The notion of self-fulfilling prophecy was conceptualized by Robert Merton, a professor of sociology at Columbia University in 1957 in his work called, "Social Theory and Social Structure". The magic was certainly involved in the ancient myth from which the idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy takes its common name, "Pygmalion". The research is carried out with the belief that "one of the most powerful tools for motivating or influencing performance of others is communicating your own expectations to them". The study explores the existence of the Pygmalion effect in the present day organizational context. The research attempts to understand the effect in a superior subordinate work environment with the possible contributors to the effect, and arrives at a positive change.

"The way managers treat their subordinates is subtly influenced by what they expect of them," this is how Livingston Sterling J (1990) defines Pygmalion effect in management. This comes from a story by Ovid about Pygmalion, a sculptor and prince of Cyprus, who created an ivory statue of his ideal woman. The result which he called Galatea was so beautiful that he immediately fell in love with it. He begged the goddess Aphrodite to breathe life into the statue and make her his own. Aphrodite granted Pygmalion his wish, the statue came to life and the couple married and lived happily ever after.

The story was also the basis of George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, later turned into the musical, My Fair Lady. In Shaw's play, Professor Henry Higgins claims he can take a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and turn her into a duchess. But, as Eliza herself points out to Higgins' friend Pickering, it isn't what she learns or does that determines whether she will become a duchess, but how she's treated. Thus, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is how she's treated that governs her behavior.

This idea is known as, "the self-fulfilling prophecy". When you believe the team will perform well, in some strange, magical way they do. And similarly, when you believe they won't perform well, they don't.

There is enough experimental data to suggest that the self-fulfilling prophecy is true. There was one unusual experiment done in 1911 on a very clever horse called Hans. This horse had the reputation for being able to add, multiply, subtract, and divide by tapping out the answer with its hooves. The extraordinary thing was that it could do this without its trainer being present. It only needed someone to put the questions (Aronson and Carlsmith, 1962).

Soft Skills Journal, Globalization, Pygmalion Effect, Social Theory, Social Structure, Work Environment, Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, Teacher-Expectancy Effect, Leadership, Motivation, Clinical Research, Biotechnological Sector, Agro-Based Industries, Work Force, Open Communication, Compliment Performance, Constructive Criticism.