Exam Study Guide: Perspectives
on People Management and
Organizations
Pre-master’s in Business Administration
May 2026
1
, Course Literature Overview
Lecture 1: Leadership, innovation, and learning
Bezuijen et al. (2009): Pygmalion and employee learning: The
role of leader behaviors.
Sijbom et al. (2015): How to get radical creative ideas into a
leader's mind: Leader's achievement goals and subordinates'
voice of creative ideas.
Lecture 2: Social entrepreneurship
Martin and Osberg (2007): Social entrepreneurship: The case
for definition.
Mair and Rathert (2025): Social entrepreneurship and
institutional change.
Lecture 3: Organizational culture and change management
Schein (2010): Organizational culture and leadership.
Stouten et al. (2018): Successful organizational change:
Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures.
Oreg (2006): Personality, context, and resistance to change.
Lecture 4: Organizational strategy
Barney (1991): Firm resources and sustained competitive
advantage.
Porter (1996): What is strategy?
Nag et al. (2007): What is strategic management?
Lecture 5: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Annis et al. (2020): The organizational reproduction of
inequality.
Leslie (2019): Diversity initiative effectiveness.
Lecture 6: Management Consulting
Schein (1999): Process consultation.
Sturdy (2008): Popular critiques of consultancy.
Kieser (2002): Managers as marionettes?
2
, Lecture 1: Leadership, innovation, and learning
Articles covered in this lecture:
Bezuijen et al. (2009): Pygmalion and employee learning: The
role of leader behaviors.
Sijbom et al. (2015): How to get radical creative ideas into a
leader's mind: Leader's achievement goals and subordinates'
voice of creative ideas.
Reading 1 - Bezuijen et al. (2009):
Research indicates that leaders allocate and distribute their investment in
employees based on their expectations of each employee. Leader
expectations affect learning behaviour. This initiates a self-fulfilling
prophecy, namely the Pygmalion effect.
Leader expectations = a leader's assessment of an employee's
capability to learn job-relevant knowledge and skills.
The Pygmalion Effect:
Our beliefs (about others) —> influence Our actions (towards others) —
> impact Other's beliefs (about themselves) —> cause Other's actions
(towards us) —> reinforce Our beliefs.
Figure 1: The Pygmalion Effect
A leader's behaviour is similar to a teacher's. The same behaviours
mediate the relationship between leader expectations and employee
engagement in the learning act:
3
, 1. A warm social emotional environment resembles a high-quality LMX
relationship.
2. Each step in the learning process requires the student to meet
higher goals.
o The goal-setting theory: setting specific and more difficult
goals leads to better performance.)
3. By teaching more difficult material, teachers provide special
students with the opportunity to learn more. Leaders stimulate
employee learning by providing more learning opportunities.
4. Leaders will offer more feedback so that employees can improve.
Based on the premise that these 4 leader behaviours resemble the 4
factors in Rosenthal's model (1973), the Pygmalion theory suggests
that in the case of higher expectations, leaders form higher LMX
relationships, set more specific and difficult goals, provide more
learning opportunities, and provide better feedback.
Mediation Diagram:
Results: It was concluded that leader expectations positively influence
the 5 variables, but only goal specificity and difficulty, and providing
learning opportunities positively influence employee engagement in
learning activities.
4
on People Management and
Organizations
Pre-master’s in Business Administration
May 2026
1
, Course Literature Overview
Lecture 1: Leadership, innovation, and learning
Bezuijen et al. (2009): Pygmalion and employee learning: The
role of leader behaviors.
Sijbom et al. (2015): How to get radical creative ideas into a
leader's mind: Leader's achievement goals and subordinates'
voice of creative ideas.
Lecture 2: Social entrepreneurship
Martin and Osberg (2007): Social entrepreneurship: The case
for definition.
Mair and Rathert (2025): Social entrepreneurship and
institutional change.
Lecture 3: Organizational culture and change management
Schein (2010): Organizational culture and leadership.
Stouten et al. (2018): Successful organizational change:
Integrating the management practice and scholarly literatures.
Oreg (2006): Personality, context, and resistance to change.
Lecture 4: Organizational strategy
Barney (1991): Firm resources and sustained competitive
advantage.
Porter (1996): What is strategy?
Nag et al. (2007): What is strategic management?
Lecture 5: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Annis et al. (2020): The organizational reproduction of
inequality.
Leslie (2019): Diversity initiative effectiveness.
Lecture 6: Management Consulting
Schein (1999): Process consultation.
Sturdy (2008): Popular critiques of consultancy.
Kieser (2002): Managers as marionettes?
2
, Lecture 1: Leadership, innovation, and learning
Articles covered in this lecture:
Bezuijen et al. (2009): Pygmalion and employee learning: The
role of leader behaviors.
Sijbom et al. (2015): How to get radical creative ideas into a
leader's mind: Leader's achievement goals and subordinates'
voice of creative ideas.
Reading 1 - Bezuijen et al. (2009):
Research indicates that leaders allocate and distribute their investment in
employees based on their expectations of each employee. Leader
expectations affect learning behaviour. This initiates a self-fulfilling
prophecy, namely the Pygmalion effect.
Leader expectations = a leader's assessment of an employee's
capability to learn job-relevant knowledge and skills.
The Pygmalion Effect:
Our beliefs (about others) —> influence Our actions (towards others) —
> impact Other's beliefs (about themselves) —> cause Other's actions
(towards us) —> reinforce Our beliefs.
Figure 1: The Pygmalion Effect
A leader's behaviour is similar to a teacher's. The same behaviours
mediate the relationship between leader expectations and employee
engagement in the learning act:
3
, 1. A warm social emotional environment resembles a high-quality LMX
relationship.
2. Each step in the learning process requires the student to meet
higher goals.
o The goal-setting theory: setting specific and more difficult
goals leads to better performance.)
3. By teaching more difficult material, teachers provide special
students with the opportunity to learn more. Leaders stimulate
employee learning by providing more learning opportunities.
4. Leaders will offer more feedback so that employees can improve.
Based on the premise that these 4 leader behaviours resemble the 4
factors in Rosenthal's model (1973), the Pygmalion theory suggests
that in the case of higher expectations, leaders form higher LMX
relationships, set more specific and difficult goals, provide more
learning opportunities, and provide better feedback.
Mediation Diagram:
Results: It was concluded that leader expectations positively influence
the 5 variables, but only goal specificity and difficulty, and providing
learning opportunities positively influence employee engagement in
learning activities.
4
