Employees in the purchasing department of a large hospital were suffering from lack of motivation. On the day shift, there had always been a few employees who were less productive than others. The other employees would have to pick up the slack to ensure that all supplies for the hospital were ordered on a timely basis. This would cause the departmental staff who were performing their jobs properly to become frustrated and angry because the other employees were not being held accountable for their low levels of productivity. There was clearly a disconnect between what was expected of all employees and what was actually being done.

Jack and Chris consistently worked hard and consistently exceeded the requirements of their jobs.

They made sure that all daily requests for supplies were ordered so that there was not backlog to deal with at the beginning of each shift. However, they started to notice that Page and Betty were spending more time doing things other than their assigned jobs in the purchasing department.

Jack and Chris became less motivated to work as hard because they felt that they were picking up the slack for undeserving coworkers. The overperformance levels for the department began to fall. Backlogs started to increase, as did complaints from the other functional units of the hospital when requested supplies were not received in a timely fashion. Some surgical cases had to be canceled and rescheduled because the proper supplies were not available for the surgeons. Something had to be done! Using the Goal-Setting Theory, create a plan that will motivate all the departmental staff to work to their full potential and perform more efficiently.