An empirical analysis of a goal setting questionnaire

Abstract This research presents an analysis of a goal setting questionnaire developed by Locke and Latham (1984). The Locke and Latham measure attempts to assess the core goal attributes of ‘specificity’ and ‘difficulty’, as well as other attributes of the goal setting process (such as perceptions about ‘performance feedback’, ‘supervisor support’, ‘conflict’ and ‘stress’). The psychometric properties of the measure were examined using respondents from employees of a large, west‐coast electronics organization. A principal components analysis extracted 10 meaningful factors and identified a need for additional items. Results generally supported the meaningfulness of the goal setting factors and provide important directions for future research.