not find consistent evidence that highly round gross margin reference points are linked to external rewards. Collectively, our evidence is consistent with reference-dependent preferences for highly round gross margins likely being driven by intrinsic (rather than extrinsic) motivations.

"Showing the Context": A Need for Oligopticonic Information Systems in Homelessness Measurement

Organizations like businesses, governments, and nonprofits often have established milestones to stay focused on their strategic goals. However, public and social sector organizations often have goals that are difficult to measure. To better understand how data can be more sensitively appropriated in difficult-to-measure contexts, we conducted design workshops with 25 individuals with a stake in how homelessness is measured - including funders, staff and people experiencing homelessness. This study provides a detailed account of how diverse stakeholders measure progress towards these often difficult and vague goals. We found that the approaches to data collection fall under either the sociocentric perspective (which seeks to answer questions about community-level impact) or the egocentric perspective (which focuses more on the experience of the individual experiencing homelessness). We argue that in contexts where goals are vague and difficult to observe or measure, collaborative information systems should be approached by combining the sociocentric and egocentric perspectives into an oligopticon, rather than focusing only on the sociocentric perspective (which can be understood as a panopticon). As we outline, oligopticonic information systems have the capacity to deal with more diverse types of data and experiences by embracing the requirements that we have outlined.

The effect of simultaneous rhinoplasty and septoplasty on the development of postoperative pain syndrome

Introduction. One of the most difficult goals in facial reconstructive surgery is to eliminate defects in the external nose. Difficulties may arise with simultaneous septo- and rhinopalasty, as there is a need to restore and preserve the structures of the nasal cavity. To date, there are not many studies that would be aimed at assessing the pain syndrome after surgery on the structures of the nose, which was the impetus for studying this problem. The purpose of the study. The purpose of this study was to study the severity of acute pain syndrome after septoplasty, rhinoplasty and rhinoseptoplasty. Materials and methods. A total of 98 patients, 19 men and 79 women, aged from 18 to 45 years, were examined and operated on. The open rhinoplasty group (group 1) included 6 men and 27 women, the open rhinoseptoplasty group (group 2) – 7 men and 26 women, and the septoplasty group (group 3) included 6 men and 26 women. To ensure premedication, all patients were prescribed 2 ml of 0.4% dexamethasone solution, 4 ml of 0.2% ondacetron solution. Preoxygenation of 100% O2 5-6 l/min was carried out with the help of an anesthetic mask. Induction of anesthesia was carried out with 20 ml (200 mg) of 1% propofol emulsion. To achieve myoplegia, a solution of ridelate C (50 mg) was administered. For anesthesia purposes, 2 ml of 0.005% fentanyl solution (0.1 mg) was administered intravenously. Infiltration anesthesia during rhinoplasty was carried out using a 2% solution. Local anesthesia was performed by intramuscular administration of a 50 mg ketoprofen solution before surgery, 24 and 48 hours after manipulation, as well as for 3 days after it, taking into account the severity of the pain syndrome. After performing rhinoplasty, septoplasty and rhinoseptoplasty, the severity of the pain syndrome was assessed using a visual analog scale (VAS), a digital rating scale (DRS) and facial pain scale (FPS 3, 6, 24, 48 hours after the end of surgery. Results. According to the VAS pain syndrome assessment, the pain intensity in group 1 was maximal one hour after rhinoplasty and subsequently had negative dynamics: on the 3rd, 6th (p<0.001), 24th (p<0.05) and 48th (p<0.001) hours after surgery. In groups 2 and 3, the highest pain intensity was recorded at the 3rd hour after surgery (p<0.001), compared with the hour after surgery. According to the DRS, the intensity of pain 3 hours after rhinoplasty in group 1 decreased, compared with his assessment 1 hour after surgery, and continued to decrease on the 3rd, 6th (p<0.001), 24th (p<0.01) and 48th hours (p<0.001). In group 2, 3 hours after surgical manipulation, the intensity of the pain syndrome increased significantly compared to the previous period of its assessment (p<0.05), which was also found in the group of patients after rhinoseptoplasty (p<0.05) at the same time. Assessing the severity of the pain syndrome according to FPS, in group 1, the pain syndrome was insignificant and did not cross the threshold. In patients of groups 2 and 3, compared with the 1st hour after the interventions, pain syndrome significantly increased after 3 hours (p<0.001), but subsequently decreased. Conclusion. Based on the analysis of acute postoperative pain syndrome, this study confirms that septoplasty is a more traumatic intervention compared to rhinoplasty, and surgical operations in the area of the external nose and on the nasal septum in the early postoperative period entail excalation of stress reactions, relative to rhinoplasty and septoplasty.

Goals à la carte: selective translation of the Sustainable Development Goals in strategic municipal planning in Norway

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are promoted as a global action plan for transformational change. Through calls to localise the global agenda, local governments have been made key actors in implementing the agenda. In Norway, the government ascribes municipalities a formal role in the national effort to implement the SDGs. Drawing on the concept of policy translation, we explore localisation processes at the strategic level of planning in Norwegian municipalities. Through analysis of municipal master plans and interviews with planners, we find that municipalities use a selective approach, prioritising goals that largely support existing policies, while more challenging goals become lost in translation. We argue that while the Norwegian planning system provides an institutional framework for implementing and following up on the SDGs, new rounds of translation will be needed to also handle difficult goals, if the SDGs are to create actual and much-needed policy change.

Bridging and brokering across communities of practice: A STEM coach’s role in helping teachers access expertise

STEM education aspires toward integrated and contextualized instruction, both difficult goals for teachers. Expertise from within and outside the school are resources for helping teachers access content knowledge and practices in their classrooms. In this project, a STEM coach supported teachers to integrate and contextualize STEM instruction. Connectivity between teachers, outside experts, and other resources indicated opportunities for curricular integration and contextualization and was measured through social network analysis and analysis of teacher journals and interviews. The coach dramatically increased connectivity in the district through bridging and brokering relationships, maintaining a global vision for the district’s STEM initiative, and navigating interpersonal relationships. Teachers utilized the connectivity to expertise to enhance STEM curriculum. Having a central actor (coach) allowed for rapid and widespread advancement of the STEM initiative.

Innovative strategic session in the scientific activity of the Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine

Sometimes, you need to go beyond the possible and ordinary in order to create something new. Human potential is limitless, and the world of technological possibilities opens up new horizons and helps to achieve the most difficult goals.
 A real scientist should think out of the box and go beyond the rules. Sticking with what we know today and being not open to new knowledge hinders our scientific progress. It is quite difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of bias. Similar to how it is almost beyond our possibilities to pull yourself out of the rut of the rules without a help.
 However, we tried to do impossible possible at our Science Week. The last week of July at the Research and Practical Clinical Center for Diagnostics and Telemedicine Technologies of the Moscow Healthcare Department was highlighted by this outstanding extraordinary event. During this week, the importance of scientific discoveries for both an individual and whole society was demonstrated. In fact, it was a platform for discussing advanced technologies, challenges, and solutions. For 4 days, the scientists of the Center presented their reports and defended their ideas. Their colleagues took part in the discussion and asked questions about the application and implementation of their initiatives.

International law: A discipline of ambition

AbstractThe term ‘ambition’ appears to have infiltrated international legal discourses: it is used to, for instance, lament the lack of state action to tackle major global challenges, praise progress towards difficult goals, or evaluate the outcomes of international law-making processes. Often mobilized, the concept of ambition in international law remains, however, poorly understood. And yet, each narrative offers a specific analytical frame that influences our understanding of the world and sets distinct policy prescriptions. What argumentative functions do ambition narratives play and what implications do they carry for international law, in both its practice and study? To respond to this question, the article explores the occurrence of the term in a field where the rationale of ambition has recently taken centre stage – international climate law – and uses the crisis narrative as a means of comparison to highlight the specificity of ambition discourses. The argumentative implications of ambition are identified in terms of vision, means and temporality: this article suggests that an ambition discourse fulfils objectives that a crisis narrative is unable to accommodate by calling for structural transformations, motivating states to commit to far-reaching objectives and adopting a long-term perspective focused on incremental change. The shortcomings of an ambition narrative are also highlighted, in relation to its determination and evaluation. The study contributes to shedding light on a new international law discourse to offer a different analytical frame for the discipline.

Circular Economy Implementation Based on ISO 14001 within SME Organization: How to Do It Best?

The circular economy (CE) has become an important issue within the European Union due to the Green Deal regulations. A CE makes sustainable development feasible by creating value in the economy and by closing the energy and materials loops. The aim of the study is to predict the most effective functioning of CEs at the macro-level by the selection of the best possible requirements addressed for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as an extension supplement of a voluntary environmental management system—ISO 14001. For such aim, researchers developed a two-stage Delphi study. According to the performed Delphi study, the main conclusion is that a more circular management system is possible and needed in SME organizations. Two ISO 14001 sub-requirements were considered as definitely contributing to the implementation of the CE concept at the macro- and meso-levels. Those were: The scope of the CE system and communication. The most discussed requirements that should be further studied in that context were internal audits and managerial reviews. The most difficult goals to implement by SMEs were: limiting the use of primary raw materials, striving for the implementation of climate neutrality and sustainable development as well as closing the material loop.

FALSE SYMBOL OF SCIENCE: FLIGHT TO THE MOON

Flight to the Moon (1969), according to many researchers of the history of science and civilization, is the greatest scientific and technological achievement of the human race. Thus, a centuries-old dream came true: man left Earth for the first time and stepped on another celestial body. Stunned by the achieved success, the scientists set themselves new, more difficult goals, which seemed feasible to them: conquering the planets of the solar system and migrating life to them. And even more and even harder: going beyond the solar system, deep into Cosmos. Analyzing exactly this, undoubtedly, extraordinary success of human thought, and extending it to the scale of the Cosmos, we conclude in this paper that it is a “false symbol”: The moon is so close to Earth that man's flight to the moon is not a flight to Cosmos. We have shown by calculation that, due to the constants that God has determined perfectly precisely and according to which the Cosmos functions (and which, regardless of the development of science, we cannot change), man will never travel through the Cosmos! Thus, the circle is closed: science has led us to God’s instructions as eternal truths given in the Holy Books: God ordained the earth for man’s life.

Causes of Educational Backwardness Among Backward Section in West Bengal

One of the main issues in both contemporary and traditional communities has been and is education. It is a potent tool that determines the fate of humanity. In the modern era, achieving greater and more difficult goals has become a crucial issue for every independent nation, but some nations, like our own, face unique difficulties because some minorities, particularly backward class who live in poverty and hardship, are unable to contribute to the economy and development of the nation. The main purpose of the current research is to find out the causes of educational backwardness among backward section. Present study is descriptive survey and qualitative research. In present study self-prepared questionnaire used, and a percentage calculation used for data analysis. Financial difficulties and family financial crises are some of the factors that contribute to educational backwardness among disadvantaged students. Additionally, educational institutions do not put-up specific awareness efforts to attract underprivileged students. Factors contributing to the educational backwardness of backward learners include an unsuitable home environment for learning, family members who are illiterate, a lack of empathy on the part of teachers, a lack of opportunity, and an education that is not adapted to their requirements. Keywords: Educational Backwardness, Backward Section

Goal motives and mental contrasting with implementation intentions facilitate strategic goal persistence and disengagement

AbstractIn three experiments, we examine the role of motives underlying goal pursuit and the metacognitive strategy of mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) to predict the strategic use of self‐regulation responses (persistence, disengagement, and reengagement) when faced with attainable, unattainable, or multiple goals. We trained half of the participants to use MCII and treated the rest as control. Experiment 1 (N = 261) underscored the role of autonomous motivation in nurturing adaptive cognitive appraisals and coping mechanisms, which facilitated persistence and progress with a difficult but attainable goal. In contrast, controlled motives undermined striving by predicting threat appraisals and giving up coping. MCII training ameliorated the negative impact of controlled motivation on goal striving by reducing threat appraisals. In Experiment 2 (N = 391), we manipulated the task to make the initial goal unattainable. Strategic goal striving (disengagement from the unattainable goal followed by reengagement with an alternative goal) was facilitated by MCII and autonomous goal motives, and culminated in increases in positive affect. In Experiment 3 (N = 432), we extended these findings to a multiple‐goal setting. The research further develops the literatures on self‐regulation and self‐determination, while having implications for life domains where individuals pursue multiple and/or difficult goals.

ВЗАИМООБУСЛОВЛЕННОСТЬ ПЕРФЕКЦИОНИЗМА И ЧУВСТВ ВИНЫ И СТЫДА У СОТРУДНИКОВ ОРГАНОВ ВНУТРЕННИХ ДЕЛ, СТРАДАЮЩИХ СОМАТИЗИРОВАННЫМ РАССТРОЙСТВОМ

To assess the structural and dynamic characteristics of moral and etical qualities and the effect of perfectionism on their formation, employees of internal affairs bodies suffering from somatized disorder were examined 58 employees who were diagnosed according to ICD-10 criteria (F. 45.0). During the study, the role of perfectionism was outlined as a factor that affects the expression of feelings of guilt and shame due to the tendency to set difficult goals and tasks, and the presence of polarized («black and white») thinking. Proposals are given for using the obtained data in psychoprophylactic work with police officers, which will contribute to improving their service reliability.

Business Goal Difficulty and Socially Irresponsible Executive Behavior: The Mediating Role of Focalism

Executive social irresponsibility has received increasing research attention in recent years, following the consensus for a broader stakeholder approach to managerial decision making. Despite the importance of the subject, there remains insufficient research on contextual factors that mold executives’ orientation toward social responsibility. Through three studies, we demonstrate that difficult business goals can reduce executives’ tendency to consider social responsibility in their decision making. Further, we find that focalism—a cognitive bias based on affective forecasting theory—can mediate positive relationships between business goal difficulty and socially irresponsible executive behavior. Our findings also suggest that, expanding executives’ thought processes beyond the narrow focus of a business goal achievement can be a good strategy in reducing socially irresponsible executive behavior, even in the presence of difficult goals.

Change in rehabilitation needs and activity limitations over time of adults with acquired visual impairment following entry to a low vision rehabilitation service in England.

Longitudinal changes in priority rehabilitation needs, vision-related activity limitation and importance of visual goals were evaluated in a sample of people with a visual impairment over a year following entry to low vision rehabilitation services in England. Participants were adults with newly registered visual impairment within Leicestershire. Priority scores, indicating the level of rehabilitative need, were determined from the importance and difficulty scores of the 48goals of the Participation and Activity Inventory (PAI). Rasch analysis of the difficulty and importance scores examined activity limitation and importance separately. PAI outcome measures were assessed on entry to rehabilitation services and at 4 and 12months thereafter. Forty-eight participants (mean age 74.2, SD 14.1years) completed three visits. Overall, there was a statistically significant reduction in the perceived need for rehabilitation over time (p<0.001, ηp2 =0.29), driven by reduced perceived difficulty (p<0.001, ηp2 =0.32) but stable importance (p=0.73) of goals, with most change occurring between baseline and 4months. PAI goals with greatest rehabilitative need at study entry were reading, mobility and writing, and these remained of highest priority over time. The greatest priority score decrease was for the goal 'Hobbies and crafts'. The largest decrease in importance was for 'Mobility outdoors', whereas 'Relationship with loved ones' increased most. Despite a decline in the perceived need for rehabilitation over the study period, there remains a need for continued support and intervention at 12months following registration with rehabilitation services, particularly for the key goals of reading, writing and mobility. Early identification and support for individuals' important but difficult goals could prevent such goals being relinquished. Goals concerning relationships and communication became more important over time, indicating that re-evaluation of needs at follow-up is necessary to inform ongoing service provision.