A Team Approach to MBO: History and Conditions for Success

Introduction Most management by objectives (MBO) programmes feature a one‐on‐one dialogue between a subordinate and superior about individual goals and goal attainment. However, the emphasis on this two‐person relationship, the clarification of individual goals in hopes of enhanced motivation and performance and the review of individual performance against objectives may represent some lost opportunities for increasing organisational performance. In fact, it may at times be counter‐productive. Our purpose is to identify some elements missing from many MBO programmes, to review the history of group or team approaches to goal setting, to speculate on why one‐on‐one approaches dominate the literature on MBO, and to suggest conditions for making team approaches to MBO most useful.