Målstyrningssystem som konfliktskapare - En studie om hur chefer och medarbetare uppfattar och motiveras av målstyrningssystem på en bank

Sammanfattning: Title: Goal-setting systems as a creator of conflicts - How managers and employees apprehend and are motivated by goal-setting systems. Seminar date: 1st June 2012. Course: Master thesis in business administration, 30 University Credit Points (30 ECTS). Authors: Victoria Barta and Sanna Persson Advisor/s: Jens Rennstam Five key words: Goal-setting theory, motivation, bank, conflicts, perceptions. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to enhance the understanding of how managers and employees at a bank office in south of Sweden apprehend the bank’s goal-setting system and how it affects their motivation. The purpose is also to study and analyze what kind of conflicts a goal-setting system can create and how this affects employees and managers. Our ambition is that this enhanced understanding of what is perceived as motivating can be used to engage in more insightful work with goal-setting systems. Methodology: This is an interview study where a qualitative method was used, with an abductive approach. Theoretical perspectives: The study contains a review of the literature on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, Herzberg's two-factor theory, McClelland’s achievement motivation theory, McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y, goal-setting theory and expectancy theory. Furthermore, Jackall’s and Sayer’s theories about conflicts between organizations and employees are drawn upon. Empirical foundation: The empirical material was collected through semi-structured interviews, unstructured meetings and from internal documents. Conclusions: The conclusion of this study is that managers and employees perceive goal-setting systems in different ways: as encouraging, instrumental, pressing, meaningless, stressful, anger causing and unethical. The study also shows that goal-setting systems create different conflicts: a conflict between personal needs and the goal-setting system’s prerequisites to satisfy these needs, a conflict between personal ethics and the goal-setting system’s ethics and finally a conflict between different hierarchical positions.