Organizational Change: Effects of Fairness Perceptions on Cynicism

Organizational activities perceived by a workforce as being unfair are believed by organizational researchers to contribute to workforce cynicism. The present study examines this previously untested proposition. The results from this study suggest that fairness perceptions predict cynicism, but the strongest predictor of cynicism is organizational trust. These conclusions were derived by examining the relationship between five measures of fairness (fairness of awards, award system, work distribution, work level, and supervisors), four workplace characteristic variables (episodic stress, role overload, organizational trust, and job satisfaction), and two measures of cynicism (cynicism about change and coworker cynicism). The results show that the strongest predictor of both measures of cynicism is organizational trust. In addition, the fairness perceptions play a limited role in predicting perceptions of cynicism. Future research should better define the conceptual and empirical distinctions between workforce cynicism, organizational trust, and workplace fairness.