Pygmalion effect on management
The Pygmalion Effect
Interestingly enough, ancient Greek mythology creates an archetype for a present day social phenomenon with an artist named Pygmalion. He carved a perfect woman from Ivory and fell in love with his own creation, naming it Galatea. Pygmalion desperately wished she was alive. With goddess Venus’s blessings and his true belief in his creation, Galatea was brought to life.
Though the name originates from this allegory, the more precise nature of the Pygmalion effect is demonstrated in George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”, in which Eliza Doolittle explains: “You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady and always will.”
Your expectations of people and their expectations of themselves are the key factors in how well people perform at work. Known as the Pygmalion effect and the Galatea effect, respectively, the power of expectations cannot be overestimated. These are the fundamental principles you can apply to performance expectations and potential performance improvement at work.
You can summarize the Pygmalion effect, often known as the power of expectations, by considering:
• Every supervisor has expectations of the people who report to him.
• Supervisors communicate these expectations consciously or unconsciously.
• People pick up on, or consciously or unconsciously read, these expectations from their supervisor.
• People perform in ways that are consistent with the expectations they have picked up on from the supervisor.
The Pygmalion effect was described by J. Sterling Livingston in the September/October, 1988 Harvard Business Review. "The way managers treat their subordinates
Interestingly enough, ancient Greek mythology creates an archetype for a present day social phenomenon with an artist named Pygmalion. He carved a perfect woman from Ivory and fell in love with his own creation, naming it Galatea. Pygmalion desperately wished she was alive. With goddess Venus’s blessings and his true belief in his creation, Galatea was brought to life.
Though the name originates from this allegory, the more precise nature of the Pygmalion effect is demonstrated in George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”, in which Eliza Doolittle explains: “You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins because he always treats me as a flower girl and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you because you always treat me as a lady and always will.”
Your expectations of people and their expectations of themselves are the key factors in how well people perform at work. Known as the Pygmalion effect and the Galatea effect, respectively, the power of expectations cannot be overestimated. These are the fundamental principles you can apply to performance expectations and potential performance improvement at work.
You can summarize the Pygmalion effect, often known as the power of expectations, by considering:
• Every supervisor has expectations of the people who report to him.
• Supervisors communicate these expectations consciously or unconsciously.
• People pick up on, or consciously or unconsciously read, these expectations from their supervisor.
• People perform in ways that are consistent with the expectations they have picked up on from the supervisor.
The Pygmalion effect was described by J. Sterling Livingston in the September/October, 1988 Harvard Business Review. "The way managers treat their subordinates