| A More Diverse Allstate | Lenora Gumbs | | Petrina ShatteenLeadership and Organizational Behavior | October 29, 2011 |

This paper describes a successful goal setting model and how to effectively implement the model to increase productivity. It also describes Allstate insurance and their mission to have a diverse company and the measures they put in place in order to achieve that mission. |

Introduction
Goal setting is absolutely essential to having a successful business. In order for a company to have effective goals they have to make sure the goals are clearly understood by the managers and the employees. The company should also provide incentives for meeting and exceeding expectations. Allstate provides a model of how they are creating a more diverse company. Their ultimate goal is to have a company that is diverse internally and can reach the diverse culture that surrounds us.
Goal Setting Model
The goal setting process starts with the challenge phase. When a company decides to set goals for their organization, the goals need to be clear and concise and provide an opportunity for the employee to be challenged to achieve the goal and create a better company. Hellriegel and Slocum states that, “Employees with unclear goals or no goals are more prone to work slowly, perform poorly, exhibit lack of interest, and accomplish less than employees whose goals are clear and challenging” (2011). “The two key attributes of challenging goals are: Goal difficulty which means that a goal should be challenging but not impossible to achieve and goal clarity which states that a goal must be clear and specific if it is to be useful in directing effort” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The goal process need moderators to help strengthen the goal setting process . There are four moderators that buffer the relationship between goals and performance (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011).. These moderators are ability, goal commitment, feedback, and task complexity. Ability speaks for itself. If an employee has the ability to rise to the challenge they will be more likely to achieve the goal. Goal commitment is more achievable when the employees are a part of the goal setting process. Effective feedback informs the employee of how they are performing and how their work lines up with the overall goal. Feedback, when done effectively, creates an environment where employees can see exactly how their work accomplishes the mission of the company and how either maintaining or improving their performance achieves the goal at hand and impacts the overall company. Task complexity as stated by Hellriegel and Slocum, “refers to the cognitive processing that is need by a person to solve a task” (2011). When all four moderators are effectively taken into consideration, the company can have great goals and see employees accomplishing them at a high level.
The mediators are the links that join the challenge to the performance (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The four links are direction, effort, persistence, and task strategy. This basically means that if the employees have clear and challenging goals and can direct their attention towards them, put forth the effort, stay persistent until the goal is achieved, and they can create an effective strategy; then they will be able to achieve their goals and have high performance.
Next in the goal setting process is performance. Performance is the measure of how the goals are working (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). In order for goal setting to be effective, the company has to have controls in place to monitor performance, identify which areas are lacking in high performance, and determine why the issues are occurring and what can be done to fix the issues.
Next, you have rewards for high performing employees. Every company should offer rewards for satisfactory performance and above. This shows the employee they are appreciated for their contribution and it allows employees to see what performance should be maintained in order to perform at a high level. Rewards only work if they are done ethically. So companies have to ensure the programs are conducted ethically and rewards are fair for all employees. An important part of the process is employee satisfaction. Hellriegel & Slocum state that, “ there are many factors including challenging work, interesting coworkers, salary, the opportunity to learn and good working conditions influence a person’s satisfaction with the job” (2011). In this model the employee has to be satisfied with the goals and their ability to achieve the goals.
Lastly, there is the consequences portion of the goal setting process. “The consequences of a person reaching his or her goal includes both willingness to accept future challenges and to increase his or her commitment to the organization” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). In other words, the managers of the company have to ensure that once the goal is completed that employees do not become complacent and want to strive hard to achieve other goals. Hellriegel and Slocum provide conditions for effective goal setting. The conditions are: “first the employees must have the knowledge and ability to attain the goal. Second, the employee must be committed to the goal. Third, people need feedback and their progress toward the goal. Forth the task that are complex need to be broken down so that the employee can set sub goals that can be attained. Lastly, situational constraints can make goal attainment difficult One of the primary rules for a manger is to ensure that employees have the resources necessary to attain their goals and obstacles in the way of accomplishing these goals” (2011).
Allstate’s Goal Setting
Now that there is a greater understanding of the goal setting model and how to effectively implement the model. It will now be compared with the goal setting conducted by Allstate Insurance Company. According to the case, Allstate Corporation has found that its diversity strategy has become one of the company’s most important and competitive weapons (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). Thus, Allstate believes that in order to serve their customers effectively they need to have employees who are just as diverse as the customers in which Allstate is trying to reach. On the Allstate website it says that, “The US Census Data shows that our communities are becoming more ethically and culturally diverse. At Allstate, we believe diversity is critical to meeting the needs of the diverse customers that we serve” (Diversity, n.d).
Allstate has done a great job in setting the diversity goals and ensuring that their employees understand them and how well they are being implemented. First they have measures in place to encourage minority recruitment. Allstate develops and identifies a diverse slate of candidates for each key position. They also conduct minority recruitment where they recruit from colleges and universities that have high percentages of minorities. Then they have several ways that they track ways to improve the diversity tactics already in place, and to track how well managers are implementing diversity strategies. Allstate has a management information system that tracks and measures opportunities and what motivates all of their employees to make sure that the company stays diverse. Twice a year they track and communicate progress with the Diversity Index and the Quarterly Leadership Management System (QLMS). The diversity index surveys employees to determine how they view the diversity in the corporation and how well managers are treating employees and making sure they are treated well by others. The Diversity Index is a part of the QLMS which provides the feedback to managers about how well they are managing the diversity goals of the company. In order to help managers succeed, Allstate also requires all of the non-agents to take diversity training courses.
Lastly, the managers are held accountable for how well they are implementing the diversity goals of the company. “Twenty-five percent of each manager’s merit pay is based on the Diversity Index and the QLMS results” (Hellriegel &Slocum). According to Allstate’s website the diversity mission is working. Currently Allstate’s workforce is “60% women and nearly 30% minorities. More than 40% of officers and managers are women and nearly 20% come from one of the five minority groups” (Workforce Diversity, n.d). Overall Allstate has a great goal setting model in place. It has the challenge of having an internally diverse company that can serve its diverse customers. It has the mediators in place to help the managers know what the goals are and providing them with effective feedback to know how well they are doing and what needs to be changed. Lastly, the managers are rewarded by how well they ensure the diversification process is working. As we can see from the results on their website the goals they have in place are definitely working.
Reward Systems
Hellriegel and Slocum point out several types of reward systems to reward good behavior and performance. The list includes informal rewards that simply just tell the employee they are doing a great job and why the manager feels this way. There are profit sharing programs that give employees a percentage of the company’s earnings. There are also skill based pay program which pay employees based upon the skills that they can perform. So if they can perform various skills effectively then they will be paid more (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011).
Of these examples I think the two that will benefit Allstate the most are the informal reward system and the profit sharing programs. I would recommend informal rewards because everyone likes to be thanked and recognized by their managers for a job well done. I know from personal experience coworkers who received bonuses for annual performance but still did not feel appreciated. When they accomplished something extraordinary that save the government lots of money, they were not given any sort of recognition or thanks by management for their achievement. They are a great and hardworking employee, but because of instances like this they are actively looking to leave the agency and find a job that will appreciate their hard work more.
In a study conducted by Gerald H. Graham “1500 employees in different work settings stated the most powerful motivator was personalized instant recognition from their managers” (Nelson, 1994). This study proves that if you want employees to feel appreciated and achieve at high levels to make sure they are rewarded not just monetary reward but a simple thank for a job well done. Profit sharing encourages the employee to do things that would make the company more profitable. They know that if the company does well that they are able to increase their take home pay. You will create an environment where employees will set goals and create innovative ideas to ensure the company does exceptional and that they also reap the benefits.
Does Diversity Motivate You?
If I was an Allstate employee I would be motivated by the Diversity Index and Quarterly Leadership Measurement System. The reason I feel this way is the system shows me that it truly matters to the company about being diverse and if my manager makes sure that I am comfortable in my working environment. Allstate is take the time to evaluate the way the employees feel about the diverse working environment and holding the managers accountable for whether they ensure it is a conducive environment for all their employees. According to Carlton Yearwood, the director of diversity management for Allstate,” there is a positive correlation between the diversity index and the leadership index, meaning the better employees perceive their managers' effort to produce a diverse work environment, the more satisfied they are. The spillover effect is greater customer satisfaction and retention.” (Wah, 1999). “We know there is a correlation between customers' intention to renew and how employees respond to leadership and diversity questions in our survey process," he says. "The correlation suggests the higher the leadership and diversity indices, the more likely it is for customers to renew [their insurance policies]" (Wah, 1999). This is exactly how I feel I would be more motivated to do my job and to ensure that customers get great service as well as help them reach a more diverse consumer base; because I know that how I feel as an employee matters to them.
Conclusion
In order for a company to be successful they have to set specific goals and ensure that they are consistently measuring the performance and ensuring it is accomplishing the goal. One of the goals of Allstate is to create a company that is diverse internally and externally. Allstate has a great model of how to establish a goal and create effective steps in order to achieve that goal and reward their employees accordingly.

Resources
Diversity (n.d). Allstate Insurance Company. Retrieved from: http://www.allstate.com/diversity.aspx Nelson, B. (1994) 1001 Ways to Reward Employees. New York: Workman Publishing.
Hellriegel, D & Slocum Jr., J.W. (2011 Custom Edition). Organizational Behavior. Mason, OH:
Cengage Learning.
Wah, L. (1999). Diversity at Allstate: A Competitive Weapon. Management Review. http://www.wahansa.com/portfolio/diversity.html Workforce Diversity (n.d.). Allstate Insurance Company. Retrieved from:
http://www.allstate.com/diversity/workplace.aspx