Communicating Expectations - Assignment Example

Communicating Expectations Introduction Experts that when high expectations are demanded of people, they tend to perform better (Terence & Denise 2003, 229). On the other hand, when people have low expectations of themselves, their level of performance tends to decrease. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as the Pygmalion effect. In real life, I have personally had an encounter with the Pygmalion effect. This paper will discuss how high expectations pout on me by a manager led me to perform better.

The SituationAt my workplace, I was charged with the duty of preparing worksheets and assigning duties to a group of workers. The work involved scheduling work and filling worksheets. Based on the information contained in the worksheets, each worker would have a specific duty to attend to. Every worker would have a worksheet that detailed where they would be working, the specific type of work they would be doing, how much time they would need to perform the work, and the main procedure involved in completing the work.

After the work had been done, each worker the supervisors would certify that the workers did all the work specified in the work sheets. Based on the worksheets, the employees working on contract would be paid. Because each day had different demands, the worksheets had to be prepared every morning based on the orders that the company received. While everything worked well when the company had few orders to deliver, there was a big problem whenever there were several orders. The process of filling worksheets was slow much as I tried hard to cope with the numerous worksheets to fill.

Many times, workers idled around as they waited for their worksheets while in fact they should have been working. This meant that sometimes the company failed to deliver its orders within deadline which never went well with the management.Higher Expectation by the ManagerRealizing where the problem was, the manager in charge of my department informed me that I had to find a way of ensuring that the worksheets were produced within a much shorter time. He emphasized that he believed that I could find a way of making the process faster and more efficient so that production would be improved.

I took his word positively and tried even more to work faster. There was a slight improvement in production as I produced more worksheets within a shorter time within three days. However, the manager still insisted that he believed that I could do much more to realize real change. I knew I was putting my very best effort and could not see at that time how I could work even faster.Better PerformanceI got into real thought trying to come up with solutions on how to solve the problem. After evaluating a couple of possible solutions to the problem, I decided to try one.

Instead of filling all the worksheets myself, I decided to come up with a schedule of the different tasks involves, their procedures, and other details that would normally feature in the worksheets and kept it in soft copy. Creating this schedule took a bit of time but I was sure it would make things better for me and the company. Instead of having to write the tasks and filling all details by hand, I would simply select the relevant sections of the schedule and print it on paper. The only task that I would then have to do is filling in the name of the worker and put my signature.

This way, my performance improved and the backlog of work became a thing of the past. ConclusionIn conclusion, I would say that the high expectations demanded of me by the manager drove me to perform better. The Pygmalion effect is truly effective in improving performance. ReferenceTerence R. & Denise D. 2003, Motivation, In Walter C. Borman, Daniel R. Ilgen, Richard J. Klimoski, ed. Handbook of Psychology, volume 12, John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York.