TASK # 3: Pygmalion Effect as motivator in real situations

The Pygmalion effect has its roots in France, eighteen century with a mythological story of a sculptor named Pygmalion who was disappointed of women; however, in a dream the goddess Venus said to him that she will guide his hand in order to build a statue of herself. He succeeded with the sculpture and this statue was so perfect for him that he started to wish so bad a life for his statue. His desire was so strong that the statue started to acquire movement and even thought and speech.

Pygmalion with Galatea

Taken From:

http://www.21to21.com/2010/07/15/the-pygmalion-effect-and-profits-why-the-saying-attitude-is-everything-is-true/

As we just saw, The Pygmalion effect has been present for centuries. Philosophers, theorists and scholars have taken this story in order to explain how a positive or negative expectation from one person may affect the end result. Studies have been more focused on the relationship between positive expectations of somebody and the possibility of achieving a positive performance, but not only positive expectations affect one person’s performance but also negative ones.

With a purpose of clarifying even more the concept of “The Pygmalion effect”, I am going to give an example of how the Pygmalion effect can work in the real life.

In several films, we can see the Pygmalion effect present. One of those movies is “pursuit of happiness” in where we can see a positive Pygmalion effect when Chris Garner, a broke salesman abandoned by his wife, but with his son as his only motivator, Garner started a hard journey for a job as a stockholder, and his son’s positive expectations about him made Chris garner be motivated about this mentioned job and he does whatever it takes in order to get it and in order to not disappoint his son. Finally after putting all of his efforts, he gets the so desired job.

Chris Garner is affected by internal factors such as his economic situation, his instable life that affects him and his son, past experiences but the most important factor is the expectations his son has about him and that becomes a triggering event that encourage him to work for all he has wished for.

In this following video we see how Chris Garner has always his son right next to him, supporting him and those positive expectations worked as a motivator in order to get a better job and that way a better life.

Other motivational video is the following, in which Chris gives and advice to his son, telling him that nobody is allowed to tell him what to do or what he can’t do and if he want something he just must go and get it.

References:

J. L. Carr. 1960, Pygmalion and the Philosophes: The animated statue in Eighteen Century France

Takao inamori, Farhard Analoui, Beyond Pygmalion Effect: The Role Of Managerial Perception. Journal of Management Development, Vol. 29, pp 306-321

TASK # 2 " Femininity and masculinity: A Dimension of Cultural Differences

When getting into the international business field, we can realize how different people act in one culture or another. That is why Professor Geert Hofstede from the Maastricht University has made a research on cultural differences in order to be more efficient interacting with people in other countries. One of these cultural dimensions is the Masculinity/femininity Dimension in which Hofstede made a distinction between a Masculine society and a Feminine society; where the first one man are assertive, focused on material success and tough and women are tender, modest and concerned by the equality. In femininity society men and women tend to be both tender, concerned about the equality, modest and both care about others. The following table shows the differences between masculine and feminine society

taken from:

Hofstede, G. 1999. Masculinity and femininity: The taboo dimension of national cultures

For instance, In Germany even though there is a M

asculinity society, sometimes the femininity dimension is reflected. In the business area it is very often the team work in order to improve the productivity within the company that can be considered as a feminine characteristic because it is related with the good relationships among partners to accomplish some task. One good example of this team work is the automotive industry more specifically the German Auto Industry Mercedes- Benz in which within a plant there are several different teams and within each team there is a team speaker, nevertheless the team speaker has no more power than other team members, so decisions are made by everyone.

As we have seen, that way some German enterprises apply femininity model in order to success in the business management structure.

Masculinity societies are seen very often in most of the countries; men taking care of external affairs like military, administrative and trade matters,

women at work tending to be more concerned about their relationship with others, at home tending to be more devoted for their family.it shows the tough, assertive and material succes features of a man, The t

ender, concerned about their family and caring about relations, features of woman in a masculine society.

Taken from:

http://smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com/blogs/startingABusiness/2007/10/15/mom-and-entrepreneur-are-you-among-the-growing-number

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2007/07/19/slick_mad_men_visits_madison_ave_at_dawn_of_the_60s/

References:

Hofstede, G. 1999. Masculinity and femininity: The taboo dimension of national cultures