The study of change in organizations has examined a broad range of individual responses to change, from resistance and cynicism, to acceptance and commitment. Employee reactions to organizational change have long been recognized as one of the most important factors in the success or failure of change initiatives.

Cynicism is not rare during change. Stanley et al. (2005) defined change-specific cynicism as “a disbelief of management’s stated or implied motives for a specific organizational change.” The concept of cynicism, as defined in various disciplines of social science such as management, psychology, and sociology, suggests that people develop certain attitudes and behaviors from organizational factors such as coworker influence, psychological contract violation, and lack of ethical leadership, and that these, in turn, correlate strongly to change cynicism.

While these factors may foster change-specific cynicism, ostensibly leading to an intention to resist, participative decision-making (PDM) has also been hypothesized to play a crucial role in organizational change, where employees’ involvement in the planning and execution of change is purported to correlate negatively with change cynicism. More recent research, however, suggests that it is the perceived quality of information sharing that had the largest causal effect on change-specific cynicism, followed by the cynicism of colleagues and, finally, trust in management.

But can cynicism be a force for change? Too often, we apply the label of “resister” to the cynic and begin a process of boxing them in or forcing them out. These attempts at silencing them steal energy from the system. What if, instead, we listened to them? Engaged in dialog with them? Cynics are typically informed by past experience. Often, they have real evidence of injustices committed by management. Furthermore, their power to influence derives from the connections they have to others, connections forged against shared common experience. How can we move the cynic toward commitment?

In the literature, findings have shown that organizational commitment may have a positive influence on employee performance, leader-member exchange, and overall job satisfaction. Also, some other researchers have shown that organizational commitment has a negative influence on organizational cynicism and intention to leave their job.

In Part 2, we will explore the relationship between change-specific cynicism and change commitment and examine ways of turning cynicism toward commitment.