Predicting Organizational Goals: Competing Values or Contingency Relationships

摘要

Goal content is defined based on Quinn and Rohrbaugh's (1983) competing values model. Data were gathered from 545 respondents in eight USAF Commands. Findings indicate that goal content can be measured and that contextual variables of environment, technology, and human resources are related to goal emphasis. As central as goals are to organizational theory (Simon, 1964) their conceptualization has moved in fits and starts. The literature consists of a small collection of articles and parts of books devoted primarily to isolated facets of the concept of goals. Much of the theoretical work has tried to define goals and how they arise. Most researchers (Etzioni, 1964; Ansoff, 1965; Richards, 1986) agree that goals denote the particular end toward which organizational behavior is directed, but even this simple definition is questioned by Silverman (1970), who maintains that only individuals, not organizations, can have goals or purposes. (sdw)