Pygmalion Effect

Today I am going to talk about the Pygmalion Effect, this topic is really interesting and most people have heard about it. However it is difficult to find a accurate definition from common people. Pygmalion effect is the possibilities of affecting someone behavior based on the beliefs that you have in his or her abilities. This effect is also known as the self fulfilling prophecy (Digest, 2003).
In other words, the Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon in which with grater expectation placed on students, children or employees, you will get a better performance from them. This Effect may be seen in any place at any moment in a work ambient, scholar ambient or even at home. Using the Pygmalion effect managers and anyone in charge of personnel management can create better employees, just bringing them confidence. That is simply to say that potential creates potential.
In order to explain in a better way this topic I will took an investigation madeby Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson. This was a classic experiment made with elementary school children from 18 classrooms, in which they randomly chose 20% of the children from each room and told the teachers they were geniuses. Naturally and showingthe Pygmalion effect those children were the best of the best. As the research shows “The children, performed admirably, gaining an average of two IQ points in verbal ability, seven points in reasoning and four points in over all IQ.” (Rosenthal & Jacobson 1992).

At the end of the experiment the teachers were informed that those students were not genius, and that they were selected in the same way that teachers were selected, randomly.

In this video you will find a brief explanation of what is this effect about and a simple and useful example that will illustrate better the idea.




References:

Envision Software, Incorporated Tampa, Florida. Disponible[Online] http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Pygmalion_Effect.html

Sehgal, A. The Pygmalion Effect - Belief in potential creates potential. 2009. Disponible [Online] http://www.chrmglobal.com/Replies/2953/1/The-Pygmalion-Effect-.html

Machaalani, M. The Pygamlion Effect. 2005. Disponible[Online] http://www.accomplishlife.com/blogs/8/The-Pygmalion-Effect.html

Images taken from:

http://thingaboutskins.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/my-friend-chad-victims-and-victory-and-those-visitors-who-want-indians-to-stay-virtually-the-same-part-1/

Video taken from:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wl_MZc1cTU&feature=related

Organizational Behavior

Today I am going to talk about Organizational Behavior and the way an International Business Manager can use some tools and have to develop some skills in order to be successful.

Organizational behavior could be defined as the analysis with concrete tools and a particular knowledge of the way people act inside the organizations, it could be the study of the way individuals behave and also the way a group of people behave. In other words, Organizational Behavior is “The understanding, prediction and management of human behavior in organizations.” (Kreitner, R. Kinici,. 2007).

Using these tools that study the behavior of people, international business managers will success in their decision making process easier, in addition, the will achieve more and better goals in less time to the organization interests, because he will know how to face challenges like Globalization, workforce diversity and Ethics, among their clients and employees.

An International Business Manager planning, organizing, delegating and controlling the organization interests is a fundamental element in the negotiation process that its organization id carrying out in order to achieve its goals, then, the main role of this agent is to supply the coordination, the encouragement, and the leadership to get to those goals in differing cultural and governmental environments. In order to success, any manager has to develop many skills that provide him the ability to survive in a multicultural world, without those skills it would be impossible to lead and coordinate any process.

The needed skills, as the Lansing Community Collage said are in the following areas“(…)leadership, creativity, communication, human relations, marketing, organizational development, accounting and economics(…)”(Leasing Community Collage. ttp://www.lcc.edu/business/mgmt_marketing/careers/intnatl_bus_mgr.aspx)

Managing appropriate skills in the international negotiation arena is a fundamental criteria for success in the global business environment. There are three levels that we as International Business students have to take into account in order to manage cultural differences, and those are Self, Interpersonal and organizational (Sizoo & Serrie, 2004)
“International business managers rate the ability to work with people of other cultures as the most important quality of success, particularly in overseas assignments” (Bhawuk & Brislin, 1992).

References:

Kreitner, R. Kinici, A. Organizational Behavior(Irwin/McGraw-Hill), Hardcover (2007)

Steve Sizoo "Developing cross-cultural skills of international business students: an experiment". Journal of Instructional Psychology. FindArticles.com. 24 Aug, 2010. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCG/is_2_31/ai_n6130128/

Bhawuk, D. P. S., & Brislin, R. (1992). The measurement of intercultural sensitivity using the concepts of individualism and collectivism. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 16, 413-436.

Leasing Comunity Collage. Management and Marketing Program Facts. Disponible [Online] http://www.lcc.edu/business/mgmt_marketing/careers/intnatl_bus_mgr.aspx

Images Taken From:

http://www.mbgconsulting.com.au/business-management
http://tx.technion.ac.il/~acheshin/OB.html
http://www.professionalspeakersgroup.com/speaker_bios.asp?CategoryIDNumber=9
http://chrissonksen.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/leader-on-arrow.jpg