Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia

By Beni Bevly
The essence of self-fulfilling prophecy is that people’s expecting or beliefs determine their behavior and performance, thus serving to make their expectation come true. In other words, we strive to valid our perception of reality, no matter how faulty they may be. Thus, the self-fulfilling prophecy is an important perceptual outcome we need to better understand.

The roots of self-fulfilling prophecy, historically, are found in Greek mythology. In the mythology, Pygmalion was sculptor who hated women yet fell in love with on ivory statue he curved of a beautiful woman. He prayed to the goddess Aphrodite to bring her to life. The goddess granted his wish and the statue came to life. That’s why, self-fulfilling prophecy is also known as Pygmalion effect.

Eden in “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy as a Management Tool: Harnessing Pygmalion,” Academy of Management Review, January 1984 proposed the Model of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy that attempted to outline how supervisory expectation affect employee performance as follows:

a. High supervisory expectancy produces better leadership, which subsequently leads employees to develop higher self-expectations.

b. Higher expectations motivate workers to exert more effort, ultimately increasing performance and supervisory expectancies.

c. Successful performance also improves an employee’s self-expectancy for achievement.

So, expect high to your employees, love ones and yourself. Make that expectation as your prophecy, then it will be fulfilled.

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*Beni Bevly holds BA in Political Science, MBA in Marketing, and is a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) candidate. He is the founder of Overseas Think Tank for Indonesia.