Peering Inside Pygmalion

December 3, 2025

Peering Inside Pygmalion’s Black Box: Exploring the Essential Links Between Follower Emotion and Performance

Andrea Smith | 2025

Abstract

Pygmalion-in-management (PIM) theory conveys the process steps that precipitate manifestations of the Pygmalion phenomenon in the workplace. Curiously, though mainstream scholars acknowledge the emotion-laden nature of leadership, PIM theory is silent on the topic of emotions. To pinpoint the role which emotions play, the author conducted 12 exploratory, semistructured, expert interviews with academics who were well versed in PIM theory, the intersection of emotion and performance, or both. Interview results indicate that the PIM phenomenon, like other forms of leadership, is influenced by leader and follower emotion. Findings indicate that Pygmalion leaders work diligently to establish high-quality relationships with their followers and that those high-quality relationships motivate follower performance; that Pygmalion leaders exude positive, emotionally toned verbal and nonverbal communication, which serves to strengthen and sustain those high-quality relationships, further motivating follower performance; and that Pygmalion leaders engineer environments that catalyze, capitalize upon, and help to sustain positive follower emotion—and that those positive emotions motivate follower performance.

Keywords: emotions and performance, follower emotion, follower motivation, follower performance, Pygmalion in management, Pygmalion in the classroom

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