Management 14th Edition by Leslie Rue,Lloyd Byars ,Nabil Ibrahim

Exercise 25

Word Associations
This exercise is designed to demonstrate how the establishment of a realistic and specific goal can help you improve your performance. You will be given four words and your task is to identify a fifth word that has a common association with each of the four words in a given set. For example, what word has a common association with each of the following?
The answer is beauty.
Now that you understand the game, time yourself and see how many of the following sets you can do in two minutes.
Your instructor will give you the correct answers. Based on the number you got right, set the following goal for the next exercise:
If you got 1 or 2 correct, your new goal is 4.
If you got 3 or 4 correct, your new goal is 7.
If you got 5 or more correct, your new goal is 9.
Do you consider this new goal challenging? Impossible? Now, striving to make your new goal, see how many of the following sets you can do in two minutes.
Your instructor will give you the correct answers. How did you do relative to your score on the first set? Do you think that having a specific goal affected your score on the second exercise?
Source: This exercise is adapted from Henry Tosi and Jerald W. Young, Management Experiences and Demonstrations (Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin, 1982), pp. 35-38, 166, 183.