Directions: You are going to read a text about the misuse of goal setting, followed by a list of examples or explanations. Choose the best item from the list [A]--[F]. for each numbered subheading 1--5. There is one extra item which you do not need to use.

Why don’t most people set and achieve personal goals, career goals and business goals? Goal setting is a positive, powerful practice when it ignites enthusiasm and provides clear direction.

When practiced poorly, however, goal setting also has a serious downside which can undermine your success. Poor goal setting makes people upset, wastes their time and fosters confusion about where to concentrate actions and energy. How does such a potentially successful practice as goal setting, go wrong, so often?

Goal setting, once executed poorly, thoughtlessly, or for the wrong reasons, can have a significant negative impact on both people and your organization business plan. Avoid these five misuses of a potentially positive, powerful practice: goal setting for personal goals, career goals and business goals.

1. Goal Setting Under Intimidation

Sometimes intimidation brings driving force which stimulates staff members to go on, but usually it only incurs fears. Organizations often fail to achieve goals and strategic planning targets that are set top down, by executives who lack crucial information and are out of touch with staff challenges.

The goals are unrealistic and they fail to consider organization resources and capabilities. Staff members don’t believe that the rewards they will receive for goal accomplishment will equal the energy they invest to achieve them. Frequently, managers are intimidated when they fear job loss for failure.

2. Goals Intended to Impress, Not Guide Efforts

William Hamilton says, "’During the roaring, crazy days of the dot. corn nineties, using goals to impress was commonplace, although organizations also utilized this technique long before the Internet arrived, in this process, management creates goals based on the desire to impress or mislead outside groups. "

According to Hamilton, this process is, "also used to avoid serious analysis of the company and the marketplace. At the end of the time period, these goals can then be used by senior management to pass the buck and the blame for the failure to meet the goals.

The first part of this article emphasized several problems with how organizations set goals. Additional potential problems with setting personal goals, career goals and business goals include the following.

3. Can’t See Beyond One’s Nose

In an effort to meet the current period’s goals, the long-term viability of the organization is put at risk.

4. Goal Setting Becomes About the Plan, Not the Execution

Hamilton says a potential serious downside occurs when "the ratio of energy, time and creativity that goes into creating the goal outstrips (and comes out of the hide) of actually managing the product. "

5. Too Many Goals Make Nothing a Priority

In my work with small and mid-sized manufacturing companies, I often find that people wear so many hats, they are overwhelmed with the sheer number of goals they are expected to meet. They don’t know what is most important to accomplish next.

In conclusion, goal setting is a positive, powerful, business practice when it tells your staff where you are going. Effective goal setting also demonstrates what success will look like during the journey and upon arrival. When practiced poorly, however, goal setting can negatively impact your organization in all the ways described, and more.

[A] Such as: take a big dream, like "I want to be famous", and break it down into more steps, like "! want to star in a science fiction movie", "I want to go to three auditions a week", "I want to move to L. A. " and "I want to save $5000 so I can move".

[B] Such as: use expensive promotions that actually generate less in sales than they cost or push expenses into the future, rather than accounting for them when incurred.

[C] To internal staff members, who were often unconvinced and unmoved by the unrealistic, "’ show goals", senior management’s actions produced serious morale and competency-questioning issues. To staff members who bought into the euphoria, failure to achieve the goals was a deadly downward spiral.

[D] A former Siebel Systems executive says, "My nightmare goal setting story of all time was how Siebel set sales goals for its District Managers: everyone’s quota was $ 3. 5 million. There, no more thought needed to go into it, no discussion--just do it or you’re fired ! So the District Manager calling on Citibank had the same quota as the District Manager calling on the States of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. As a result no one succeeded.

[E] In one small manufacturing company, a management group decided to use Gantt charts to track goal accomplishment. After starting with a huge investment of time in making the charts for all of their goals, the management group soon abandoned the charting. When questioned later, they affirmed that the charting was taking too much of the time they needed to accomplish the goals.

[F] I once facilitated a strategic planning session during which people analyzed and established priorities. They moved non-priority items to a "B" list and believed they had successfully created an "A" list of the most important, achievable goals. You can imagine my consternation when, at the end of the session, the senior manager looked at the list of goals on the "B" list and said, "These are all givens. We have to accomplish these anyway. "

参考答案：

1. [解析] 选[D]。第一点陈述的是以胁迫的方式制订分配目标所带来的危害，[D]举例说明前面所述的论点，just do it or you’re fired便是intimidation的表现。

2. [解析] 选[C]。第二点阐述了制订炫耀性的假目标所带来的负面影响。注意这里强调的是为吸引眼球达到广告效应而定下虚假目标的影响，[C]的例子符合这点。[D]虽也反映了不现实的计划落空后所带来的消极影响，但其侧重以胁迫方式制订目标所造成的不利影响。

3. [解析] 选[B]。第三点阐述的是制订目标中的目光短浅。[B]的例子正是不顾长远利益的体现。

4. [解析] 选[E]。第四点阐述了过于注重计划制订的形式，却忽略了执行。这里强调的是花费了大量精力和费用去制订计划，得不偿失，着重点是计划制订的本身—行为过程中的成本投入，而[C]、[D]两项强调的是计划落空的消极影响。

5. [解析] 选[F]。第五点阐述了制订太多目标，却没有主次性。[F]项举例说明，需要注意的是[A]中也列出很多目标，但稍微分析便能得出这些目标之间存在循序渐进的逻辑关系，并非目标制订中的错误表现。