Dov Eden

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University

Purpose The goals of this review are to identify key theories, constructs and themes in the international business travel (IBT) literature and to propose a model based on findings, theories and constructs drawn from adjacent research literature. Design/methodology/approach The authors reviewed the business travel (BT) literature to identify concep...

Pygmalion and charisma are mutually compatible leadership constructs that beg integration. They share some basic assumptions about human nature, about how leaders lead, and about how they could lead more effectively. Nevertheless, for the most part these constructs are discussed in disparate academic literatures. The present treatise integrates the...

Field experimentation, although rare, is the sterling-gold standard of organizational research methods. It yields the best internally valid and generalizable findings compared to more fallible methods. Reviewers in many psychology specialties, including organizational psychology, synthesize largely nonexperimental research, warn of causal ambiguity...

The cornerstone of architectural leadership (AL) theory is to structure the organization in service to its strategy so as to improve its capabilities and enhance its value. Rather than relying on the CEO's personal influence, AL centers on structuring and operating core organization-wide processes that diffuse leadership influence across managerial...

This experiment examined how perceptions of advantage and disadvantage, as well as their interaction with a performance outcome, affect change in efficacy beliefs in a competitive situation. Perceptions of advantageous or disadvantageous opening positions were experimentally manipulated (keeping the actual positions equal) while performance was obs...

Mediation has to do with the transfer of causality from an independent variable to a dependent variable via a third variable called a “mediator.” Because the experimental method is the universally recognized gold standard for establishing causality, we propose that conducting two experiments, one manipulating the independent variable and another ma...

Purpose – This article aims to lend insight into the consumption situation wherein consumers are unmotivated to try new products or behaviors that they perceive as too difficult to adopt as a result of low self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach – Two experiments were introduced to test hypotheses. In Studies 1 and 2, we demonstrated that enhan...

Seven past field-experimental attempts to produce Pygmalion effects by training managers yielded meager results (Eden et al, 2000). The present effort bolstered the Pygmalion approach with special emphasis on means efficacy, defined as belief in the utility of the tools available for performing a job. Six randomly assigned anti-aircraft gunnery ins...

This experiment examined how perceptions of advantage and disadvantage determine performance in a competitive context. We distinguished between internal and external efficacy, and manipulated external efficacy by inducing perceptions of advantaged or disadvantaged starting positions in a competition, keeping the actual positions equal. The treatmen...

A rigorous quasi-experiment tested the ameliorative effects of a sabbatical leave, a special case of respite from routine work. We hypothesized that (a) respite increases resource level and well-being and (b) individual differences and respite features moderate respite effects. A sample of 129 faculty members on sabbatical and 129 matched controls...

Internal and external sources of efficacy beliefs are distinguished. “Means efficacy,” a particular source of external efficacy, is defined as belief in the utility of the tools available for task performance. The authors tested the hypothesis that raising means efficacy boosts performance. In two field experiments, experimental participants were t...

An intervention based on conservation of resources theory was conducted in an organization installing new information technology (IT) to enhance participants' psychological resources and thereby reduce anticipated stress and facilitate adjustment to the new IT. Before installation, 218 IT users in 25 units participated in 5 days of technical traini...

Students who supervised other students who tutored grade-school pupils in a university-based outreach program were randomly assigned to Pygmalion and control conditions. Experimental supervisors were told that their tutors were ideally qualified for their tutoring role; control supervisors were told nothing about their tutors' qualifications. A man...

Granting that organizational behavior may be a field with a weak paradigm, this can be viewed as an advantage rather than as a nemesis that makes success in an academic career nearly impossible for neophytes to the field. The weak paradigm allows many niches to emerge. A niche is an identifiable, circumscribed area of scholarly inquiry that can pro...

After 30 years of experience publishing articles in scientific journals and service on editorial boards of leading journals, I accepted appointment to a three-year term as associate editor of Academy of Management Journal (AMI). Because of the trailing pipeline, the job actually extended beyond four years, during which I served as action-editor on...

This study examines the effects of informational cues on the attribution of success in a masculine task. Israeli managers (subjects) first evaluated the performance of a fictitious male/female manager and then attributed a cause to his/her success in attaining the managerial position. As predicted, performance evaluation affected the attribution an...

To test whether general self-efficacy and self-esteem relate differently to motivational and affective constructs, we collected data from samples in academic and work settings. Results suggest that general self-efficacy is more highly related to motivational variables than is self-esteem, whereas self-esteem is more highly related to affective vari...

Associate Editor of the Academy of Management Journal reflects on experiences at the end of the editorial team's term. The column is written to clarify what these three years have done personally as a way of distilling self-learning, and therefore involves considerably more self-disclosure than is typical in "From the Editors." It is hoped also th...

A letter from the editor is presented which discusses the role of meta-analysis and replication research in the articles submitted to the periodical for review. The author points out that the journal uses the idea of articles having an important contribution to the field of management as a basis for review. This leads many of the articles to contai...

In a longitudinal, randomized field experiment, we tested the impact of transformational leadership, enhanced by training, on follower development and performance. Experimental group leaders received transformational leadership training, and control group leaders, eclectic leadership training. The sample included 54 military leaders, their 90 direc...

Researchers have suggested that general self-efficacy (GSE) can substantially contribute to organizational theory, research, and practice. Unfortunately, the limited construct validity work conducted on commonly used GSE measures has highlighted such potential problems as low content validity and multidimensionality. The authors developed a new GSE...

The Pygmalion effect is a self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising leader expectations boosts subordinate performance. Although attempts to produce Pygmalion effects have been successful repeatedly among men, attempts to produce Pygmalion effects with female leaders have yielded null results. Also, only 1 experiment has demonstrated the Gole...

Manager training in Pygmalion Leadership Style (PLS) was evaluated in seven field experiments. PLS is manager behavior that conveys high performance expectations to subordinates, creates a supportive climate, and attributes subordinate successes to stable, internal causes. The training workshop was developed across the seven experiments from a one-...

To reveal the ameliorative impact of being away from job stressors on burnout, we compared 81 men who were called for active reserve service with 81 matched controls in the same company who were not called during the same period. Each reservist and his control completed questionnaires shortly before the reservist left work for a stint of service an...

In a quasi-experiment designed to examine the relief from job stress and burnout afforded by a vacation respite, 76 clerks completed measures of job stress and burnout twice before a vacation, once during vacation, and twice after vacation. There was a decline in burnout during the vacation and a return to prevacation levels by the time of the seco...

In a quasi-experiment designed to examine the relief from job stress and burnout afforded by a vacation respite, 76 clerks completed measures of job stress and burnout twice before a vacation, once during vacation, and twice after vacation. There was a decline in burnout during the vacation and a return to prevacation levels by the time of the seco...

To investigate the shape of the relationship between stress resulting from excessive demand and performance, 306 officer cadets in the Israel Defence Forces completed stress questionnaires during their training. Stress was consistently negatively related to various measures of performance. The prediction derived from the inverted-U hypothesis, that...

We conducted an experiment to assess the contribution of internal auditing to organizational effectiveness. We randomly assigned 224 bank branches to experimental conditions (audited or not audited) and monitored their performance for a year. Performance significantly improved during the half year following the audit in the experimental branches, i...

Applying the self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) approach to combating seasickness, the authors experimentally augmented the self-efficacy of naval cadets by telling them that they were unlikely to experience seasickness and that, if they did, it was unlikely to affect their performance at sea. Naval cadets (N = 25) in the Israel Defense Forces were ran...

Applying the self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) approach to combating seasickness, the authors experimentally augmented the self-efficacy of naval cadets by telling them that they were unlikely to experience seasickness and that, if they did, it was unlikely to affect their performance at sea. Naval cadets (N = 25) in the Israel Defense Forces were ran...

To date, all published confirmations of the Pygmalion hypothesis among adults have involved men. The few studies among women have had methodological ambiguities. The authors conducted 2 experiments in the Israel Defense Forces to test the Pygmalion hypothesis among women. In both studies, the leaders were led to believe that the trainees randomly a...

The Golem effect is the negative impact on subordinates' performance that results from low leader expectations toward them. The effects of low expectations were studied experimentally by preventing the natural formation of low expectations toward individuals who had obtained low test scores in some units and by refraining from doing so in other uni...

Assessed the impact of training designed to boost general self-efficacy (GSE) on job-search activity and on reemployment among 66 persons unemployed for up to 18 wks. Randomly assigned experimental participants attended 8 behavioral-modeling workshop sessions over 2.5 wks. The manipulation check showed that training boosted GSE as intended. The wor...

The Pygmalion effect is a type of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) in which raising manager expectations regarding subordinate performance boosts subordinate performance. Managers who are led to expect more of their subordinates lead them to greater achievement. Programmatic research findings from field experiments are reviewed, and our present knowl...

The Galatea effect is a boost in performance caused by raising workers' self-expectations. Hypothesizing that self-efficacy is central to one's expectations for success and motivation to perform, vicarious experience and verbal persuasion were used to strengthen the self-efficacy of candidates and to increase the rate of volunteering for special-fo...

Predicted that managers' performance would be rated lower if their jobs, as described in 2 vignettes, were high-stress rather than low-stress. 24 1st-yr students enrolled in a university master's program in Organizational Behavior participated in the pilot study. Ss who evaluated the manager in the high-stress vignette gave significantly lower aver...

Past Pygmalion research has been susceptible to interpersonal contrast effects, rendering it uncertain whether raising managers' expectations toward subordinates can improve performance without reference to control Ss in the same group. Twenty-nine platoons in the Israel Defense Forces were randomly assigned to Pygmalion or control conditions to te...

A self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP) occurs when the expectation of an event induces the behavior that increases the likelihood of the event's occurrence. Work organizations can be more or less effective as a result of SFP effects, whether naturally-occurring or deliberately induced by managers or consultants. Evidence for SFP at the individual level a...

Two acutely stressful job events were compared to routine work and to a holiday vacation at home among 29 workers measured four times. The critical job events (CJEs) were the shutdown of a computer and its reopening two weeks later. The CJEs were perceived as more stressful, and aroused greater psychological and physiological strain, than the follo...

The Pygmalion, goal-setting, and need-for-achievement approaches use effort-to-performance expectancy in order to explain work motivation. The motivation to expend effort is distinguished from the motivation to choose a task. Expectancy is conceptualized both as a stable trait and as a changing state. A resolution of rival hypotheses derived from e...

Acutely stressful job events were compared to routine work and to vacation among 29 workers measured four times. Critical job events were perceived as more stressful, and aroused greater strain, than chronic stress. Vacation was perceived as less stressful than work, but strain was as high during vacation as on the job.

The effects of team development (TD) on organizational functioning were assessed in a field quasi-experiment designed to replicate Eden's (1985) field experiment. The command teams of seven combat companies underwent a three-day TD workshop and were compared to the command teams of nine control companies before and after the TD workshops. Pretest m...

The role of expectations in OD has largely been ignored or treated as a methodological problem, yet available data indicate that OD may operate as a self-fulffilling prophecy. This article focuses on the hypothesis that expectations are a major force for changing organizational effectiveness. The author argues that the unintended raising of expecta...

Relationships between questionnaire measures of job stress and smoking intensity (SI) and cessation were studied among 560 disease-free smoking males and 310 quitters all members of 22 kibbutzim. The main-effect hypothesis that stress is positively related to SI and negatively to cessation received some support in correlational and multiple regress...

Varied the composition of Israeli 3-person military crews (mean age 19 yrs) by assigning the male members according to all possible combinations of levels of ability and motivation. Crews performed real military tasks in a military field setting, and unit commanders ranked the effectiveness of their performance at the end of 2 mo of military activi...

Assigned 18 logistics units in the Israel Defense Forces to either experimental (team development [TD]) or control conditions to determine the effect of TD on team organization and functioning. The 9 experimental units underwent a 3-day TD workshop. 30 subordinates in each unit completed questionnaires describing their unit before and after TD. Alt...

Assigned 18 logistics units in the Israel Defense Forces to either experimental (team development [TD]) or control conditions to determine the effect of TD on team organization and functioning. The 9 experimental units underwent a 3-day TD workshop. 30 subordinates in each unit completed questionnaires describing their unit before and after TD. Alt...

A special case of self-fulfilling prophecy (SFP), the Pygmalion effect is the enhanced performance of subordinates of whom supervisors expect more. Pygmalion research in military and training situations is reviewed. Presented is a model of SFP at work involving supervisory expectancy, leadership, subordinate self-expectancy, motivation, and perform...

A critical job event (CJE) is defined as a time-bounded peak of performance demand made on the individual as an integral part of his job. Though such events are an important source of acute job stress and are amenable to longitudinal study, relevant research has been scant. In the present study, the effects of acute objective stress on subjective s...

The Pygmalion effect was recently demonstrated experimentally for the first time with adult military trainees by Eden and Shani (1979, 1982). The present field experiment was conducted in order to replicate the conventional Pygmalion effect and to test the effects on learning performance of directly inducing high self-expectancy among trainees them...

Tested the applicability of the Pygmalion effect to adult military trainees and examined the effects of expectancy on instructor leadership. 105 male Ss were matched on aptitude and randomly assigned to high, regular, and unspecified instructor-expectancy conditions. The Pygmalion hypothesis was confirmed. Ss with instructors who had been induced t...

The present study was directed toward determining the health implications of population policies followed by collective rural communities (kibbutzim) in Israel. It was hypothesized that, controlling for kibbutz longevity, higher rates of out-migration and/or lower rates of in-migration and population growth are associated with subsequent increases...

Determinants of a favorable attitude toward retirement were sought in an interview study of 179 top executives, Age 55 and over in 13 leading Israeli organizations. Relationships between desire to retire and variables known to be associated with labor turnover and with retirement attitudes among blue-collar workers were examined by correlation and...

Examined implicit leadership theory (preconceptions about the patterning of leadership variables) in 235 college students. Ss completed the Survey of Organizations questionnnaire on a fictitious "Plant X" about which they were given little information. Factor analysis, performed on the items purported to measure 4 leadership factors, resulted in th...

Past experimental findings on the effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation were explained on the basis of expectancy theory as a special case of the motivational effects on incentives. It was hypothesized that any reward object enhances its commensurate motive and weakens noncommensurate motives. The hypotheses were confirmed...

The contention that membership in work organizations has ill effects upon individual well-being was tested by comparing national survey data for 1,902 members and 183 self-employed workers. Formerly established demographic differences between self-employed and wage-and-salary workers were replicated. While major differences were not revealed in wor...

Surveyed kibbutz communities with a mix of factory and farm jobs to study the effects of industrialization on work and workers while controlling for the effects of urbanization. Questionnaire responses of 476 workers in a representative sample of factories were compared to those of 175 workers in location-matched agricultural branches in 27 kibbutz...

Relationships among job stresses and CHD risk factors in five occupational categories were studied in a sample of 762 adult male kibbutz members in Israel. Most CHD morbidity rates, the great majority of the average values of CHD risk factors, and most average scores on measures of job stresses and strains did not significantly differ among manager...

By neglecting self-employed workers, organizational psychology has deprived itself of a potentially useful comparison group for the purposes of ascertaining the effects of work organizations on their members and of investigating the effects of particular organizational variables. Reasons for this neglect are discussed and examples of studies that w...

Managers' expectations of subordinates can have a powerful effect on productivity in the workplace. Raising managers' expectations of subordinates boosts productivity; this is the Pygmalion effect. In this thorough and practical work, acclaimed organizational psychologist Dov Eden analyzes productivity as the result of self-fulfilling prophecies...

explores the relationship between IM [impression management] and SFP [self-fulfilling prophecy] and presents examples from both micro- and macroorganizational behavior / ways in which managers can use IM willfully to create productive SFP are proposed SFP adds to IM deeper understanding of some of the interpersonal and organizational processes pu...