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Discussion on: Pygmalion effect and three core principles of self-determination and organizations’ citizen behavior

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Susham

Pygmalion effect is the proposition that a virtuous cycle of positive expectations would influence the performance by affecting the surroundings (Morrison). However, negative expectations lead to negative outcomes and this is known as the golem effect. Pygmalion theory suggests that expectations of a person can cause other person to behave and achieve results that confirm with the expectations. According to Livingston, a manager’s expectation are the key to a subordinates performance and development (Livingston, 1988). Leaders when, have higher expectations in the abilities and performance of their constituents, will result in them actually performing better. As I can recall from the days of my fellowship, whenever I had high expectations with my students, and reinforced them with positive feedbacks stating how I believed they could complete assignments within a limited amount of time, or attain proper score in exams, few of them actually completed more than what was given to them.

Self- Determination Theory (SDT) is an approach to human motivation and personality that uses traditional empirical methods to highlight the humans’ evolved inner motivation for personality development and self-regulation (Ryan, Kuhl, & Deci, 1997). This theory investigates on inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs which becomes the basis for self-motivation fostering positive processes for social development and personal well-being. There are the three core principles of self-determination in the organizational contexts. They are explained as follows.

Competence

People desire to control and master the environment and outcome. We are always curious on the result that will be generated via our actions. This curiosity makes us alert on the actions we undertake. In an organization, a competent person utilizes resources efficiently, meets the organizational goals and behaves professionally.

Relatedness

People also desire to interact and connect with others. Humans are social animals. They care for others and wish to be taken care of. People interact with others, involve in different activities with them and through this, they seek for belongingness. A leader who is able to keep the group intact has better productivity in the organization than in such organizations where leader merely gives orders and focuses only on works to be completed than fostering relationships among the employees.

Autonomy

Autonomy concerns with the need to be casual agents and act in harmony with our integrated self. It is not being completely independent but having a sense of freedom while doing something. It is somewhat related to aligning the vision of self with those of organizations’. When people can take actions because of their own interests and values, they are more self-determined and can produce better results. If somebody is doing something out of pressure then it results in poor performance.

Self-loafing

Self-loafing is the phenomenon of a person taking less pressure on self when working in groups than when working alone. When working in groups, individuals often try to pass the burden on others than doing it by self. Recently, I was supposed to receive meeting minutes from a group I was working with. But it took a long time as they were not clear about whose responsibility it was to prepare the minutes. I received it only after following up continuously. To address this we undertook the following actions.

Reducing the group size.

We couldn’t reduce the size of the group as a whole. However, we sub divided the group into smaller groups with each group having their own set of actions that they are responsible for. This allowed me to make them more accountable and pinpoint what the roles of each group were.

Respective role to each member

Even after dividing the group into sub groups, it was necessary to present each member with some individual tasks and roles they would be responsible for. This would prevent the individuals from further self-loathing. For instance, in the subgroup which was responsible for communication and documentation, one person was responsible for managing social media, while the other was responsible for preparation of minutes and calling the meetings.

Group cohesiveness

We also conducted various activities and ice breakers to further increase the cohesiveness among the members. This has increased the efficiency of the group and reduced the friction between different members if there were any.

References
Livingston, J. S. (1988). Pygmalion Effect. Pygmalion in Management , 1-5.

Morrison, S. (n.d.). wp-contents: Talentmanagement360. Retrieved from Talent management website: talentmanagement360.com/

Ryan, R., Kuhl, J., & Deci, E. (1997). Development and Psychopathology. Nature and autonomy: Organizational view of social and neurobiological aspects of self regulation in behavior and development. , 701-728.