The end justifies the means, but only in the middle.

Abstract

Achieving goals often requires the completion of sequential actions, such as finishing a series of assignments to pass a class. In the course of pursuing such goals, people can decide how closely to follow their personal standards for each action. We propose that actions at the beginning and end of a sequence appear more diagnostic of the pursuer's personal standards than do actions in the middle. Therefore, people are more likely to adhere to their standards at the beginning and end of goal pursuit-and slack in the middle. We demonstrate this pattern of judgment and behavior in adherence to ethical standards (e.g., cheating), religious traditions (e.g., skipping religious rituals), and performance standards (e.g., "cutting corners" on a task). We also show that the motivation to adhere to standards by using proper means is independent and follows a different pattern from the motivation to reach the end state of goal pursuit.

Three sources of motivation

“…More generally, an internal attribution-perceiving the action as self-diagnostic because there is no other explanation-is one factor that increases the motivation to pursue an action that has the potential to self-signal desired characteristics. Furthermore, the expected memorability of an action is another category of factors that influences perceptions of self-diagnosticity and hence self-signaling motivation (Touré-Tillery & Fishbach, 2012;Touré-Tillery & Light, 2017). In the sections that follow, we discuss the factors that influence motivation when people's primary concern is maintaining a positive self-concept.…”

“…Research on self-signaling motivation suggests that when people's primary motivation is to maintain a positive self-concept, the extent to which they perceive an action as indicative of the type of person they are (self-diagnostic) is an important guide for their behavior Dunning, 2007;Touré-Tillery & Fishbach, 2012, 2014. In particular, when people deem their actions are self-diagnostic, they will be motivated to "do the right thing," behaving in ways that allow them to signal desired characteristics about themselves to themselves (e.g., adhere to moral standards, apply themselves at tasks, give to charity, and exercise self-control).…”

“…Indeed, in the pursuit of their various goals, people are motivated to act not just because of the outcome they might produce, and not just because of how fulfilling the process might be, but also because of what their actions might tell them about themselves (i.e., self-signaling; Bodner & Prelec, 1996;Savary, Goldsmith, & Dhar, 2015;Touré-Tillery & Fishbach, 2011, 2014. In particular, when people perceive an action as indicative of the type of person they are (i.e., self-diagnostic), they are more likely to act in ways that allow them to signal desired characteristics to themselves (Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2012;Touré-Tillery & Fishbach, 2012.…”

How to motivate yourself and others? Intended and unintended consequences

“…Therefore, people may tend to relax their standards relatively more in the middle of goal pursuit (vs. the beginning or end) because these actions have less selfdiagnostic value. For example, participants were more likely to behave unethically in the middle of goal pursuit than at the beginning and end by falsely reporting the favorable outcome of a coin flip and by taking advantage of an experimenter's ''forgetfulness'' to get undeserved credit (Touré -Tillery & Fishbach, 2012). These findings suggest people may tend to ''slack'' more in the middle of goal pursuit, adhering less to their personal standards because their actions seem less diagnostic for self-perception.…”

Development of Target-Related Motivation in Management Process

“…In particular, we highlight the distinction between the outcome-focused motivation to complete a goal [4,10] and the process-focused motivation to attend to elements related to the process of goal pursuit -with less emphasis on the outcome. Process-related elements may include using "proper" means during goal pursuit [9,14] and enjoying the experience of goal pursuit [5,7,12,13]. In some cases, particular measures of motivation may help distinguish between these different dimensions of motivation, whereas other measures may not.…”