Performing in Community-Academic Health Partnerships: Interplay of Clear, Difficult and Valued Goals

Numerous western countries are fostering healthcare projects through cross-sectoral networks. Since working in those complex settings can challenge many individuals, knowing more about the enablers of success of such networked projects can offer better support in meeting their challenges. Guided by goal-setting theory, we assumed a boundary role for goal importance in relation to the appraisal of goal difficulty, clarity and project performance among individuals working in health-promoting community-academic partnerships (CAPs). A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was adopted. The sample for the quantitative investigation consisted of 268 participants from various CAP networks in three German-speaking countries. At the end of the survey, 209 of those respondents answered an open question, constituting the sample for the qualitative analyses. The quantitative findings reveal that, only when the perceived goal importance is high, are goal difficulty and clarity associated with high project performance. Hence, regardless of the level of perceived goal difficulty, high project performance can be achieved as long as individuals deem their set goals important. The qualitative data corroborate, illustrate and extend this finding: clear and important goals motivate people towards high project performance even when extremely challenging goals and undesirable conditions hinder goal achievement."