Psychological influence motivates performance improvement. Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon wherein, high expectations are pronounced overtly, and placed upon people to improve their performances. On the other hand, lowered expectations may also lead to decreased performance . The name for this effect originated from the Greek myth ‘Pygmalion’, who was strongly in awe of the pretty statue he created that came to life. Further research by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, and subsequently their book on ‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’, borrowing the idea to explore how teachers’ high expectations, affected their students’ performance and low expectations worsened their performance [1,2]. Thus, this Pygmalion effect also came to be known as Rosenthal effect.

The Galatea effect, on the other hand is the effect of self- expectations, self-opinions, self-ability and self-worth influencing one’s own performance. This is self-driven through self-motivation based on self- expectations and self-worth and this may get affected by external influences.

Both Pygmalion and Galatea effect serves as  flourishing ground for increased productivity, setting goals and aspirations, working towards self-development, and career development, professionally and personally.

How does this Pygmalion/Rosenthal effect work?

The high expectations sourced to the target, are internalized for intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. If the expectation is highly positive then the target will be intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. Whereas, if it is a highly negative expectation, the target will be intrinsically and extrinsically demotivated. The former one succeeds immensely and the latter fails rapidly. The former one is the ideal scenario wherein the leader increases the expectation and pronounces it, and the follower consciously/unconsciously performs better to meet up with the expectations.

Leadership behavior is a mediator for Pygmalion effect [3]. This is also referred to as Pygmalion Leadership style. This type of leadership focuses continuously on promoting, supporting, and reinforcing high expectations, leading to the followers’ acceptance and internalization of those leadership expectations.
Similarly, in the context of education, Teachers’ expectations of students in a classroom can improve or lower the performance of students. Thus in an educational set-up, promoting these effects can improve the self-worth, confidence and attentiveness of students. Subsequently, this will also improve the quality of teaching in the classrooms, since students are attentive and interested in studying.
This method also works in other contexts, like health care settings, wherein patient health can be improved through Galatea effect of patients’ and Pygmalion effect through Doctors’ and nurses. In military settings also it could be applied. This effect and its application can be experimented in de-addiction centers with a controlled trial, keeping in concern the ethical limitations for deception. The experimenter expectancy theory posits that an experimenter’s expectation of the result may likely have an unconscious effect directing the results of the experiment towards that experimenter expectation.

Why do the targets perform better through Pygmalion/Galatea?

Through Pygmalion, higher expectations shall impact positively on  behavioral changes leading to high performance. The targets believe that a Leader/Teacher has high expectations about them, which in turn will increase motivation, engagement and improved performance through Pygmalion effect, while individually also they get motivated that they are capable or they have the ability through Galatea. On the flip side, low expectations can decrease performance and self-worth.

Why is the Pygmalion and Galatea effect important in Management?

Employer expectations and employee self-expectations/self-worth are key factors in managing performance and setting expectations. Neither can be overestimated or underestimated. When Managers communicate their expectations, almost always, consciously and unconsciously, employees absorb that and perform to the expectations absorbed and Livingston explained this in Harvard Business Review (1988) that the way the managers treat their employees is subtly influenced by their expectations. Being so, based on high or low response and motivation, it can enable employees to excel in performance or undermine it. It is often subtle that these influential effects go unnoticed and the focus falls only on the performance, leading to bad performance appraisal, employee demotivation, disengagement and a possible attrition, or employee churning.

So if the Manager is unskilled, it leaves a lasting impression on the employee’s career, deeply affects the employee’s self-worth, self-esteem, and disturbs their self-image. On the other hand, if the Manager is skilled, productivity improves, develops their capabilities, and boosts performance. The Galatea effect is even more the most powerful self-empowering tool and if channelized rightly, it is a high-performance tool.

Through challenging opportunities, right motivation and empowerment, building what the employee performs successfully, providing developmental opportunities, honoring the employee needs and career development, developmental mentoring, consistently providing positive verbal interactions and positive feedback, instead of focusing on building weak skill areas, help establish a leader-member exchange relationship. Subsequently this will definitely aid to channelize, mobilize and enhance employee engagement and performance.