Goal setting theory states that specific, challenging goals lead to better performance than vague or easy goals. Research by Edwin Locke in the 1960s showed a relationship between goal difficulty/specificity and task performance. The expectancy theory, proposed by Victor Vroom in 1964, focuses on outcomes and states that an employee's motivation depends on the desirability of an outcome, the belief that effort will lead to performance, and the belief that performance will lead to that outcome. Vroom viewed motivation as an employee's conscious decision based on these expectancy, valence, and instrumentality factors.