Pygmalion in Management Case

Pygmalion in Management

Gabrielle Kramer

Business Org. & Management

October 2, 2013

Abstract

The pygmalion effect related to management holds the idea that worker performance is directly related to the manager’s expectations. Managers who assumed their employees will not succeed usually received low performance from those subordinates, while managers who set high expectations incorporated with positive reinforcement for their employees, yielded superior performance. Subordinates, more often than not, appear to do what they believe they are expected to do (Livingston, 1996).  Livingston breaks the article into four sections to give managers a guideline on how to set high expectations for employees. Key points of the article include how having low expectations affect productivity, the power of setting high expectations, why the early years are crucial, and how to develop young employees the right way. Livingston concludes that managers must set high expectations for themselves along with setting expectations for their employees. 

        Keywords: expectations, management

Pygmalion in Management

        J. Sterling Livingston said it best with his statement “How can you get the best out of your employees? Expect the best.” (Livingston, 1996). The writing Pygmalion in Management describes what could be the root problem in poor employee performance. Managers who set low expectations for their employees receive poor performance in return. A key example from the article was the “self-fulfilling prophecy” concept. According to International Journal of Psychology, a self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) occurs when the expectation of an event induces the behavior that increases the likelihood of the event's occurrence (Eden, 1990). Findings with this occurrence have been proven so often and in such varied settings, that it is no longer debated.  The article Industrialization as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Role of Expectations in Development, explains the experiment conducted to understand the impact expectations have on success. King (1974) used a field-experiment design where productivity expectations were manipulated to be high in setting one, but not in setting two. The results concluded if expectations were raised, productivity improved, which supports the self-fulfilling prophecy theory. From experience, I can confirm when more responsibility or higher expectations were expected of me, it resulted in me meeting the expectation. I believe most people react in that way, which could be the reason most people feel they accomplish the most when their free time is limited.