Education as a moderator of goal setting effectiveness

The majority of empirical support for Locke's (1968) goal setting theory is based on a series of well designed and rigorous laboratory experiments with educated college students performing rather simple arithmetic and memorization tasks. There is little known about what role educational attainment plays in responsiveness to goal setting in a field setting. A sample of 128 skilled technicians working under an assigned goal setting program were studied in order to learn about the moderating impact of education on the relationship between performance and six goal setting properties. Speculation is advanced as to why education is an important moderator variable for specific types of goal setting properties.