Participative Goal-Setting: A Synthesis of Individual and Institutional Purpose.

"Goal-Setting for Organizational Accountability: A Leadership Strategy" (GOALS) is a program designed by the National Laboratory for Higher Education to provide a realistic strategy for integrating the people and purpose of 2-year colleges. The development of the GOALS product is accomplished in two steps: (1) identifying and classifying appropriate goals statements and (2) devising a strategy to achieve goal consensus and set goal priorities. Three types of goals identified were: (1) overall purpose goals, gleaned from publicly stated roles and college philosophies; (2) instructional goals which define desired college outputs; and (3) management support goals, which are statements of desired administrative ends. The strategy used to achieve consensus involves participation of a representative sampling of the entire college community. Participants in a workshop rank order goals in three stages: the first and last stages using individual judgments, and the middle stage requiring consensus by heterogeneous teams (students, teachers, administrators, and citizens). The program, which has been tested in several community college environments, allows for a realistic examination of goals, utilizing both participation and consensus. (RN)