Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A (1.0), San Diego State University (Management Department SDSU), course: Management and Organizational Behavior, language: English, abstract: This paper discusses the goal-setting theory. The first part gives a short overview of the predominant approaches explaining motivation. Part two mainly discusses the core findings related to the goal-setting theory and in more detail the main factors influencing the goal-performance relationship. The third part gives both examples of its practical application and its limitations. Finally, a short conclusion is given. A short catalogue of the chronological sequence of theories positioning goal-like constructs can be found in the appendix.