You're the boss, how do you want to motivate your employees?

[CitizenCain]

I know you meant that as a joke Cain,

Glad to hear you say that. Would you mind repeating it under oath in couple weeks, when my lawer starts calling witnesses?

[Lebanese Dragon]

I'd have far more morale if I and the department I'm in were given realistic goals and deadlines,

I was already under the impression we have clearly defined tasks; however, that could definitely be an issue. It goes in two fold, once it diminish your sense of accomplishment, when you don't know what you're doing is what you're supposed to be doing, or at the pace your supposed to be doing it, also eats at your sense of purpose.

I agree that in order to establish that sense of purpose that it's best to set parameters... obviously if a parameter is unattainable then it serve no real role of guiding or measuring an individuals success, might as well not have one.

Almost goes to back to the slavery example I gave where if you said if you complete this much your ahead of the game etc... as opposed to just saying work as hard as you can all day.

I guess some sort of metric (if it's not intrinsically obvious) is needed for them to have that sense of purpose/acomplishment. In boxing goods, and shipping them you know when your task is complete, what pace is good. When the big picture is hard to see and you don't know where the finish line is, I think it can be disheartening.