Goal Clarity and Goal Ambiguity in Public Organizations-Evidence from Empirical Research of Public Management

Organizational goal plays a significant role in empirical public management research. Organizational goal ambiguity and goal clarity are two concepts that had been widely employed in organizational goal research. In empirical studies,goal ambiguity is interchangeable to goal clarity. We attempt to clarify goal ambiguity and goal clarity from different research perspectives. No one try to measure goal clarity in an objective way. However,some scholars had advanced to develop an objective measurement for goal ambiguity. In the research topics related to organizational performance,red tape,individual attitude and motivation and differences between public and private organizations,scholars often use goal ambiguity to construct their hypothesizes,but use goal clarity to measure the perception. To the end,it is still difficult to difference goal ambiguity and goal clarity in empirical study.