Self-set Goals Research Articles

Urban Planning and European Innovation Policy: Achieving Sustainability, Social Inclusion, and Economic Growth?

Innovation has become a guiding principle for European Union policy. Funding schemes, research, and planning across all Member States are expected to be innovative. This article provides a critical analysis of the drivers and effects of this evolution. While positive results have been achieved due to innovation policies, this article proposes that taking a wider critical perspective reveals important caveats. The article zooms in on the EU’s innovation policies by analysing policy documents, projects funded, and on-the-ground impact on three citizen initiatives. The analysis asks whether and how the EU’s self-set goals of sustainability, social inclusion, and economic growth are approached and met in them. The findings suggest a problematic funnelling process. First, an emphasis on innovation is created with the objective of systematically unblocking resistance to the development and implementation of novelties in the name of competitiveness, job creation, and economic growth. Second, the idea of innovation is very loosely defined, while, when translated into urban planning, it is interpreted narrowly in terms of efficiency and behavioural change, digitalization, and smart technologies. As a result, (narrowly defined) innovation-led economic growth begins to supersede alternative values and visions for the future of European cities and regions. This can represent a problem for EU Member States as it creates a very limited, risk-based, and divisive direction of development. To contribute to the (re-)establishment of alternatives, this article finally offers policy recommendations primarily concerned with the reinstatement of the public interest beyond innovation-centred planning perspectives.

The unbearable circularity of easy ontology

In this paper, I argue that Amie Thomasson’s Easy Ontology rests on a vicious circularity that is highly damaging. Easy Ontology invokes the idea of application conditions that give rise to analytic entailments. Such entailments can be used to answer ontological questions easily. I argue that the application conditions for basic terms are only circularly specifiable showing that Thomasson misses her self-set goal of preventing such a circularity. Using this circularity, I go on to show that Easy Ontology as a whole collapses.

Resilience effects on student performance and well-being: the role of self-efficacy, self-set goals, and anxiety

Universities prepare students to become contributing members to the workplace and to society. However, with rising tuition costs and other increasing time and resource demands, students face substantial adversity. Students’ ability to cope with that adversity influences successful completion of academic coursework and retention in degree programs, ultimately providing a source of potential effective future employees. Previous research has demonstrated numerous direct relationships between dispositional resilience and pivotal outcomes, such as performance, life satisfaction, and subjective well-being. However, research has failed to explore underlying mechanisms through which resilience may affect these outcomes, especially in academic contexts. The purpose of the current study was to use self-regulation theory as a framework for examining the effects of students’ resilience on outcomes. Using a sample of undergraduate students from a Midwestern university in the U.S. (N = 141), we proposed and tested a path model addressing self-efficacy, self-set goals, and state anxiety as mechanisms through which resilience influences performance and subjective well-being. Our results provided evidence supporting a structural model involving resilience, such that student resilience (a) has an indirect effect on performance through self-efficacy and self-set goals, (b) has an indirect effect on state anxiety through self-efficacy, and (c) accounts for unique variance in subjective well-being after controlling for state anxiety. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Archetypes of Gamification: Analysis of mHealth Apps

BackgroundNowadays, numerous health-related mobile apps implement gamification in an attempt to draw on the motivational potential of video games and thereby increase user engagement or foster certain health behaviors. However, research on effective gamification is still in its infancy and researchers increasingly recognize methodological shortcomings of existing studies. What we actually know about the phenomenon today stems from fragmented pieces of knowledge, and a variety of different perspectives. Existing research primarily draws on conceptual knowledge that is gained from research prototypes, and isolated from industry best practices. We still lack knowledge on how gamification has been successfully designed and implemented within the industry and whether certain gamification approaches have shown to be particularly suitable for certain health behaviors.ObjectiveWe address this lack of knowledge concerning best practices in the design and implementation of gamification for health-related mobile apps by identifying archetypes of gamification approaches that have emerged in pertinent health-related mobile apps and analyzing to what extent those gamification approaches are influenced by the underlying desired health-related outcomes.MethodsA 3-step research approach is employed. As a first step, a database of 143 pertinent gamified health-related mobile apps from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store is set up. Second, the gamification approach of each app within the database is classified based on an established taxonomy for gamification in health-related apps. Finally, a 2-step cluster analysis is conducted in order to identify archetypes of the most dominant gamification approaches in pertinent gamified health-related mobile apps.ResultsEight archetypes of gamification emerged from the analysis of health-related mobile apps: (1) competition and collaboration, (2) pursuing self-set goals without rewards, (3) episodical compliance tracking, (4) inherent gamification for external goals, (5) internal rewards for self-set goals, (6) continuous assistance through positive reinforcement, (7) positive and negative reinforcement without rewards, and (8) progressive gamification for health professionals. The results indicate a close relationship between the identified archetypes and the actual health behavior that is being targeted.ConclusionsBy unveiling salient best practices and discussing their relationship to targeted health behaviors, this study contributes to a more profound understanding of gamification in mobile health. The results can serve as a foundation for future research that advances the knowledge on how gamification may positively influence health behavior change and guide practitioners in the design and development of highly motivating and effective health-related mobile health apps.

Career Crafting Training Intervention for Physicians: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

BackgroundPhysicians work in a highly demanding work setting where ongoing changes affect their work and challenge their employability (ie, their ability and willingness to continue working). In this high-pressure environment, physicians could benefit from proactively managing or crafting their careers; however, they tend not to show this behavior. The new concept of career crafting concerns proactively making choices and adapting behavior regarding both short-term job design (ie, job crafting) as well as longer-term career development (ie, career self-management). However, so far, no intervention studies have aimed at enhancing career crafting behavior among physicians. Given that proactive work and career behavior have been shown to be related to favorable outcomes, we designed an intervention to support career crafting behavior and employability of physicians.ObjectiveThe objectives of this study were to describe (1) the development and (2) the design of the evaluation of a randomized controlled career crafting intervention to increase job crafting, career self-management, and employability.MethodsA randomized controlled intervention study was designed for 141 physicians in two Dutch hospitals. The study was designed and will be evaluated based on parts of the intervention mapping protocol. First, needs of physicians were assessed through 40 interviews held with physicians and managers. This pointed to a need to support physicians in becoming more proactive regarding their careers as well as in building awareness of proactive behaviors in order to craft their current work situation. Based on this, a training program was developed in line with their needs. A number of theoretical methods and practical applications were selected as the building blocks of the training. Next, participants were randomly assigned to either the waitlist-control group (ie, received no training) or the intervention group. The intervention group participated in a 4-hour training session and worked on four self-set goals. Then, a coaching conversation took place over the phone. Digital questionnaires distributed before and 8 weeks after the intervention assessed changes in job crafting, career self-management, employability, and changes in the following additional variables: job satisfaction, career satisfaction, work-home interference, work ability, and performance. In addition, a process evaluation was conducted to examine factors that may have promoted or hindered the effectiveness of the intervention.ResultsData collection was completed in March 2020. Evaluation of outcomes and the research process started in April 2020. Study results were submitted for publication in September 2020.ConclusionsThis study protocol gives insight into the systematic development and design of a career crafting training intervention that is aimed to enhance job crafting, career self-management, and employability. This study will provide valuable information to physicians, managers, policy makers, and other researchers that aim to enhance career crafting.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR1-10.2196/18432

Effects of Failure on Self-Efficacy and Self-Set goals Over Time: The Role of Max/Min Goal Standards

For managers, one of their main concerns is enabling continued motivation within subordinates, for which goal-setting provides one of the most valid and practical strategies at their disposal (Locke & Latham, 1990; 2002). When employees experience continued success (i.e. reach their goals), this positively impacts outcomes beyond higher levels of performance, such as higher self-efficacy (Bandura, 1991). But what happens with these beliefs when people are constantly failing to achieve their goals? How should managers go about setting performance goals that do not lower the subordinates’ self-efficacy beliefs, yet simultaneously consider the mechanisms of goal specificity and difficulty that underlie the positive behavioural outcomes as put forward by goal-setting theory? The current research aims to provide a dynamic perspective on the effects of ongoing failure within individuals on self-goal setting and their efficacy beliefs development. By considering a theoretical framework of minimal and maximal goal standards (Giessner et al., 2018), we further show how framing such goals can influence this process by showing that maximal (versus minimal) goals can buffer against these expected negative consequences of not achieving a goal. As a result, we thirdly provide managerial recommendations of how to make use of (maximal) goal standards in organizational settings.

Playing in the backstore: interface gamification increases warehousing workforce engagement

PurposeIn a warehouse setting, where hourly workers performing manual tasks account for more than half of total warehouse expenditure, a lack of employee engagement has been directly linked to company performance. In this article, the authors present a laboratory experiment in which two gamification elements, goal setting and feedback, are implemented in a wearable warehouse management system (WMS) interface to examine their effect on user engagement and performance in an item picking task. Both implicit (neurophysiological) and explicit (self-reported) measures of engagement are used, allowing for a richer understanding of the user's perceived and physiological state.Design/methodology/approachThis experiment uses a within-subject design. Two experimental factors, goals and feedback, are manipulated, leading to three conditions: no gamification condition, self-set goals and feedback and assigned goals and feedback. Twenty-one subjects participated (mean age = 24.2, SD = 2.2).FindingsThis article demonstrates that gamification can successfully increase employee engagement, at least in the short-term. The integration of self-set goals and feedback game elements has the greatest potential to generate long-term intrinsic motivation and meaningful engagement, leading to greater employee engagement and performance.Originality/valueThis article explores the underlying effects of gamification through two of the most prominent motivational theories (self-determination theory [SDT] and goal-setting theory) and one of the leading employee engagement models (job demands-resource model [JD-R[ model). This provides a theory-rich interpretation of the data, which allows to uncover the motivational pathways by which gamification affects engagement and performance.

Supporting a post-16 student with learning difficulties using human givens therapy

AimsSupporting children and young people who develop mental health difficulties is a central aim of government policy, with statistics suggesting that those with learning difficulties are particularly vulnerable. Educational psychologists (EPs) are well-positioned to offer therapeutic support to post-16 students. This paper provides an example of using human givens (HG) therapy to promote the emotional health and wellbeing of one post-16 student.MethodWithin a single case study design, a HG-based intervention was offered to a self-referred, 17-year-old, male student, attending a specialist setting. Qualitative data was collected from multiple sources, including a process transcript of the sessions and researcher field notes, and analysed using thematic analysis.FindingsWithin this single case study, data suggested that the HG-based intervention had a positive impact on the student. Specifically, adaptation of the approach helped make achieving the student’s self-set goal more accessible within the school context and supported his self-efficacy and motivation. Facilitators identified as supportive in delivering interventions included: use of tangible resources; clear steps to a goal; and embracing silence within sessions.LimitationsThis is a single case study design, with one 17-year -ld participant. The needs of other students, as well as their response to intervention, may vary. The fact that the lead author was the facilitator might engender positive bias.ConclusionThe HG approach used in this paper could provide a template for EPs offering therapeutic support to students with learning difficulties.

Influence of Self-Leadership Strategies on the Beliefs of General Self-Efficacy

The purpose of the present study was to examine the existence of the mediatory role of self-leadership strategies on the self-efficacy of people participating in physical activities, and individual differences in gender- and form of physical activity-related self-efficacy. One hundred and seventy-one undergraduate students from a Greek university participated. All participants participated in physical activities (competitive and recreational). They filled out validated Greek versions of the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire (RSLQ) and General Self-Efficacy (GSE). Results revealed that self-leadership strategies (self-goal setting, self-reward, self-punishment and nature reward) predicted general self-efficacy, and they supported that gender affects general self-efficacy.

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SELF-LEADERSHIP IN PHYSICAL ACTIVITY SETTINGS

The present study aimed to investigate the perceived extent of competence of self-leadership as well as the extent to which the participants exercise self-leadership strategies in physical activities (competitive and recreational). Additionally, the existence of potential individual differences in gender- and form of physical activity-related self-leadership strategies. Three hundred seventy-three undergraduate students from a Greek university (n = 197 men, and n = 176 women) with age range were between 18–24 years (M = 20.12, SD = 2.35) participated. All participants participated in physical activities. They filled out a validated Greek version of the Revised Self-leadership Questionnaire (RSLQ). Results revealed that participants reported (a) some positive self-leadership tendencies and (b) higher scores in the strategies such as self-goal setting, natural rewards and self-talk. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that self-leadership strategies may interact with gender and type of physical activity. Article visualizations:

Hot pursuit: The affective consequences of organization-set versus self-set goals for emotional exhaustion and citizenship behavior.

An unintended side effect of the goal-setting literature's focus on cognitive dynamics has been an insufficient acknowledgment of how employees affectively experience high-performance goals. This is potentially a crucial oversight, considering the substantial body of research that has demonstrated the impact of employees' affective states on organizationally relevant attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on cognitive-motivational-relational theory (Lazarus, 1991), we explore the discrete affective states elicited by high-performance goals. We suggest that a key to understanding these affective states is the source of the performance goal. The literature has largely considered whether goals are organization-set or self-set to be a peripheral aspect of a goal's impact on employees. From an affective perspective, however, an employee's self-set performance goals may be appraised and experienced quite differently than performance goals assigned by the organization. We build a theoretical model that suggests high organization-set goals will elicit anxiety due to an appraisal characterized by uncertainty and threat, whereas high self-set goals will elicit enthusiasm due to an appraisal characterized by positive expectations and benefit. We propose that these affective states will have diverging effects on employees' emotional exhaustion and, subsequently, their extrarole performance. We support our model both in the field via a 4-wave study conducted with police officers and their supervisors and in the laboratory via an experiment in which we manipulated goal source during a performance task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Comparing Goal Setting Approaches to Boosting Pro-Environmental Behaviors

Background: Corporations face challenges to adopting appropriate practices to effectively respond to environmental sustainability concerns. To help address this, the present research focuses on improving employees’ pro-environmental behaviors related mostly to information technology and system use. To do so, we draw on and extend goal-setting theory by comparing three goal interventions: goal-setting, goal-setting plus implementation plans, and goal-setting with both implementation plans and visualization of success. For these, we also examine the role of individuals’ environmental values as well as their conflicts with competing goals. Methods: Two longitudinal studies examine individuals’ self-set goals: the first examines employees’ computer-based electricity usage in the workplace over six weeks and the second utilizes a diary approach method over four weeks to examine the effects of different environmental goal setting conditions on students’ environmental outcomes. The impacts of environmental values (self-congruence) and conflicting goals are also explored in the second study. Results: Both studies find that setting goals increases pro-environmental behaviors. However, rebound effects can occur when interventions are removed. Visualization of success appears to reduce this rebound effect and we suggest that future research continue to investigate methods for reducing rebound. Conclusions: This paper contributes to environmental sustainability research in several ways: conceptually (by responding to calls for more theory-based research), methodologically (by measuring objective computer-based energy usage in study 1 and by utilizing a diary method in study 2), and practically (by demonstrating the effectiveness of visualization to goal setting and exploring the role of competing goals in this process).

Self-set goals improve academic performance through nonlinear effects on daily study performance

A Bayesian longitudinal moderated mediational model was used to test the effect of students' daily/proximal self-set goals on a final course grade through daily study performance. Thirty-six daily diaries were completed twice a day by 147 sophomore students. Study goals were self-set in the morning and daily performance was self-assessed in the evening. Two independent coders, blind to the hypotheses, evaluated goal specificity and difficulty. The relationship between the goals and final grade was mediated by daily performance, and occurred only in the case of goals high in specificity and of moderate difficulty.

Goal-Setting Instruction: A Step-by-Step Guide for High School Students

Teaching self-determination skills to students with disabilities can improve both behavior and academic achievement while having a lasting impact on life outcomes. Specifically, goal setting is a highly useful and transferrable life skill that can enhance motivation, increase access to curriculum, and promote independence while improving academics and behavior. Unfortunately, students with disabilities are often not provided with adequate instruction to learn and practice goal-setting skills in school. To that end, this article presents a step-by-step guide for teachers to explicitly teach high school students with disabilities how to self-set goals to improve their behavior and academic achievement.

Self-regulation in open-ended online assignment tasks: the importance of initial task interpretation and goal setting

ABSTRACT With an increase in technology to mediate learning and a shift to more student-centred approaches, open-ended online assignment tasks are becoming more common in higher education. Open-ended tasks offer opportunities for students to develop their own interpretations of the requirements, and online technologies offer greater flexibility and afford new types of interactions with teachers and other students. This paper presents a study of students' task interpretation and self-set goals in the context of five open-ended online assignment tasks. The findings presented in this paper demonstrate the importance of a high-quality task understanding for goal setting and suggest practical implications for task design and support.

Self-determined nudging: a system concept for human–machine interaction

Humans sometimes struggle when making decisions, because what they want to do in a specific moment can differ from what they feel they should do in general. This phenomenon can also be found in situations of human–machine interaction. In order to support humans in making decisions about their behavior, a new form of support is proposed, which is especially suitable for human–machine interaction: self-determined decision-making with nudging methods (or shortly: self-determined nudging). In this concept, firstly the aspirations of the human are assessed and then supporting mechanisms are offered to guide humans towards their self-set goals. With this procedure, machines can for example support humans in driving safely or economically, help them refraining from scheduling other appointments in their gym-timeslots or push them towards going to bed on time. While originally nudging is based on libertarian paternalism, the concept of self-determined nudging enables the person to decide which goals to get nudged towards. By different examples, it is shown that nudging ideas are already present in numerous technical applications. Then, it is demonstrated how the aspect of self-determination can enrich these approaches. Moreover, already existing as well as potential new implementations of self-determined nudging in the automotive domain are described. As an outlook, the set-up of a study on automated driving is presented.

Performing versus adapting: how leader’s coaching style matters in Hong Kong

The purpose of this study was to investigate the personal factors that influence goal setting in the coaching process. In an experiment, we examined self-set goals as mediator and implicit theories of ability (ITA) as moderator of the impact of guidance versus facilitation styles of coaching on two types of performance, analogous and adaptive. Participants (n = 137) were coached to use one of two software programs, PowerPoint or Excel. We found that ITA moderated the mediating effects of self-set goals on the coaching style-performance relationship. Our findings support the importance of motivational fit by identifying the conditions under and process by which coaching enhances performance and adaptation. Implications for theory and management practice are discussed.

Öz-liderlik Becerilerinde Psikolojik Sermayenin Rolü: Kamu Çalışanları Üzerine Görgül Bir Araştırma

This study aims to explore the psychological capital factors which may affect self-leadership skills. To this aim, the effects of four sub-constructs of psychological capital (hope, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy) on eight sub-constructs of self-leadership (self-goal setting & visualizing successful performance, focusing thoughts on natural rewards, self-observation, self-reward, self-punishment, self-cuing, self-talk, evaluating beliefs and assumptions) have been investigated. The research data were obtained from 227 state officials in Ankara through questionnaires and convenience sampling. For the data analysis and model test, the structural equation modeling was utilized. The research findings indicate that different self-leadership behaviors are affected by different psychological factors, particularly hope and optimism. On the other hand, the findings reveal that self-cueing is influenced by each psychological factor except for hope. The results also show that none of the psychological sub-constructs has an effect on self-reward or self-punishment. Within this context, employees’ psychological capital has been found to have a partial impact on their self-leadership skills.

Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate

Rethinking the Individualism-Holism Debate edited by Julie Zahle and Finn Collin is reviewed. Each of the contributions contained in the volume is summarized. The review concludes by assessing the volume’s usefulness for bringing clarity into the debate in the light of the editors’ self-set goal of rethinking the individualism-holism debate as one of the more important yet confused debates in philosophy of the social sciences.

Self-Leadership Strategy at PT. Trustco Cipta Madani (Establishing Building Management Change)

The business competition of the millennial generation human resource development consultant now is growing very quickly and it is difficult to predict as the progress of the world of information technology and creative ideas across generations. The world seemed to have no boundaries and time limits again. Only companies that have the ability to adapt to change will survive to stay 'survive'. Change management becomes one of the important strategies of a company to be able to improve a competitiveness. PT. Trustco Cipta Madani as a small-scale consulting firm with the business of human resources development that trying to make a change management in the face of this new generation through self-leadership strategy by involving all its employees. Every employee of PT. Trustco Cipta Madani required to have self-leadership, this is because basically every individual who has self-leadership then by itself will have self-planning, self-criticism, self-design, self-set goals and also can solve problems through self-problem. Competition consultant business world are increasingly demanding the improvement of the quality and innovation of both personnel and products continuously and sustainably effective and efficient manner.