SMART Goal Setting

SMART- By management principles it means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time Bound, and in management terms each one can be explained in the following way.
Specific: The goal (quality attributes) must be formulated in uniform manner.
Measurable: Under which (measurable/observable) conditions or form is the goal achieved.
Acceptable: Will the goal be accepted by the target audience or/and management.
(Ambitious: Is the goal ambitious enough (Should be covered in Acceptable))
Realistic: The goal (quality attributes) should be achievable with given resources and time.
(Relevance: Is the goal relevant for organization or target audience. (Should be covered in Acceptable))
Time bound: When (in time) should the goal be reached.
The above terms may be self explanatory but what the course covered was something more practical.

The concept of SMART goal setting, goal achievement, conceptual skills and Pygmalion in management sets up the base for this session.

Goal setting is the most important aspect in the establishment or the success of an organization. Any activity that needs to be carried out will be defined by these goals.The top level management of an organization clearly lays down the goals of the organization and for which the organization works towards.
Without any clear goals no one in the organization has any clarity or target to do any work which clearly indicates that Goal setting is the primary aspect for the functioning of an organization.
So how to we set these goals? On what basis do we define them? Well here we are with this concept of "SMART" goal setting. The definition for SMART as given above clearly shows that the Goals have to specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound. These goals are set by taking into account certain historical data which is available and then stating the goals of the organization. Now how do we arrive at this goal? To do this we take the following information: Past data and the potential. Past data can be derived at if we are launching an existing operation and the potential is something which really has no limit.
Also we need to take into account the goal achievement possibility. As the going says "It is better to predict less and over deliver than to predict more and under deliver".

Now the also let us look into the fact how a company's market has evolved and its profits have risen. Every organization will always look to set higher goals than what has been achieved and as time goes this goal keeps on expanding. This can be visualized as the shape of a spiral, starts at the center and keeps expanding.

So the organizations objective would be to set the goals such that they are more than the historical and past data and at the same time one which is attainable within the given time frame.

Now coming to the "Pygmalion" play- what does this teach us in the principles of management?
Well the Pygmalion effect also know as the "self-fulfilling prophecy" is as shown above is like a kind of a circular path which starts from our beliefs which influences our action and thereby impacting others beliefs and their course of action and finally reinforcing our beliefs and decision making.

This is how our goal setting based on the current market position and the goal settings of other competitors is dependent on and finally keeping all these factors in mind the top level management of the organization sets these goals.


Happy Reading:)
RAJA R S
PGDIM20 Section B