Multiple goals: A review and derivation of general principles

A great deal of literature has examined the factors involved in single-goal pursuit. However, there is a burgeoning realization that employees hold multiple goals at any one point in time and that findings from the single-goal literature do not necessarily apply to multiple-goal situations. Research is now being conducted on multiple goals, but it is being conducted across a broad range of disciplines, examining different levels of the goal hierarchy. Consequently, researchers are using the same label to refer to distinct concepts (the “jangle” fallacy) or different labels to refer to similar concepts (the “jingle” fallacy), and some aspects of the multiple-goal space are yet to be examined. We derive seven general principles of the multiple-goal process from a broad review of the literature. In doing so, we provide a common architecture and an overarching perspective of the theory for ongoing research as well as highlighting a number of areas for future research.