diff --git a/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.am b/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.am
index 31d7b1ae532ee206dca7539be66fe61d10aac712..bfb98d5ad865f50edeebff301e6e5627af5b822f 100644
--- a/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.am
@@ -36,5 +36,5 @@ slurmstepd_LDFLAGS = -export-dynamic $(CMD_LDFLAGS)
 endif
 
 force:
-$(slurmd_LDADD) : force
+$(slurmstepd_LDADD) : force
 	@cd `dirname $@` && $(MAKE) `basename $@`
diff --git a/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.in b/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.in
index 1616d8eaaa582ba8174b01279bf950b4e880b051..0f458b4f786ffde5621bd37439c965b9d69a8151 100644
--- a/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.in
+++ b/src/slurmd/slurmstepd/Makefile.in
@@ -683,7 +683,7 @@ uninstall-am: uninstall-sbinPROGRAMS
 
 
 force:
-$(slurmd_LDADD) : force
+$(slurmstepd_LDADD) : force
 	@cd `dirname $@` && $(MAKE) `basename $@`
 
 # Tell versions [3.59,3.63) of GNU make to not export all variables.