Pygmalion effect and application in management activities at the enterprise (part 1)

About the author: The article has been translated from research by Professor J. Sterling Livingston who has been teaching at Harvard Business School in the period of 1941 - 1971. He also established Sterling Academy - a supply company. Management consulting services focus on training and development programs for management level - in 1967. Currently, he is building Sterling center towards content management leadership Application in Key Biscayne, Florida state.

Most parents realize that teachers' expectations for each child become "self-fulfilling prophecies" : If a teacher believes a student it is slow to understand that child, by default, will believe it and gradually acquire knowledge slowly. Conversely, another lucky student who impresses the teacher with the ability to receive good lessons will be expected better and truly, will later shine. This finding has been confirmed many times and because of such supports, it is no longer debated.

"The prophecies come true" , it turns out, is also common in offices like in classrooms. If a manager is convinced that his team members belong to the top, they will definitely work more effectively than the group whose managers do not trust each other's ability. people in the team - even if the potential of both groups is the same.

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J. Sterling Livingston has called this effect after a mysterious Greek sculptor named Pygmalion - king of Cyprus, who is very talented at sculpting, who loves to love a statue carved by herself . Before that "love", Aphrodite, the goddess of love, blew the soul to the living statue so that the two became husband and wife. In addition, Livingston used this name to pay homage to George Bernard Shaw, who wrote the Pygmalion drama and proposed an idea that the way one treats others, though good or bad can create certain conversions. In his article, he also noted that it is extremely difficult to build positive expectations, at the same time suggesting some suggestions for managers: Focusing special attention especially in the first year of an employee's job because that is when expectations are established, ensuring new employees are assigned to manage by senior supervisors (Supervisors). experiment and set high expectations for yourself (for that employee).

In the play of the same name, the language professor character Henry Higgins asserts that he can train, change the dress and voice to "turn" the country girl of Eliza into a luxurious lady. As a result, Eliza really becomes a lady, but according to her, the key is how she is treated and expected, not by the clothes, words or gestures she learned from the teacher. Professor

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You see, in fact, except for things that everyone can recognize (how to dress, polite gestures when saying .), the difference between a lady and a girl holding flowers is not lies in the way she behaves but is in the way she is treated. For Professor Huggins, I was always a girl holding flowers because he always treated me as if I were a flower-holding girl and always did. But I know I will become a lady because you always treat me as if I were a lady and forever.

Some managers always treat their subordinates in a way that can produce the best results. However, most are like Higgins teachers, which means treating employees in a way that yields less than their capacity can be achieved, though not intentionally. Such treatment is affected by what each manager expects for his subordinates and is not easy to recognize. If expectations are high, productivity is likely to be impressive. If expectations are low, productivity will be very poor, as if this is a rule that could make an employee's performance rise or fall to meet manager expectations.

The strong influence of expectations for one person on another's behavior has been recognized earlier by many physicists and behavioral scientists and more recently by teachers. However, up to now, the importance of managerial expectations for the performance of individuals and groups has not yet been comprehensively understood. I have cited material evidence for this phenomenon in a series of case studies that were prepared about 10 years ago at some large businesses. These cases and other available evidence from scientific studies have now also revealed:

1. What managers expect for their subordinates and how they are treated will largely determine their effectiveness and path of career development.
2. A typical feature of super super managers is the ability to create high-performance expectations that subordinates can achieve.
3. Inefficient managers cannot develop similar expectations and results, so is the productivity of employees following.
4. In any case, subordinates seem to do what they believe they are expected to accomplish.

Impact on productivity

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One of the most comprehensive illustrative examples of the impact of management-level expectations on productivity is the test conducted in 1961 by Alfred Oberlander - Rockaway regional director of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. . He observed that excellent insurance agents grow faster than agents that operate at medium or poor levels and that new insurance agents of excellent agency groups also perform better than when be linked to poor or average groups, regardless of the sales capacity of each group. Therefore, he decided to gather excellent agents into a unit to promote efficiency and create a more challenging environment for new salespeople.

Oberlander appointed 6 excellent team agents (group 1) working with his best manager, 6 average production staff working with an average (competent) manager (group 2) and the remaining low-productivity employees will work under the supervision of the most incompetent manager (group 3). After that, he also set a goal for group 1 to achieve two-thirds of the total products that all agents won in the previous year. After the trial period, he described the results as follows:

As soon as this arrangement is decided, employees begin to consider group 1 as a group of "high-quality employees" because of their teamwork and unity. Group 1's production effort over the first 12 weeks has far surpassed the expected optimism expectation . proving that people with good abilities are motivated to achieve far higher results than Their true ability, while the negative expectations for the group of employees with poor production capacity will make them unable to focus on the task.

Thanks to that achievement, the overall productivity of employees in group 1 has improved by about 40%.

Although the productivity of "high quality employees" has been greatly improved, it should also be emphasized that the productivity of those in the lowest unit (group 3) - "those who are not considered any What opportunities to achieve the highest results "- actually reduce and fatigue tends to spread. From here, the achievement of the excellent team has met the expectations of the managers while the results of the weak group, although also reflecting the expectations of the superiors, have fallen miserably.

Predictive words come true

However, the group of average employees (group 2) shows an "anomaly". Although the regional director only expected an average result for this group, their productivity increased significantly. That's because the manager in charge of oversight does not believe that she is inferior to the excellent team manager or that the agents of group 1 are more capable than the members of the group. her group. She always emphasized in discussions with her subordinates that "each of our team has greater potential than the others in group 1 and you just haven't had more years of experience than them in selling. insurance only ". At the same time, she also encourages the team members to accept the challenge to overcome the results better than group 1. Thus, each year, this group increases productivity with an increase (in percentage) higher than the group. best, although in actual terms it is not equal.

What is particularly interesting here is that the self-awareness of the average group's managers does not allow her to accept that others treat her as a manager with "average ability ", like the image of Eliza in the play, always considers herself a lady instead of following everyone's opinion that she is just a girl holding flowers and accepting that they treat her. so. This manager transformed her own feelings about the effectiveness of her subordinates, creating a common expectation of high performance and stimulating their productivity.

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The impact of one's expectations on the behavior of another person does not imply this is a discovery in business. More than a century ago, Albert Moll concluded from his simple experiment that subjects would behave in a way that they believed they were expected and recently, it had become a collection topic. attracted the attention of the scientific community. Such as:

In a series of scientific experiments, Robert Rosenthal of Harvard University proved that the "teacher" expectation of a student's intellectual capacity can create a prophecy that becomes a reality in religion. sex.

Another test conducted in the Headstart program took place in the summer with the participation of 60 kindergarten students comparing the learning performance of students under the instruction of teachers who thought they would receive stay awake and teachers believe their students have excellent intellectual ability and ability to learn. As a result, the students of the second group absorb faster than the first-graders.

Moreover, many experts have long recognized that the expectations of a physician or psychiatrist can have a great influence on the mental or physical health of patients. What happens in the minds of patients and healers, especially when they have appropriate expectations will determine the outcome of that treatment. For example, the destruction if doctors make negative predictions has also been considered. Again, it is well known that the effectiveness of a new drug or new treatment can be strongly influenced by doctors' expectations. In medicine there is a term used to call this treatment called a placebo effect , otherwise known as a placebo .

Pattern of failure

When managing salespeople like "superstars" is like the "high-quality" employees at Rockaway's office, they will "live on that image" and try to do it. What they know that outstanding salespeople are always expected.

Unsuccessful salespeople face huge difficulties in maintaining self-awareness of self-image and self-esteem. In response to low expectations, they strive to prevent any further destruction of their "ego" by avoiding situations that could lead to greater failure. Either reduce sales or avoid having to "sell" if they are likely to be rejected by customers or both. Low expectations and ruined "egos" can cause them to behave in a way that increases their ability to fail and thus meet managers' expectations of "productivity reduction."

The power of expectations

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Managers cannot prevent the emergence of a series of frustrating events that occur due to low expectations by hiding their emotions in front of employees. If the manager believes that his subordinates are inefficient, it is almost impossible for them to wear a "high-expectations mask" because the message is often connected to action (even partially). intentional and unaware.

Indeed, managers often convey the most messages when they believe they are delivering the least. For example, when they say nothing - cold and unwilling to talk - it is often a sign that they are not happy with the staff or believe that he or she no longer hopes to improve working capacity. . This "silent" treatment, sometimes, connecting with negative emotions is more effective than scolding. What seems to be essential in conveying expectations is not what the bosses say, on the contrary, it is more natural about how they behave. Such innocuous and indifferent treatment, most will convey low expectations and lead to low productivity.

Common illusions

Managers convey lower expectations for their subordinates more effectively than conveying their high expectations, although most believe that habit will create reverse effects. It's really hard for them to clearly see when they are conveying negative emotions. Illustration:

Regional director Rockaway strongly denies that he has conveyed low expectations for the poorest group agents (group 3) - whom he believes do not have any chance to return. into good employees. However, this message, obviously, agents have understood.

A typical consequence is that agents of Group 3 will quit their jobs. When the manager told the staff that he felt regretful when she left and received a response: "No, you are not, you are feeling happy." Although, before that, he said he did not think about her but in fact, he conveyed low expectations unintentionally. And then, the staff confirmed that his expression was no different from a job offer.

Negative emotions, on the contrary, often do not transmit clearly enough. Another insurance agent director copied the organizational change model that was applied at Rockaway regional office, the group of salespeople whom she appreciated with outstanding managers who Average sales with average management . However, good results are not derived from this change.

Curious, Rockaway regional director conducted an investigation and found that the manager responsible for the most productive unit did not realize that he was considering himself the best. In fact, he and his team members suspect that the director really believes there are differences in their abilities. The boss is a cold, casual and indifferent woman who always treats employees in a very tedious way. Because high expectations are not conveyed to them, they cannot understand why changing the organizational structure and not realizing any importance of this process. Obviously, the way managers deal with employees - not how they organize people - is the key to creating high expectations and productivity.

(Continue)

(In Part 2 , readers will learn more about the applications of pygmalion effects in governance, including the superiority and importance of the first years of working at the company, the bosses can create Great impact and methods to improve productivity).