pygmalion in management：皮格马利翁管理.doc

Pygmalion in Management* In George Bernard Shaws Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle explains: You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how shes treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will. Some managers always treat their subordinates in a way that leads to superior performance. But most managers, like professor Higgins, unintentionally treat their subordinates in a way that leads to lower performance than they are capable of achieving. The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them. If a managers expectations are high, productivity is likely to be excellent. If his expectations are low, productivity is likely to be poor. It is as though there were a law that caused a subordinates performance to rise or fall to meet his managers expectations. The powerful influence of one persons expectations on anothers behaviour has long been recognised by physicians and behavioural scientists and, more recently, by teachers. But heretofore the importance of managerial expectations for individual and group performance has not been widely understood. I have documented this phenomenon in a number of case studies prepared during the past decade for major industrial concerns. These cases and other evidence available from scientific research now reveal: What a manager expects of his subordinates and the way he treats them largely determine their performance and career progress. A unique characteristic of superior managers is their ability to create high performance expectations that subordinates fulfil. Less effective managers fail to develop similar expectations, and, as a consequence, the product