Pygmalion Effect

Pygmalion effect comes from Greek mythology, a king of Cyprus carved and then fell in love with a statue of a woman, which Aphrodite brought to life as Galatea.Pygmalion Effect refers to how people´s perceptions and thoughts can affect what they or others really do or how they behave.It is as simple as this: If you think positively, positive things will happen to you, if you expect great things from others and you believe they are capable to achieve their goals, they will do and viceversa.

This phenomenon is always happenning and is always sorrounding us in our daily life: at school(teachers and students), in our jobs (bosses and employees) and in our family relationships (Parents and sons).

In this case, I am interested in analyze how this effect works in the performance of employees within an organization. This effect explains how the performance can be improved by employers and supervisors expecting more from employees and being sure they have the potential to do everything they have to.This is also important because generates a better work environment,everybody will have good thoughts, they can interact easily and help eachother, they will also trust eachother and as a result the performance improves.

Here I present an example of this effect applied to work environment: (2)

•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 In this way, Pygmalion effect can determine subordinates´behavior as a response to the supervisors´expectations.

The Pygmalion effect was described by J. Sterling Livingston in the September/October, 1988 Harvard Business Review. "The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them," Livingston said in his article, Pygmalion in Management.

(Heathfield, Susan M)

So, the Pygmalion Effect means "you get what you expect." It must be applied daily in every aspect of our lives.

REFERENCES:

(1)Machaalani, Mark. "The Pygmalion Effect." AccomplishLife - Self Help. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Aug. 2010. <http://www.accomplishlife.com/blogs/8/The-Pygmalion-Effect.html>.

(2)Heathfield, Susan M.. "The Two Most Important Management Secrets: The Pygmalion and Galatea Effects." Human Resources - Business Management Development Jobs Consulting Training Policy Human Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Aug. 2010. <http://humanresources.about.com/>

Picture was taken from: http://mi2genius.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/pygmalion-effect/

The importance of cross cultural management skills and the role of managers in negotiation processes

According to the conference "Dealing with Cultural Differences" by Nick Meyer, Culture is learned, not inherited. For that reason it is very important for companies going abroad to think about cultural issues, depending on the region or country they are going.

Their managers in those countries, where the company has subsidaries or facilities, must take into account the values, religion, customs, economy, politics, and other aspects that involves culture, not just to be able to learn them but also to understand them.

The importance of having well prepared managers with cross-cultural negotiation skills, is facilitating the negotiation processes to obtain sucessful outcomes for the company

The culture affects the way in which every country negotiates. It determines what they want, how they want it and how the other party of the negotiation can satisfy that.

Managers in companies that hold businesses abroad, need to understand very well not just the culture of other countries (markets) but also the corporate culture, because the manager is the image of the company wherever he/she goes.

Mr. Meyer highlights the importance of communication skills for managers in negotiation processes, because negotiation depends largely on it. It is important to know that communication process includes:

7% verbal communication, 55% non verbal communication and 38% tone of voice.

Here I let you a video, in which professor Watts of Berkeley University talks about culture and its relation with managers' performance.



This video was taken from: " YouTube - Project Managers and Culture ." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2010. .