Goal-Setting Frameworks: Systematic Review of the Approaches

In the field of psychology, establishing objectives serves as crucial in the goal-setting for strengthening self-motivation and self-directedness, it's valid in both personal and professional life. Without setting meaningful and achievable objectives we might lose the meaning of our actions and strive for development.

When we establish goals, we basically create a navigational route, which is building a path toward our desired destinations. This strategic blueprint helps us maintain a clear perspective, with the effectiveness of our planning directly influencing our likelihood of reaching our aspirations.

Let's deep dive to conduct a systematic review of the goal-setting frameworks and understand their correct implementation.

Main Goal-Setting Frameworks

In 1990, in their article "A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance", Locke and Latham brought five principles of effective goal setting.

1. Specificity, which emphasises that the goal should be clear enough that the individual should focus efficiently

2. Difficulty, which emphasises that goals should not be easy or too difficult, as the individuals may lose their motivation or get frustrated

3. Commitment, which claims that the individual should be involved in the goal-setting which will bring a sense of ownership

4. Feedback, if the goal-setting is unrealistic or difficult to achieve, this can be monitored and adjusted eventually by the feedback from individuals

5. Task complexity, may require sound planning, coordination and problem-solving, therefore the details of the tasks should be less complex.

The given principles are the base for the variety of goal-setting frameworks today. This means that independent of the objectives, whether it's personal or strategic, still they should be built upon the above-given pillars.

SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant,Time-Bound)

Application Areas: Versatile and can be used in various contexts, including personal development, project management, and performance appraisal

Example: Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals is beneficial in both professional and personal goal-setting

Source: Filestage

OKR (Objectives and Key Results)

Application Areas: Commonly applied in tech companies and startups to align teams with strategic objectives. Organisations that aim to be more agile and adaptable can use this framework

Examples: Companies may use OKRs to set objectives related to product development and key results tied to customer acquisition or revenue growth

Source: What Matters

BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)

Application Areas: If the goal is too ambitious and mostly perceived as near impossible then it's a framework to be adapted. Both quantitative and qualitative goals can be targeted, within the term of a minimum of 10 years

Examples: The objective of Tesla can be an example, where the company set a clear objective "to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy"

Source: Statista

MBO (Management by Objectives)

Application Areas: Companies that have clear and solid objectives can implement this approach to get the employees to align effectively with the organisation's goals

Examples: Assuming that the company wants to increase the revenue by 20%, then through the defined feedback and milestones, all the stakeholders can be onboarded to reach the target

Source: Forma.ai

Cascading Goals

Application Areas: The framework holds similar characteristics of the MBO and OKR since it's also used to achieve efficiently the strategic objective. However, it is more flexible and by cascading the strategic objective to the departments and teams, it ensures alignment through the hierarchy

Examples: If the objective is to expand the market share by 20%, then the objective can be transferred to the individual level and through regular evaluations the goals can be adjusted to achieve the goals

Source: VirPack

Stretch Goals

Application Areas: The framework is for companies that are thinking out of the box and stressing the limit of their resources. The approach is similar to the BHAG, but it's relatively short-term and pushes the boundaries of the current performance

Examples: An example can be a company that wants to reduce its carbon footprint by 50% in the next three years

Source: Wendy Hirsch

Source

PositivePsychology: The Science & Psychology Of Goal-Setting 101

Filestage: The ultimate SMART goals template for achieving your objectives in 2022

What Matters: What is an OKR?

Hypercontext: The goal-setting framework guide for 2021

Userpilot: Goal-Setting Frameworks in SaaS: How To Set Goals in Different Ways?