Pygmalion Rules The World

Discuss your thoughts regarding your reading of the article, “Pygmalion in Management.”

“If managers’ expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent. IF their expectations are low, productivity is likely to be poor.” I find it interesting that we as humans, the only species on the planet with the capability of reasonable thought, can be so swayed by the expectations of another person. One would think that with the technology and education that we have today, you would be led to think that self fulfilling prophesy and reverse psychology is the thing of the past, but it is not. I realize that this type of “control” is not limited to business, but I think that having a background knowledge in psychology a manager could be much more effective in leading his subordinates.

What is it that makes a manager create such high performance levels? “The answer, in part, seems to be that superior managers have greater confidence than other managers in their own ability to develop the talents of their subordinates”. What managers believe about themselves directly influences how their subordinates see themselves. This taken into consideration, it seems like superior motivation is cyclical. If Mr. X is a superior manager and he portrays self-confidence and knowledge to such and extent that his subordinates begin to replicate him, then they too will learn how to be self-motivators. If the subordinates are put into a position of leadership, then they will lead as they were led and a new group of subordinates will learn how to lead effectively.

I suppose that this is the idea of how learning and leadership should work. If more employees are becoming superior motivators and they are creating more superior employees, then it seems logical that Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest theory should be more than recognizable here (even if it is only noticeable in one company). Assuming that a company would only promote subordinates of a superior caliber, it logically leads that all employees will one day be taught to be superior. Perhaps in some strange way this means that Pygmalion is taking over the world! Or maybe not, but if we know how to train our employees to be superior and thus increasing productivity and quality, then why not? I don’t think that I would mind a Pygmalion run world…except for maybe the mind control and stuff, but that really is a minuet detail.

What if we were to use this tactic sooner in life. What if we taught our grade schoolers using this method? I suppose that it would logically reveal that our drop-out rate would decrease, and college attendance would increase. That would mean that there would be more qualified people entering the workforce, and more qualified people to work in and run companies, therefore making them far more superior. Although, if there were twice as many people competing for the same job, that would potentially mean that there would be twice as many people without work, and twice as many people on unemployment, and our economy would drop exponentially. If that happens inflation would sky rocket, and no one would be able to purchase any of the products or services that the superior graduates produced, and so there would be lay offs and more people would lose their jobs. I guess that means that we don’t want Pygmalion to run the world. WHEW! that was a close call!

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In case you were wondering...i did turn this paper in. MWHAHAHAHAHA!