It seems to me that if a company has to resort to forcing people to set goals, they hired the wrong people. If they can't trust their own people to be professional and self-motivated, they failed to adequately communicate expectations and offer sufficient rewards.

That's on them for not doing their due diligence during the hiring process.

It's been my experience that so-called goal setting is often used by HR to justify firing people they messed up when hiring, or trying to get out of paying a decent severance.