THE PYGMALION EFFECT

The Pygmalion effect ….. Probably some of you have experienced it , for those who don’t know its meaning I will try to explain it with an example , it is my personal point of view , so I don’t have an expert to support what I’m saying .

The octopus paul became famous worldwide for predicting the winners of matches in world cup 2010, after the world cup finished many theories trying to explain his behavior arose, some saying that paul has the ability to know future events, others arguing that was chance what guided his choices, and some others saying that potential bias such as spatial preference or related factors for example light intensity influenced his decisions(1) .Although trying to figure out what made him choose a particular team instead of the other is not the question here, I would like to give a personal explanation of why this particular team won . Well I would say that it is quite likely that teams such as Germany or Spain had won because octopus paul said they were going to win , and this generated a greater expectation upon them, expectation enhanced by media influence and this expectation gave them enough confidence that finally made them win. This is a perfect example to explain :" how the perceivers positive expectation may enhance the target's performance, a phenomenon often referred to as The Pygmalion effect"2.

1. http://mentesana.suite101.net/article.cfm/el-pulpo-paul-el-poder-de-las-expectativas

2. Tkao Inamori, Farhad Analui/ nov 26 2009/Beyond Pygmalion effect: the role of managerial perception.

3.http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0707-paul-the-octopus.jpg/8274790-1-eng-US/0707-paul-the-octopus.jpg_full_600.jpg

THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING CROSS CULTURAL MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Nowadays culture is much more difficult to understand and analyze than ever before , what a manager faces in the international arena is not easy at all, managers are the ones in charge of making the company “successful “therefore when a company takes the decision of getting into a new market managers are told to give enough importance to cultural aspects, Jurguen Bolten in his article “life world games’’ the theoretical foundation of training courses in intercultural communication says :

Multinational companies are looking for the “global player” who can think globally as a “one-world-manager” despite national and cultural differences , this type of manager possesses universal executive competence and therefore can be deployed all over the world(1).

But how you as a manager are supposed to face these cultural issues ?

Such a thing as national culture can’t be analyzed without taking into consideration the consequences of globalization , take for instance a Hong Kong citizen and surprisingly you will find him much more alike to someone from new York than someone from Uyghur even though they are both part of china. This means that we are all getting closer to each other in cultural aspects due to globalization, that’s why managers should avoid generalization when talking about cultures, however some tools may be used to understand the general aspects of cultural differences, for example the five cultural dimensions of Geert Hofstede can give us information to apply strategies and take decisions ass accurate ass possible without making a deep wide analysis , this dimension are : “power distance that represents the amount of respect and deference between people from different levels of social hierarchy , uncertainty avoidance concerns to the need of certainty and the use of stabilizing strategies to cope with life’s ambiguities ; individualism relates to the desire for an autonomous identity defined by personal choices and achievements; and masculinity places emphasis on achievement, even at the expense of harmonious interpersonal relations”(2) . Long Term values are thrift and perseverance , short term values are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one’s face (3) .that which are high power distance I would like to conclude saying that it is almost impossible to know how culture will affect your decisions as a manager , what remains is just to be awarded of cultural differences and sometimes learn by experiencing it because there is not watertight link between what people say they believe and how they act (4).

1 Bolten Jorgen (1993), Life world games : the theorical foundation of training in intercultural communication pag 339. European journal of education,vol28 nro 3, 1993..

2 C-H Leong; C Ward ( 2006) Cultural values and attitudes toward innmigrants and multiculturalism: The case os the Eurobarometer survey on racism and xenophobia, pag 802 . Victoria University of Wellington, New Zeland

3 Geert Hofstede Cultural dimensions :www.geert-hofstede.com

4 Mead Richard (1998) , International Management Cross cultural dimensions pag 13,3rd edition 2005.

5. http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/image/image/112/monde_US.jpg