ABSTRACT
One often hears members of a group say (with vigor) that their unit has done a good job. Their tone and their comments about the group’s performance reveal that the accomplishment pleases them. The source of their satisfaction, they make clear, is in the unit’s attainment of a preset goal. On a later occasion, one may hear the same members assert that their group has done poorly, that they are dissatisfied, yet, their group’s output is exactly the same as it was when the members were pleased. Apparently in the interim members have changed their group’s goal, the criterion they use in evaluating the group’s work. A sense of success and pride among these participants, it is plain, depends not only on the group’s score, it depends as well on what they expect or intend that score to be.
