Hey all,
as asked in the last class of Organisations & Cultures, I commented on 5 blogs of my classmates. You can check my comments on
- Evelyns blog (Pygmalion Effect): http://organizationsandculturesevelynca.blogspot.com/
- Karens blog (Power Distance):
http://karenp2007.blogspot.com/
- Johns blog (Marketing a constant Pygmalion Effect?):
http://johnhenryorganizationsandcultures.blogspot.com/
- Alejandros blog (Organizational Behavior):
http://alejob11.blogspot.com/
- Marias blog (International Management):
http://mariaorgcult.blogspot.com/
Have fun reading it. Please don't feel offended (if I commented as well as if I did not comment on your blog ;-) )
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Pygmalion Effect
Last class, we were talking about the Pygmalion Effect and its impacts especially on employees performances in organisations. This effect basically describes a type of self-fulfilling expactations, meaning: If the expectation of a superior about the performance of his employee is low, the outcome of the performance is more likely to be unsatisfying as if the expectation of the chef is high. Several reasons can be named for that:
If a manager has a supposably high expectation about the performance of an employee he is more likely to show this to his employee of trust. This could be expressed by supporting words, more information or more time invested to brief or to work with the employee etc. Otherwise if the expectations are low, managers tend to show this as well to the concerned employees by less support. All this can be an unconscious process, not intended by the manager but nevertheless happening. In the video attached below you can find a few examples of managerial treatment that can lead to a Pygmalion Effect. (if the video does not work you can also find it here
As task of the last class, I am showing you some more examples to make clear how the Pygmalion Effect was proofed in experiments and what it exactly evokes:
All cases taken from: http://www.set-up-to-fail.net/pdf/pygmalion.pdf
Why is all that important for Organisations?
Managers who understand the meaning and the impacts of such effects should try to be aware of it in their every day acting und treatment of employees. If used wisely they might be able to raise the performance level of a workforce or individual employees. It could also stable unsure and shy workers and improve their work etc.
The problem is, that many of this is an unconscious program.... and only working till a certain extend!
If a manager has a supposably high expectation about the performance of an employee he is more likely to show this to his employee of trust. This could be expressed by supporting words, more information or more time invested to brief or to work with the employee etc. Otherwise if the expectations are low, managers tend to show this as well to the concerned employees by less support. All this can be an unconscious process, not intended by the manager but nevertheless happening. In the video attached below you can find a few examples of managerial treatment that can lead to a Pygmalion Effect. (if the video does not work you can also find it here
As task of the last class, I am showing you some more examples to make clear how the Pygmalion Effect was proofed in experiments and what it exactly evokes:
„In a fascinating study of “performance at sea”, naval cadets preparing to embark on their first cruise, were split into two groups. Those in the first group were told that their responses to earlier questionnaires suggested that they were unlikely to experience seasickness and that, if they did, it was unlikely to impair their performance. Those in the other group simply received non-committal information. At the end of the fiveday cruise, cadets in the first group reported less seasickness and were rated as better performers than the second group by training officers who were unaware of the manipulation.“
„In other non-educational settings, nurses and aides in a nursing home were led to believe that some patients would show more rapid rehabilitation than others. As it turned out, those patients actually did make quicker progress, suffering from fewer depressive tendencies and being re-admitted less often than average expectancy patients“
„One particular study focused on candidates hoping to be recruited as account executives by an international financial service corporation. Based on CV information and a personal statement of motivation, the interviewers rated the likely “fit” of the candidate and whether they expected to recommend the candidate for hire. After the interview, they were asked to what extent they thought “the candidate’s performance in the interview was indicative of his/her true qualifications for the job?” As anticipated, interviewers evaluated those they expected to do well much more favorably and were much more inclined to attribute their good performance to internal factors compared to candidates they had not expected to do well. Moreover, these interviewer feelings were communicative: candidates that interviewers expected to do well tended to be more positive in their post-interview evaluation of the job, the interviewer and the organization. The study leant strong support to the idea that pre-interview impressions of candidates tend to be self-fulfilling“
All cases taken from: http://www.set-up-to-fail.net/pdf/pygmalion.pdf
Why is all that important for Organisations?
Managers who understand the meaning and the impacts of such effects should try to be aware of it in their every day acting und treatment of employees. If used wisely they might be able to raise the performance level of a workforce or individual employees. It could also stable unsure and shy workers and improve their work etc.
The problem is, that many of this is an unconscious program.... and only working till a certain extend!
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast, every day!" - Peter F. Drucker
The first topic treated on this blog is Organizational Behavior with regards to International Management.
Every group of human beings has its own symbols of identity, shared values etc. that are - as Hofstede once put it - "[...] the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another [...]"[1]. What is described here is the term „culture“ as often used in international business contextes. The question is, why to discuss culture in business contextes: Well, following the description above culture plays a role in all our daily life, because our individual behavior is influenced by culture as well as our behavior in groups and group behavior itself, depending on the predominant values and attitudes in the group(s) we belong to. As we are treating topics out of the business area I am concentrating on cultural behavior influencing individuals or groups in organisations.
Known Scientists as Peter Drucker or Peter Senge have already recognized how important organizational culture can be (see Senges work „The Fifth Discipline“[2] which treats besides other important topics „Team Work“ and „Shared Visions“ amongst employees or Drucker’s thoughts concerning organizational change or team building processes). As stated in the text of Mead (treated in class) culture is not the only factor but it clearly is an important one, because the external culture oft the surrounding environment as well as internal cultures of groups, teams and the organization itself influence peoples behavior and work outputs.[3]
And all of that is happening in every organization, no matter wether it is national or multinational.
But clearly the globalized world we are now living in has influenced the importance of culture and its management. The role of international business managers becomes increasingly important because more and more organizations are not just influenced by their direct surroundings anymore. What exactly is their role in this whole new universe of daily cultural exchange?
Well, we can imagine a lot of different labor areas for international managers: For example, a so far national company willing to expand – abroad. This could mean building an external plant closer to a foreign delivery market, establish a subsidary company or „just“ selling products abroad. The international business manager in charge of that has to know about a lot of things before getting into business. Before building foreign business markets a manager should know a little bit about the foreign culture to establish for example a new part of the organization there. Working habits might be different (not even talking about foreign laws etc.), attitudes differ, values might not be shared with the original company and so on. A lot of scientist already tried to help managers with getting an image of a foreign culture (see for example Hofstedes dimensions[4]) by measuring certain central features of cultures. Those central insights in other cultures can avoid making inexcusable mistakes in negotiations with foreign partners, but they cannot shelter you completely. As often in life, the first impressions might last and sometimes business negotiations fail, because one side (or both) was not aware of cultural differences or not willing to except them and act appropriately. This might also handicap intercultural project teams when the members are feeling ackward because of cultural differences. Intercultural managers are supposed to mediate in thoses cases, locate incentives and support effective team work.
Various service providers already specialized on the field of intercultural management education, aiming to develop cross cultural management skills to train managers in this field. I will name one of those services that, from my point of you, covered most oft he important issues an international manager should learn about[5]:
· Respect and Courtesy: Managers should not bloc out differences and predict only one ideal way of doing something, acting or behaving. It is the first step to openmindness and understanding.
· Tolerance: Intolerant intercultural managers will mess up, because they will not find ways to come to an exchange with their subordinates and they will not be able to understand neither to act in favor to enforce working relations of different cultural backgrounds.
· Intercultural Managers should be able to identify problems and cultural Taboos to guard their employees of different cultural backgrounds.
· Of course, they have to know the laws of foreign countries when starting business with them.
· Interaction between workers with different cultural backgrounds should be encoured. That could be done formally in meetings or informally in after work activities etc.
· In multicultural or cross cultural organisations people have to understand messages if they are supposed to do well what is asked of them. So simplify language by not using slang etc., offer language programs etc. One could also offer written instructions.
· BE FLEXIBLE and try to cope with your heterogen environment
The role of intercultural management is getting more and more important. Without this kind of management organisations will have a lot of problems. As stated in the title of this article your strategy can be good as hell (in theory) but if one is not taking the people into account who are supposed to fulfill your plans everything might go down. A good strategy is only achieveable if one consider different needs and habits of people. Therefore one has to analyse different group cultures of your workforce to get a little bit of "control" (which can never be fully) of the organizational behavior.
[1] Hofstede 1984, In: Mead, R.: International Management. Cross Cultural Dimensions. Blackwell Publishing, London 2004, P. 8
[2] Senge, Peter M.: Die fünfte Disziplin. Kunst und Praxis der lernenden Organisation. Zehnte Auflage. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 2006.
[3] Mead, R. 2004: P. 4-5
[4] http://www.geert-hofstede.com
[5] http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/intercultural-management.html
Every group of human beings has its own symbols of identity, shared values etc. that are - as Hofstede once put it - "[...] the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another [...]"[1]. What is described here is the term „culture“ as often used in international business contextes. The question is, why to discuss culture in business contextes: Well, following the description above culture plays a role in all our daily life, because our individual behavior is influenced by culture as well as our behavior in groups and group behavior itself, depending on the predominant values and attitudes in the group(s) we belong to. As we are treating topics out of the business area I am concentrating on cultural behavior influencing individuals or groups in organisations.
Known Scientists as Peter Drucker or Peter Senge have already recognized how important organizational culture can be (see Senges work „The Fifth Discipline“[2] which treats besides other important topics „Team Work“ and „Shared Visions“ amongst employees or Drucker’s thoughts concerning organizational change or team building processes). As stated in the text of Mead (treated in class) culture is not the only factor but it clearly is an important one, because the external culture oft the surrounding environment as well as internal cultures of groups, teams and the organization itself influence peoples behavior and work outputs.[3]
And all of that is happening in every organization, no matter wether it is national or multinational.
But clearly the globalized world we are now living in has influenced the importance of culture and its management. The role of international business managers becomes increasingly important because more and more organizations are not just influenced by their direct surroundings anymore. What exactly is their role in this whole new universe of daily cultural exchange?
Well, we can imagine a lot of different labor areas for international managers: For example, a so far national company willing to expand – abroad. This could mean building an external plant closer to a foreign delivery market, establish a subsidary company or „just“ selling products abroad. The international business manager in charge of that has to know about a lot of things before getting into business. Before building foreign business markets a manager should know a little bit about the foreign culture to establish for example a new part of the organization there. Working habits might be different (not even talking about foreign laws etc.), attitudes differ, values might not be shared with the original company and so on. A lot of scientist already tried to help managers with getting an image of a foreign culture (see for example Hofstedes dimensions[4]) by measuring certain central features of cultures. Those central insights in other cultures can avoid making inexcusable mistakes in negotiations with foreign partners, but they cannot shelter you completely. As often in life, the first impressions might last and sometimes business negotiations fail, because one side (or both) was not aware of cultural differences or not willing to except them and act appropriately. This might also handicap intercultural project teams when the members are feeling ackward because of cultural differences. Intercultural managers are supposed to mediate in thoses cases, locate incentives and support effective team work.
Various service providers already specialized on the field of intercultural management education, aiming to develop cross cultural management skills to train managers in this field. I will name one of those services that, from my point of you, covered most oft he important issues an international manager should learn about[5]:
· Respect and Courtesy: Managers should not bloc out differences and predict only one ideal way of doing something, acting or behaving. It is the first step to openmindness and understanding.
· Tolerance: Intolerant intercultural managers will mess up, because they will not find ways to come to an exchange with their subordinates and they will not be able to understand neither to act in favor to enforce working relations of different cultural backgrounds.
· Intercultural Managers should be able to identify problems and cultural Taboos to guard their employees of different cultural backgrounds.
· Of course, they have to know the laws of foreign countries when starting business with them.
· Interaction between workers with different cultural backgrounds should be encoured. That could be done formally in meetings or informally in after work activities etc.
· In multicultural or cross cultural organisations people have to understand messages if they are supposed to do well what is asked of them. So simplify language by not using slang etc., offer language programs etc. One could also offer written instructions.
· BE FLEXIBLE and try to cope with your heterogen environment
The role of intercultural management is getting more and more important. Without this kind of management organisations will have a lot of problems. As stated in the title of this article your strategy can be good as hell (in theory) but if one is not taking the people into account who are supposed to fulfill your plans everything might go down. A good strategy is only achieveable if one consider different needs and habits of people. Therefore one has to analyse different group cultures of your workforce to get a little bit of "control" (which can never be fully) of the organizational behavior.
[1] Hofstede 1984, In: Mead, R.: International Management. Cross Cultural Dimensions. Blackwell Publishing, London 2004, P. 8
[2] Senge, Peter M.: Die fünfte Disziplin. Kunst und Praxis der lernenden Organisation. Zehnte Auflage. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 2006.
[3] Mead, R. 2004: P. 4-5
[4] http://www.geert-hofstede.com
[5] http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/cultural-services/articles/intercultural-management.html
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
In my linklist "Bob's" below you can find three links to my favorite blogs, that were nominated in a "Best of Blogs" ranking.
I chose those blogs because they caught my interest out of different reasons:
"Mapping Main Street" treats the topic of more than 10.000 streets in the US called "Main Street", but with lots of different associations related to them by their inhabitants and users. I really like the idea of filling that more or less faceless streats with meaning by inviting local people to write about those streets or to post pictures or related stories. As I am interested in city development and the adoption of cities or special areas of the city as part of my case of study "Mapping Main Street" for me is a nice idea to get people involved in thinking about their living environment. Cities should be build to the necessities of their inhabitants but without their participation neither authorities nor citizens really know what they want.
Similar reasons made me choose "You are not here". Although the blog isn't a very active one as most of the traditional blogs, I love the idea of bringing together two completely different cities in completely different cultural and political concepts for "dislocated citytours". The idea is suiteable for citizens of city as well as for tourists to get in touch with another culture at the other end of a cultural spectrum. And I am really fascinated by the whole idea of dislocated tourism and wanted to give credits for that.
"Bleib passiv" is German blog, more or less traditionally - meaning very much that, what blogs were originally (as I think) made for: A bunch of people observe public movements, comment on current politics, give their opinion on that and try to give logical but also funny arguments and explanations for its point of view. I like the ironic and partly provocative touch the blog transfers. The titel "Bleib passiv" (engl. "Stay passive") is not at all what the blog calls for. Considering the context of the blog it is more about motivating people to think about current events and even start to act or to raise your voice about the things that bother you. Therefore the bloggers are not an exclusive circle itself but also offer other people to publish their opinion on this blog. Motivating people to think and not only to think but also to articulate what they think (their opinions) is what counts in that context!
Thank you for your attention!!
I chose those blogs because they caught my interest out of different reasons:
"Mapping Main Street" treats the topic of more than 10.000 streets in the US called "Main Street", but with lots of different associations related to them by their inhabitants and users. I really like the idea of filling that more or less faceless streats with meaning by inviting local people to write about those streets or to post pictures or related stories. As I am interested in city development and the adoption of cities or special areas of the city as part of my case of study "Mapping Main Street" for me is a nice idea to get people involved in thinking about their living environment. Cities should be build to the necessities of their inhabitants but without their participation neither authorities nor citizens really know what they want.
Similar reasons made me choose "You are not here". Although the blog isn't a very active one as most of the traditional blogs, I love the idea of bringing together two completely different cities in completely different cultural and political concepts for "dislocated citytours". The idea is suiteable for citizens of city as well as for tourists to get in touch with another culture at the other end of a cultural spectrum. And I am really fascinated by the whole idea of dislocated tourism and wanted to give credits for that.
"Bleib passiv" is German blog, more or less traditionally - meaning very much that, what blogs were originally (as I think) made for: A bunch of people observe public movements, comment on current politics, give their opinion on that and try to give logical but also funny arguments and explanations for its point of view. I like the ironic and partly provocative touch the blog transfers. The titel "Bleib passiv" (engl. "Stay passive") is not at all what the blog calls for. Considering the context of the blog it is more about motivating people to think about current events and even start to act or to raise your voice about the things that bother you. Therefore the bloggers are not an exclusive circle itself but also offer other people to publish their opinion on this blog. Motivating people to think and not only to think but also to articulate what they think (their opinions) is what counts in that context!
Thank you for your attention!!
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