{
  "title": "Do individual goals support team performance?",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/objectifs-individuels-performance-equipe-fribourg-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2025-12-18",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Setting goals for everyone does not guarantee a better collective result. Research suggests examining what those goals encourage when tasks are interdependent.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Team Performance",
  "place": {
    "name": "Fribourg",
    "region": "Fribourg",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Ad Kleingeld, Heleen van Mierlo and Lidia Arends (2011, Journal of Applied Psychology) show in a meta-analysis that specific, difficult group goals improve group performance compared with nonspecific goals."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The mechanism: directing attention and effort",
      "point": "Edwin Locke and Gary Latham (2002, American Psychologist) explain that goals direct attention, mobilise effort, sustain persistence and encourage the search for strategies."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that all individual goals should simply be replaced with a collective goal."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence cannot settle",
      "point": "These studies do not provide a universal weighting of individual and collective goals."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Fribourg",
      "point": "Within SHR’s “[Team Performance](/formation/performance-equipe/fribourg)” programme, a pilot could be offered to an agri-food team, a bilingual industrial team or a project connecting a business with Fribourg’s university sector."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Arends",
      "year": "2011",
      "source": "Journal of Applied Psychology"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Latham",
      "year": "2002",
      "source": "American Psychologist"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 395,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2025-12-18-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/objectifs-individuels-performance-equipe-fribourg",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/objectifs-individuels-performance-equipe-fribourg-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/objectifs-individuels-performance-equipe-fribourg-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/objectifs-individuels-performance-equipe-fribourg-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/performance-equipe/fribourg",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/fribourg",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}