Organizational Goals: Antecedents, Formation Processes and Implications for Firm Behavior and Performance

Abstract The existence of definite organizational goals is a longstanding and central premise in organization and management research, yet a re‐examination of this body of knowledge is timely and long overdue. Many important aspects of organizational goals have received very fragmented attention, and there has been little prior attempt to synthesize and compare the effects of these different goals on firm behavior and performance. The authors present a review of existing theoretical and empirical evidence on organizational goals, and develop an analytical framework emphasizing the variety of organizational goals, their attributes, antecedents and outcomes, the role of context and feedback loops. Drawing on this framework, the authors set out an agenda for further research aimed at advancing current understanding of organizational goals and implications for firm behavior and performance.