How to initiate change at workplace among 'cynical' employees

A new study has found that even though change is an inevitable part of personal and professional life, it can be harder to implement at the workplace-wide level when the employees have a cynical attitude towards the prospect of transformation.

However, University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management has discovered that leaders can inspire their employees and make them feel confident in their work to have the best chance of limiting the development of such disabling attitudes.

Katherine DeCelles, an assistant professor of organizational behaviour at the Rotman School, said that having a leader who can do those things makes people want to change.

She led the study with Paul Tesluk of the University of Buffalo and Faye Taxman at Virginia's George Mason University.

Their conclusions were based on information collected through surveys with nearly 700 correctional officers at 14 different prisons in one mid-Atlantic US state. Information on employee insubordination was also gathered.

Not only did researchers confirm that employee cynicism contributed to lower levels of commitment towards change, they also found that a more cynical climate in the workplace led to lower levels of individual commitment towards change, regardless of officers' personal attitudes.

A poor climate could bolster individuals' negative attitudes too.

DeCelles said that the cynicism starts to become more of a norm, so it becomes much more entrenched.

Cynicism was reduced, however, in workplaces with "transformational" leaders, people who helped employees see themselves as valuable and competent, and who successfully communicated their ideas about why change was necessary and desirable for everybody.

The study is published in the journal Organization Science.