Together with co-authors from Switzerland and the USA, Prof. Artz has recently published a new research article "The effect of target transparency on managers' target setting decisions" in the journal "Accounting, Organizations and Society". "Accounting, Organizations and Society" is one of the six best journals in our field worldwide.

The three authors experimentally investigate how target transparency among employees within an organization (knowledge of each other’s targets) affects managers' target setting decisions, especially when employees are dependent on each other for support. They find that target transparency increases target levels when employees are not dependent on each other for help, but not when they are. They also find that target transparency leads to less differentiation between employees' goals. This effect is stronger the more they are dependent on mutual help. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that managers strategically set targets for employees to motivate both effort and mutual help when such is needed. It helps explain why, in practice, it is often observed that organizations that uphold mutual support among employees have implemented transparent goal setting throughout the organization.

The article is open access, and the full article can be downloaded here.