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Category: Philosophy and Psychology
Date Submitted: 08/19/2012 03:26 PM
LEADERSHIP AND EXPECTATIONS:
PYGMALION EFFECTS AND OTHER
SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECIES
IN ORGANIZATIONS
Dov Eden
Tel Aviv University
The Pygmalion effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising manager expectations
regarding subordinate performance boosts subordinate performance.
Managers who are led to expect
more of their subordinates
lead them to greater achievement. Programmatic
research findings from
field experiments
are reviewed, and our present knowledge about the Pygmalion
effect in the
management
of industrial, sales, and military organizations
is summarized.
A model is presented in
which leadership is hypothesized to be the key mediator through which manager expectations influence
motivation,
effort, and performance.
The
subordinate
self-efficacy,
performance
expectations,
behaviors that comprise the Pygmalion Leadership Style are described. Besides creating the one-onone Pygmalion effect, additional ways for managers to assert their leadership by creating productive
organizationwide
SFP are suggested. An agenda for research on SFP applications is proposed.
Expectations
play an important role in determining
leadership effectiveness. Scholars
and practitioners have assumed for a long time that leaders who expect more get more
(e.g., Likert, 1961, 1967; McGregor, 1960). Despite this general awareness, until recently
there was little empirical research illuminating
how and why leader expectation effects
operate, and how they can be profitably utilized in practice. In parallel, work motivation
theorists have long postulated the central role of self-expectations
in motivating the
exertion of effort in job performance
and in determining
the level of productivity
achieved (Atkinson,
1957; Atkinson
& Feather, 1966; Atkinson
& Raynor,
1974;
McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, & Lowell, 1953; Rotter, 1943, 1945; Vroom, 1964; Zuroff
*Direct all correspondence
to: Dov Eden, Tel Aviv University,...