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This study aims to explore the moderating role of cynicism about change in the positive relationship between authentic leadership and employee commitment to change.

This study used an exploratory research design with deductive approach to invite responses of doctors, nurses and para medical staff of public sector district hospitals, set to be privatized, on structured close-ended questionnaires. Data gathered from four hospitals chosen because they were undergoing restructuring that facilitated the testing of our propositions were analyzed through structural equation modeling using AMOS. A total of 271 usable responses (response rate of 65 per cent) were analyzed. Interaction and simple slope tests were applied to test moderating effects.

Results indicate that authentic leadership is positively related to commitment to change. Cynicism about change moderated this positive relationship such that a high level of authentic leadership has a stronger impact on commitment to change when cynicism is low rather than when cynicism is high.

Results show that in Pakistani hospitals undergoing restructuring, leaders who use authentic leadership will have followers who are more committed to enacting the planned changes, but this effect is magnified if followers are not cynical about the change. Thus, regulators of public sector hospitals may benefit from this study by developing authenticity in hospital leaders to mitigate cynicism about and enhance their commitment to change.

This study is the first which has explored relationships among cynicism about change, authentic leadership and commitment to change in a privatization context of Pakistan. Findings should be tested in other cultural contexts to determine generalizability.

The purpose of this study is to examine potential predictors and moderating relationships involving one type of organizational cynicism – cynicism about organizational transformation (CAOC).

A total of 137 subjects participated in this study. The participants had been in their current positions at work for an average of 4.77 years and had been with their current organization an average of 7.28 years. CAOC was measured using the 12-item scale (α = 0.86) from Wanous et al.’s (2000) study. The response scale had five points ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree.”

CAOC and negative affectivity were positively correlated, thus supporting H1. H2 was not supported, i.e. subjective change was not related to CAOC, and objective change was actually correlated negatively with CAOC. H3 was not supported, i.e. individuals with a higher organizational commitment will not have a less positive relationship between CAOC and organizational transformation (subjective and objective) than individuals with lower organizational commitment. H4 was not supported, i.e. individuals who perceive a higher degree of petty tyranny will not have a stronger relationship between CAOC and organizational transformation (subjective and objective) than individuals who perceive a lower degree of petty tyranny. H5 was not supported, i.e. individuals who perceive a higher degree of perceived organizational support (POS) will not have a weaker relationship between CAOC and organizational transformation (subjective and objective) than individuals who perceive a lower degree of POS.

The intent of the present study is to examine potential causes of CAOC and potential moderators of the relationships between those antecedents and CAOC. In particular, two variables are proposed as antecedents (negative affectivity with past organizational transformations) and three as moderators (organizational commitment, petty tyranny by supervisors and POS).

The aim of this study is to explore the impact of cynicism on the relationship among personality traits, organizational contextual factors and job outcomes. This study set up and examined the overarching model on resistance to change. Moreover, there were two models theoretically presented and investigated, i.e. direct and indirect models. This study was an attempt to explore and capture the causes of organizational cynicism against the change initiative.

A case study research design was used in this study, and data were collected from 335 employees by using purposive sampling technique and structured questionnaire. While linear regression and Baron and Kenny’s (1986) tests were used to evaluate the direct and indirect models.

Results highlighted the considerable positive relationship between dispositional resistance and employee’s turnover intention. Additionally, significant connection was also examined among organizational contextual factors and job outcomes, whereas interactive impact of behavioral resistance was found in the relation among dispositional resistance, organizational contextual factors and employee’s intent to quit. However, another dimension of organizational cynicism, i.e. cognitive resistance, could not influence the direct linear relationship between organizational context and continuance commitment.

Major limitations of this research were non-probability sampling technique, cross-sectional design, single organization and traditional data collection tool.

Management can eradicate cynicism by providing social support and positive information, i.e. job security, wage award, medical benefits and promotion criteria, after implementing change. The management can clarify the objectives of that change by including employees in decision-making, reducing employee’s turnover intention. Organizational cynicism is a faith, which means that the change leaders have lack of integrity; when organizational cynicism mixes with negative cognitive process, it leads to a more destructive behavior against that change.

This study contributed to the extensive knowledge of organizational cynicism. A conceptual model of resistance to change the model was unique in nature. There were rare studies conducted to check the impact of organizational cynicism on privatization, especially in the sub-continent. Therefore, it will add a good contribution in quality literature to understand the cynicism and its consequences for privatization.

Organisations implement changes either to address real business imperatives or to follow trends in their industries. But frequent changes in an organisation often lead to employee change fatigue and change cynicism. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the change logic of appropriateness and the logic of consequences on change fatigue and change cynicism and the impact of change fatigue and change cynicism on change success.

To carry out this study, the authors collected data on a sample of 320 participants from diverse organisations, and they used structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques to test our hypotheses depicted in the research model.

The authors found that the change logic of consequences reduces both change fatigue and change cynicism, whereas the change logic of appropriateness increases change fatigue. The authors also found that change fatigue does not have any direct effect on change success, although it maintains an indirect negative effect on change success through change cynicism.

Along with other practical implications, the authors recommend that change managers help employees understand any logic of consequences that sustain their change initiatives. Additionally, change managers should work to prevent change fatigue from turning into change cynicism, which is the real precursor of reduced change success.

This study is among the first to show that employees experience change fatigue and change cynicism differently, depending on the reason underlying the change. It is also among the first to show that change fatigue does not affect change success directly but does so through the interplay of change cynicism.

The study was designed to generate and test a model of employee cynicism toward organizational change from the communication perspective in a higher education institution.

Using the theoretical framework of social information processing (SIP), the study investigated the communication processes in the social context, which contributed to employee cynicism toward organizational change in the higher education setting. Path analysis was used to test the overall model fit.

The findings suggest that the three variables, perceived quality of information, cynicism of colleagues, and trust in the administration, predict change‐specific cynicism, which, in turn, lead to intention to resist change.

As an initial attempt to explain employee cynicism toward organizational change in higher education settings, this model inevitably has loose ends. Further research is needed to expand the model from a communication perspective.

The research provided administrators with strategies and advices to cope with employee cynicism during organizational change.

This is the first known study to examine the concept of change‐specific cynicism within the theoretical framework of SIP. It points to a new direction which warrants the attention of communication scholars.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the detrimental effects of cynicism on organizational change. It presents an interactive and novel theoretical research model based on organizational cynicism. The study aims to determine the causes of cynicism and suggests remedies for it so that change may be implemented with the consensus of all stakeholders.

This is an associational study that aims to test the hypotheses of linear relationships among the variables used in the proposed model. Data have been collected from 417 employees, working for three public sector organizations, by using self-administrated questionnaires. The model proposed in this research has been tested by using regression analysis in Amos 22. The interactive effects have been examined by using Aguinis’s (2004) multiple moderated regression.

The results reveal that dispositional resistance increases the intention of an employee to exhibit withdrawal behavior and that organizational contextual factors have statistically significant relationships with employees’ withdrawal behavior and their job satisfaction. Moreover, the results of interactive effects are partially significant.

The Government of Pakistan, the managements of public sector organizations and workplace unions can resolve the issues of cynicism and job insecurity by involving employees in decision making and by building trust in change leaders. Employees’ participation and their trust in change leaders can decrease their intentions to exhibit withdrawal behavior and lessen the occurrences of organizational cynicism. In addition, trust in change leaders can raise job satisfaction, while job insecurity can decrease the job satisfaction levels of employees.

This research presents and examines a unique multiple interactive model of organizational cynicism. Until recently, a scant number of studies particular to Asian culture, have investigated the detrimental and interactive effects of cynicism on organizational change.

This study investigates how, in the context of organizational change initiatives, the adoption of empowering leadership can foster positive social exchange relationships between leaders and subordinates, in turn, neutralizing cynicism about organizational change (CAOC) and allowing follower championing behavior (FCB) to emerge.

The authors analyzed data from 908 faculty members from 11 top-rated public universities in Indonesia. The data used in this research are multisource, so the data processing steps are rwg and ICC tests, data quality testing, and hypothesis testing.

The authors found that CAOC among these members had a negative effect on their FCB, but this negative effect was buffered by the presence of empowering leadership.

The authors' research captures perceptions at one point in time. Future research could adopt a longitudinal approach to simulate empowering leadership stimuli and investigate the impacts of FCB.

This study contributes to Indonesian business management, which exhibits a culture of high power distance. The findings suggest that managers should improve managers' interpersonal communication with subordinates and consider managers' feelings toward change in the organization so that managers' subordinates will provide feedback in the form of decreasing cynicism and will exhibit FCB.

This study contributes to the understanding of why CAOC may not be expressed explicitly in Asian countries due to Asian collectivist and high power-distance values that discourage subordinates from voicing their disagreement with change initiatives.

In recent times, progression of technology and growing demands of customers have substantially influenced the services sector to introduce fast real-time mechanisms for providing up-to-mark services. To meet these requirements, organizations are going to change their end-user operating systems but success rate of change is very low. The purpose of this paper is to address one of the practitioners’ complaint “no one tells us how to do it” and uncovers the indirect effects of knowledge management (KM) strategies: personalization and codification, toward organizational change via organizational learning and change readiness. The current study also highlights how organizational learning and change readiness are helpful to reduce the detrimental effects of organizational change cynicism toward success of a change process.

Temporal research design is used to get the appropriate responses from the targeted population in two stages such as pre-change (Time-1) and post-change (Time-2). In cumulative, 206 responses have been obtained from the banking sector of Pakistan.

The results of the current study are very promising as it has been stated that KM strategies have an indirect effect on successful organizational change through organizational learning and change readiness. Moreover, change cynicism has a weakening effect on a change process and can be managed through effective learning orientation of employees and developing readiness for change in organizations.

Change agents have to use an optimal mix of personalization and codification strategies to develop learning environment and readiness for change in organizations that are beneficial for implementing a change successfully. Moreover, change readiness and organizational learning in the context of change are equally beneficial to reduce organizational change cynicism as well.

This study is introducing a unique model to initiate a change with the help of KM strategies, organizational learning and readiness for change.

The current work explores the relationship between workplace ostracism, emotional intelligence (EI) and organizational change cynicism. This paper also aims to examine how dimensions of EI moderate the relationship between workplace ostracism and organizational change cynicism.

This study intends to examine the contribution of independent variable as well as moderating variable towards the outcome. Therefore, Pearson product–moment correlation and moderated regression analyses have been carried out to verify the hypotheses. To validate the tools upon the employees of India, authors have carried out measurement model analyses through AMOS and checked their composite reliability, convergent validity (average variance extraction [AVE]) and discriminant validity (square root of AVE). This study followed a simple random sampling technique with 276 employees (Male: N = 150, Mage = 34.34, female: N = 126, Mage = 31.57) from three manufacturing units of Odisha, an Eastern part of India.

Results showed that workplace ostracism was positively related to organizational change cynicism. However, only two dimensions of EI, namely, appraisal and regulation of self-emotion (ARSE) and other’s emotional appraisal were negatively related to organizational change cynicism. Moderated regression analysis indicates that positive relationship between workplace ostracism and organizational change cynicism is stronger for employees with low ARSE and other emotional appraisals than those with higher scores.

The researchers conclude this paper with inputs for developing a suitable training module on EI, specifically focusing on various emotional management skills.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is first of its kind on workplace ostracism and organizational change cynicism among Indian employees in the manufacturing sector. This study also examines the moderating role of EI on workplace ostracism and organizational change cynicism, which has been somehow inadequate in the present epoch.

In this article, we situate organizational cynicism at the nexus of the related constructs of burnout, stress, and antisocial behavior. We expand Dean, Brandes, and Dharwadkar's (1998) notion of behavioral cynicism to include cynical humor and cynical criticism. We also propose that cynical behavior has important, non-linear effects on employee work performance. Finally, we suggest that cynical behavior may act as a coping mechanism for employees and that such behavior moderates the stress–performance relationship.