Gyula J Nagy is an independent consultant in the financial services industry. He has 20 years’ post-Berkeley MBA experience in consulting and C level board positions. He has worked in consulting at McKinsey&Co., and various banks in CEO and deputy CEO positions in operations and sales across Europe.
In September 2021, Gyula J Nagy defended his Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (Executive DBA) in the field of performance management on the topic of ‘Investigating managerial blurring of employee goals’, under the supervision of Professor Isabelle Walsh at SKEMA Business School, Univ. Côte d’Azur, GREDEG.
Thesis Direction
Pr Isabelle Walsh
Thesis Title
Investigating the Managerial Blurring of Employee Goals
Abstract
The present research using mixed method grounded theory identifies the counterintuitive managerial behavior of setting blurred goals to employees in order to maintain evaluation flexibility of employees. Setting blurred goals leads to a decreasing level of goal specificity which causes lowered levels of employee performance and motivation. Because of the prevalence of goal setting as part of the performance management process by corporations and the time invested in running such a system, the uncovered managerial behavior accounts for significant losses of time and money to corporations worldwide. The present research identifies critical forces that drive such managerial behavior, including the desire for flexibility, task profile, managerial conflict avoidance, managerial goal orientation, and performance management setup. The research also highlights that when the effectiveness of performance management is compromised by blurred goals, managers often turn to build a shadow performance management to mitigate negative impacts. The results of the research have theoretical and practical implications. They provide additions to the vast domain of goal setting theory and also recommend tools for management practitioners to amend such managerial behavior.