NLIGHTEN

The Pygmalion Effect

You get what you expect
When the person in authority creates a positive
climate by his inquisitive questioning, interested
listening, responsive body language, open
gestures etc., the receiving person responds to the
expectations.

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The Business Enterprise | Feb 2011
 9 to 6

I
hastened Rakesh to fill in the JAF quickly.
Rakesh had walked in to our office twice
before for the earlier rounds of interview
Expectation
for a team-lead position in marketing. He had
to be put before our president Keshab Nand
Cycle
(KN or prez, hereinafter) today for the final
discussion. The JAFs are supposed to be filled
in by the candidates in their own handwriting
before they are taken for final interview. If you Our Our
are wondering what this JAF is, then my pur- expectations expectations
pose is served. Acronymising and jargonising come true are matched
the common terms are among the clever devises,
we HR pros, tend to come up with every now
and then so as to give a pretense of domain spe-
cialism, lest HR becomes an easy prey for en-
croachment from non-professionals. Whenever
the topic turns to HR, everyone turns out to be We form We communicate
an instant expert and starts offering comments expectations our expectations
and advice, unasked.

Prez’s nod is a crucial step before the can-

didate is offered fitment. Though this final in-
‘what Bharath, don’t you know that marketing
terview is more of a formality, KN’s uncanny
people need to be outgoing? Rakesh doesn’t What went on during the next half an hour
knack of spotting the unspotted could, at times,
seem to fit the bill. He seems to be a hardcore between prez and Rakesh was something exem-
bring up some surprises and would put us back
introvert. Didn’t you get it on seeing his form?’ plary of an interview. Opening with a casual
to ground zero of starting the whole process
I was trying to guess whether he was referring inquiry about Rakesh’s travel from Mumbai set
all over again. KN had told me the previous
to his lack of social and networking activities. a cordial note and from there, the way the dis-
day that the first thing he would do today was
But when he continued, ‘look at his handwrit- cussions took on to his career-related stuff got
to meet the candidate. I know if I do not put
ing, tiny letters slanting to the left’, I realised Rakesh into a free flow. As he went on, KN’s
Rakesh to him right in the morning, he would
that he was just reading the hand-writing rather questions seemed as though he wanted to get
get into the thick of day’s business and it would
than what it contained. ‘Probably, he has not let the best out of Rakesh and Rakesh’s responses
not be easy to get him out from that later. That
his handwriting get the better of him,’ I blurted seemed to be fully in tune with that expecta-
was why I was rushing Rakesh to complete the
out in a lighter vain, with the usual anxiety of tion. During the course of discussions, Rakesh
JAF, which, if you have not guessed by now,
an HR man, not wanting to let go of the efforts was seen stumbling, for a moment, when he was
stands for job application form.
put in to take the candidate to this stage. ‘Why asked whether he had experience handling large-
do you say that?’ KN asked, as though to ask scale payment defaults and if so, what the les-
As Rakesh was scribbling his signature on
me what evidence I have got to challenge his sons learnt were. But KN’s cue to his stint in a
the fourth page of the form, I discourteously
assumptions. small business town that faced the brunt during
pulled it out from below his pen like an exam
the recession times blew the bulb in Rakesh’s
invigilator, since KN had already walked in to
The least I wanted at that moment was to head and he was again seen in full form. To-
his office. When I entered KN’s office, he was
say something that could help wipe off any bias wards the close, when Rakesh was asked if he
pouring his black coffee from the flask and
about the candidate. Something clicked in my had any questions to ask, he was very candid
noticing me at the door, he asked, ‘has Rakesh
mind and I continued, ‘maybe you are right sir, in saying that it was one of the best interviews
arrived?’ Had he not, that would be enough to
but can we postpone our conclusions till we he had had and then asked the prez, ‘but may
write him off. Not keeping time is not to be
get enough data and probably start with a null I know what is the impression I am leaving
brooked at the entry stage. ‘Yes Sir’ I said. I
hypothesis -- by which we make a conscious as- behind?’ KN glanced at me and then he said,
could see my overstressed ‘sir’ sounding pungent
sumption that actual is different from what is ‘Rakesh, you can take on the baton’. As we
to my ears. Though KN is liberal about being
observed, which might have just been a chance wound up, KN endorsed the ief with his com-
on first-name terms even with his junior col-
occurrence. What I am trying to say, sir…’ ment ‘fit’. (You guessed it right; ief is just the
leagues, we have been hanging on to sir-culture
KN cut me short, ‘don’t start your training class good old interview evaluation form)
so that the other old-timers did not get of-
now, Bharath, you want me to start with a prem-
fended. As he settled down in his chair, I placed
ise that Rakesh fits right for our marketing slot, This interview had something that blos-
the filled-in JAF on his table along with the ief
right? Ok, call him’. Something made me feel somed out the candidate. The earlier rounds of
that has already been signed off by the previous
that the graphology thing was not about the the interview seemed more like a fact-finding
panelists with their ratings.
candidate but was more about me. I felt good mission compared to this round. I could sense
about myself that I have not become another one thing: when the person-in-authority creates
Giving a cursory glance at the JAF, he said,
‘yes sir’ guy. a positive climate by his inquisitive questioning,
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Feb 2011 | The Business Enterprise
 NLIGHTEN

interested listening, responsive body language,

open gestures etc, the receiving person responds
to the expectations. Thus the positive expecta-
tions set out positive performance. It can be
true the other way round also. If we start with
negative expectations, we unconsciously express
concerning The Pygmalion Effect is that if you
believe that someone is capable of achieving
greatness, then that person will indeed achieve
greatness.
Rosenthal’s research conducted at an elementa-
ry school, popularly known as the Oak School
4 key factors that drive
the Pygmalion effect:

them through various verbal and non-verbal
means and we most often find the candidate
coming out poorly conforming to our negative
expectations.
We have all heard of the self-fulfilling proph-
ecy, which means “we get what we expect”. If
we expect something to happen, our expecta-
tion will tend to make it so. It is just that people
tend to live up to what's expected of them and
they tend to do better when treated as if they
are capable of success. "The way managers treat
their subordinates is subtly influenced by what
they expect of them," said Sterling Livingston
in his article, Pygmalion in Management, pub-
lished in the Harvard Business Review (Sept/
Oct ’88).
A leading researcher on this issue, Robert
Rosenthal, labelled this expectancy effect the
“Pygmalion effect”. To give some background,
the term Pygmalion is drawn from Greek my-
thology. Pygmalion, the sculptor, fell in love
with the statue of a woman he created and
through his sheer power of love, his statue
Galatea was aroused to life. Much later, George
Barnard Shaw wrote a play, called Pygmalion,
in which a professor picks an ordinary flower
girl and turns her into a lady, by his grooming.
You may be familiar with the movie My Fair
Lady, which was inspired by Shaw’s play Pyg-
malion. So the Pygmalion Effect has come to
mean "you get what you expect." The main idea
1. Climate factor:
• Tone of voice
experiment, brought out interesting findings on
• Facial expression
Pygmalion effect. As part of the experiment,
the teachers received a list of students’ names, • Body language
who scored high on a standard IQ Test (known 2. Input factor:
as Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition) con- • Challenging assignments
ducted by researchers and were told these high
• Expanding employee’s skills
scorers were expected to show rapid progress
in the coming year. Of course, the names pro- 3. Response opportunity factor:
vided were some randomly picked names. But • Allowing employees to express
what surprised the researchers was the results views, ideas and opinions
at the end of the year which showed that these
randomly-picked children showed significantly 4. Feedback factor:
greater improvement in their academic perfor- • Positive reinforcement
mance than did the other children in the group. • Constructive criticism
When teachers expect greater intellectual devel-
opment from certain children, these children do
show greater intellectual development. Rosen-
high expectations, subordinates’ self-confidence
thal listed out four factors that drove the Pyg-
will grow, their capabilities will develop and
malion Effect, namely:
their productivity will be high. More often than
1. Climate factor: teachers tend to create a he realizes, the manager is Pygmalion."
warmer climate for those children, both verbally
and non-verbally (for example, they will smile So, when you hold positive expectations about
more often at them). people, you help them improve their self-
2. Input factor: teachers will tend to teach more concept and their self-esteem. In turn, peo-
material to children they think are smarter. ple believe they are capable of supreme per-
formance and their performance goes up to
3. Response opportunity factor: children who meet the level of their own expectations. Your
are expected to bloom academicallly get more expectations of people and their expectations
chance to respond. of themselves are the key factors in how well
4. Feedback factor: the child gets praised more people perform at work.
when he/she is right but gets more differenti-
ated feedback when he/she makes a mistake. Bharath Gopalan
Can these findings be applied to the world of
work and what conclusions can we draw from
Rosental’s work? Obviously, the manager’s role
is to drive better performance in all and so every
manager needs to be aware how the biases or
preconceived notions he holds, can make or mar
the performance of his people. Be alert to how
you behave towards all team members in terms
of the input you give to each team member, the
response you give to each person and how you
give differentiated feedback to all.

Livingston concludes the article ‘Pygmalion

in Management’ (cited earlier), "If managers
are unskilled, he leaves scars on the careers of
the young people, cut deeply into their self-
esteem and distort their image of themselves as
human beings. But if they are skillful and have
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The Business Enterprise | Feb 2011
The writer is a Learning & Development
professional and presently steers the L&D
practice at Madras Cements. He holds
master degrees in Psychology and Human
Resource Management.