Organizational cynicism : a social information processing perspective

Abstract

Prior studies on organizational cynicism mainly adopt a social exchange perspective in explaining how an employee's experiences with the organization or leader influence the development of organizational cynicism. Less effort has been made to explore other sources or possible mechanisms that influence one's organizational cynicism. In particular, we have little knowledge concerning the role of coworkers in how employees develop organizational cynicism. This dissertation aims to uncover additional antecedents of organizational cynicism. A social information processing (SIP) perspective is used to examine the role of coworkers in an employee's development of organizational cynicism and the subsequent employee work outcomes. The effect of the focal employee's group tenure and the consistency of peers' views on such social process are investigated. Two independent studies were conducted with data from different sources (peers, focal employee, and direct supervisor) at different times to test the research model. The first study was conducted with a leading pharmacy company in mainland China, and the final sample included 377 employees and 100 store managers. The second study was conducted in a logistics company. In a three-wave survey, 31 leaders and 225 employees participated. Both studies suggested that peers' organizational cynicism significantly predicted the focal employee's organizational cynicism and related work outcomes (work engagement, CWB, OCB). In addition, such social information process was conditioned on the focal employee's group tenure and the consistency of peers' organizational cynicism, such that the shorter the group tenure and the more consistency among peers' views, the stronger the peers' influence. This research advances our current literature by uncovering how coworkers' influence affects the construction of organizational cynicism and the subsequent employee outcomes.