The Pygmalion Effect.

Perceptions are images we create about things, situations, and people. When you perceived something of someone you expect him/her to do the best they have. People are influence by people, in a job, your boss expect you to do the best you can and you have a pressure that makes you do the best you have no matter what.

The Pygmalion effect tries to understand the behavior of the actors; this effect is commonly use in education and business. The way we develop a job or the way we are day by day is influence by the expectation that the other people have of us. Pygmalion has some benefits very important at the time you apply it: Shows how positive expectations should provide a better efficiency and performance and help managers or teachers to develop employees or students that they want in their companies.

For example in the university many people say that some teacher is very difficult and his/her exams are very complicated; with this kind of comments you can create a perception of this person and you have been influenced by internal factors like: personal experiences, personality (because not everybody says that, maybe there are someone’s who think the opposite) and also exists external factors such as environment and context. (George and Jones, 1999, Buchanan and Huczynski, 2004; Analoui, 2007).

I have a clear example that could explain better what I’m trying to say. Masaru Emoto is a Japanese author and entrepreneur, he is known because his thoughts about the results when the water freezes and form crystals that their shape depends if the words are positive or negative. (Taken from http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto).




The video shows an exposition where can be seen the crystals and how the words inside the boxes where the crystals are, influence the color and shape of water; it basically depends on the sense of each word.
This theory is related with the humans because our body is 90% water then Masaru interpret his theory in this way; if the words could do this in water, imagine how can do words in our bodies.

Considering the conference "Dealing with Cultural Differences" by Nick B. Meyer, choose 1 cultural dimension...

Sometimes you have many ideas of business, especially in international business; we create a context where we negotiate with other people and we think that everybody acts the way we do, but is not that simple. The world is huge and people don’t act the same way, for example Colombian people greet each other kissing in the cheek but in East, people do not use physical contact, they greet with a bow without touching. We can’t go to another country, making decisions the way we make in our country, this could be a big mistake and the consequences could damage the negotiation.

As Nick B. Meyer explained in his conference "Dealing with Cultural Differences", is very important to know the people, their culture, and their way of thinking, speaking, relating, and understanding the way of life so in the moment you have to share with other cultures, you already know and take into account the habits, attitudes and all you need to establish a conversation about anything.

I want to focus on power distance. I’m going to give an example of some countries that have a high power distance: China, India, Russia and Arabic speaking countries; and some countries that have low power distance: Japan, Australia and Canada. Now, to be more specific I’m going to explain the difference between those characteristics. (Taken from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/intercultural/power-distance-index.html).

Many companies use different methods to make decisions. Exist the organizations that have a shape of pyramid, where the communication is more complicated, because people who are in the surface, in the lower area, to do and express something, have to ask their superiors for consideration and permission, and for sure also these employees have another boss, so when information gets to the top of the pyramid it arrives filtered, generating misinformation and waste of time. These companies are characterized because of the distances that have employees with their bosses, they are not too close, so the employees don’t represent an important part of the company and class divisions are more evident.

The other type of companies are the ones that works in shape of a chain, here people work together, the decision making is more easy, people are more prepare to take control of their work. The communication between boss and employees is closer, they are treated like important people and as I mention before their decisions are important to the company. The work environment is more pacific, don’t exist competition. Maybe some people have a better job title but they are characterized for being respectful with each other.

As Geert Hofstede said power and inequality are fundamental facts in a society. We all know and accept that power is distributed unequally. “All societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others”. Inequality is going to exist forever but I think is a situation that could be manage, especially in the companies that focus on the team work and the opinions of the members that work there. (Taken from http://www.geert-hofstede.com/)