Ethical Dilemma: Stressing out employees is your job 1. Do you think there is a trade-off between the positive (high performance) and negative (increased stress) effects of stretch goals? Setting goals is part of organizational life and a powerful way to keep employees aligned and clear about expectations. But how tough should the goals be? How high should you set the bar? Some leaders like to set goals at a low to moderate level, based on the concept that they want everyone to be successful. They believe that success increases employee motivation and satisfaction. A second approach is to set the goals fairly high, expecting that a good portion of the employees will achieve them, but everyone has to work pretty hard to be successful. The third approach is to make the goals so high that only the very best performers might attain them, but not too often. This is based on the premise that if you set the bar really high then everyone will work their hardest to go as far as they can.
However, stretch goals can have a tradeoff between the positive and negative effects. On the positive side, it can increase high work performance since it enables employees to reach their fullest potential. Sometimes employees find stretch goals very motivating and make it a challenge to attain it, because managers generally attach incentives such as recognition and other forms of rewards for attaining these goals. Nevertheless, stretch goals also have negative effects and this is the stress that employees go through when unrealistic goals are set by managers. Goals should be challenging and require a stretch - but employees should be able to see the possibility of achieving them based on their efforts and performance. You might, for instance, ask people to cut costs by half or reduce product-development time from years to months. Stretch targets are an artificial stimulant for finding ways to work more efficiently. They force you to think "out of the box." And at the same time most organizations don't have a clue about how to manage stretch goals. It’s popular today for companies to ask their people to double sales or increase speed to market threefold, but then they don't provide their people with the knowledge, tools, and means to meet such ambitious goals. And in most situations, to meet stretch targets, people use the only resource that's not constrained, which is their personal time. I think that's immoral. People are under tremendous stress. And that's what I'm seeing all around this country, people working evenings, working Saturdays, working Sundays to achieve these stretch targets. Americans, in fact, now work longer days with fewer vacations than people in almost any other developed country.
Therefore, I believe that there is two sides to setting stretch goals, it can have high work performance but at the same time might lead to job stress, thus managers needs to indentify these tradeoffs and formulate stretch goals and find ways to minimize the results of job stress.

2. Do you think a manager should consider stress when setting stretch goals for employees? If you answered no, then what should a manager do if a valued employee complains of too much stress? If you answered yes, then how might this be done?
Yes. Managers should consider stress when setting stretch goals. Managers use the acronym SMART to set goals more effectively and efficiently. * Specific: clearly stated results * Measurable: eg. “How much?” * Attainable: not too tough, not too easy * Relevant: clearly derived for what manager’s and company want to achieve * Timely: reflect deadlines and milestones For stretch goals to be effective, they should be developed with the employee. Stretch goals that are simply handed down or assigned will not necessarily inspire higher levels of performance. But taking the time to sit down with an employee, agree on the core goals for the job, and then developing a set of specific stretch goals over a defined period of time that really challenge performance can have an electrifying effect. Especially for your best performers. Stretch goals do not only have to be set at the individual level. They can be very powerful with teams as well.
Managers can take the following steps to minimize stress in stretch goals; 1. Don’t set goals that stress people crazily. 2. If you do set goals that stretch them or stress them crazily, don't punish failure. 3. If you're going to ask them to do what they have never done, give them whatever tools and help you can
3. How do you think you would respond to stretch goals? Would they increase your performance? Would they stress you? I’m a very challenging individual; therefore, I am certain that a stretch goal will increase my work performance to whole other level. However, I should have the confidence in myself to achieve the goal and it should be realistic and achievable. There have been many instances where lecturers assign tasks that are forever impossible to achieve. Since they use grades as a motivator I am driven to achieve it no matter what’s at stake. This causes burnout and increased levels of stress. I am more likely to get sick after completing the tasks assigned and does not get any satisfaction in the end. Therefore, I believe that a stretch goal become a stress goal when have you pushed the envelope beyond reasonability. High performers typically don't like to reject a challenge. They might sign on for a goal or target that is so demanding (or impossible) that they work themselves, others and the organization into a frenzy trying to chase the impossible dream. The unintended result can be burnout for the individual and excessive pressure on the organization. Therefore managers should set the boundaries within a realistic probability of success. Then support high performance and be sure to recognize and reward it when you get it.