Edwin A. Locke is an American psychologist and codeveloper of goal setting theory, and Dean’s Professor of Motivation and Leadership Emeritus at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was also affiliated with the Department of Psychology.
He has published more than 310 chapters, notes and articles in professional journals, on such subjects as work motivation, job satisfaction, incentives and the philosophy of science. He is the author or editor of twelve books, including The Selfish Path to Romance: How to Love with Passion and Reason; Study Methods and Study Motivation; Goal Setting: A Motivational Technique That Works; A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance; Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior; The Prime Movers: Traits of the Great Wealth Creators; Postmodernism and Management: Pros, Cons and the Alternative; and New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance.
He is internationally known for his research on goal setting. A survey found that Dr. Locke’s goal setting theory (developed with G. Latham) was ranked #1 in importance among 73 management theories and is generally considered to be the leading theory of motivation in Industrial-Organizational Psychology.
Dr. Locke has been elected a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science and the Academy of Management, and has received many additional scholarly awards. He has been a consulting editor for leading journals.
He has written articles and given talks for the Ayn Rand Institute and is interested in the application of the philosophy of Objectivism to behavioral sciences. He is a member of the board of directors of the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship.