The Moderating Effect of Cynicism on Middle Managers' Strategic Commitment

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Management, University of Tabriz, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Management, University of Tabriz, Iran

3 MSc. Student, Department of Management, University of Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Organizational culture and managers' personal attitudes play a crucial role in conducting change initiatives, especially strategic change. In this regard, middle managers' commitment to change is of great importance and cynicism is the biggest obstacle in forming this commitment. In the present study, it is investigated whether organizational justice dimensions, senior management support for change and participation in decision-making bear any relationship to middle managers' strategic commitment, and then the moderating effect of change cynicism on these relationships is explored. To this end, data were collected from 334 middle managers of ICT companies across Iran, and analyzed using structural equation modeling. According to the results, change cynicism fully moderated the relationships distributive and interactional justice bore to strategic commitment and partially reduced the positive effects of senior management support. Results also indicated cynicism had no effect on relationships procedural justice and participation bore to strategic commitment

Keywords

Main Subjects


 
پورکیانی، مسعود؛ پیرمرادی، نسرین (1387). «توانمندسازی و تحول سازمانی». ماهنامة تدبیر، سال نوزدهم، شمارة 195، صفحات 25-20.
خنیفر، حسین؛ امیری، علی‌نقی؛ جندقی، غلامرضا؛ احمدی آزرم، هادی؛ حسینی‌فرد، سیدمجتبی (1389). «درگیرشدن در کار و رابطة آن با عدالت سازمانی در چهارچوب نظریة مبادلة اجتماعی و فرهنگی». مجلة مدیریت فرهنگ سازمانی، سال هشتم، شمارة 21، صفحات 200-177.
رهنورد، فرج‌اله؛ رادمنش، ایران (1382). «تصمیم‌گیری مشارکتی و تعهد سازمانی». نشریة دانش مدیریت، سال شانزدهم، شمارة 62، صفحات 16-3.
زاهدی، شمس‌السادات؛ مرتضوی، لیلا (1389). «تأثیر عوامل زمینه‌ای تغییر بر تعهد به تغییر در فرایند خصوصی‌سازی در سازمان‌ها». مجلة دانش و توسعه، سال هفدهم، شمارة 34، صفحات 52-20.
 Abraham, R. (2000). “Organizational cynicism: Bases and consequences”. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 126(3), 269-292.
Adams, J. S. (1965). “Inequity in social exchange”. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol.2, pp.267-299), San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Barton, L. C.; Ambrosini, V. (2013). “The moderating effect of organizational change cynicism on middle manager strategy commitment”. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(4), 721-746.
Bernerth, J. B.; Armenakis, A. A.; Feild, H. S.; Walker, H. J. (2007). “Justice, cynicism, and commitment: A study of important organizational change variables”. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43(3), 303-326.
Bies, R.; Moag, J. (1986). “Interactional justice: Communication criteria of fairness”. In R. Lewicki, B. Sheppard, and M. Bazerman (Eds.), Research on negotiation in organizations (pp.43-55), Greenwich, CT: JAI.
Colquitt, J. A. (2001). “On the dimensionality of organizational justice: A construct validation of a measure” Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 386-400.
Connell, J.; Waring, P. (2002). “The BOHICA Syndrome: a symptom of cynicism towards change initiatives?”. Strategic Change, 11(7), 347-356.
Conner, D. R. (1992). Managing at the speed of change: How resilient managers succeed and prosper where others fail. New York, Villard Books.
Conner, D. R.; Patterson, R. W. (1982). “Building commitment to organizational change”. Training and Development Journal, 36(4), 18-30.
Daly, J. P. (1995). “Explaining changes to employees: The influence of justifications and change outcomes on employees’ fairness judgments”. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 31(4), 415-428.
Greenberg, J. (1990). “Organizational justice: Yesterday, today, tomorrow”. Journal of Management, 16(2), 399-432.
Herscovitch, L.; Meyer, J. P. (2002). “Commitment to organizational change: Extension of the three component model”. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 474-487.
Lines, R. (2004). “Influence of participation in strategic change: Resistance, organizational commitment and change goal achievement”. Journal of Change Management, 4(3), 193-215.
Miller, K. I.; Monge, P. R. (1986). “Participation, satisfaction, and productivity: A meta-analytic review”. Academy of Management Journal, 29(4), 727-753.
Noble, C. H.; Mokwa, M. P. (1999). “Implementing marketing strategies: Developing and testing a managerial theory”. Journal of Marketing, 63(4), 57–73.
Reichers, A. E.; Wanous, J. P.; Austin, J. T. (1997). “Understanding and managing cynicism about organizational change”. Academy of Management Executive, 11(1), 48-59.
Stanley, D. J.; Meyer, P.; Topolnytsky, L. (2005). “Employee cynicism and resistance to organizational change”. Journal of Business and Psychology, 19(4), 429-459.
Wanous, J. P.; Reichers, A. E.; Austin, J. T. (2000). “Cynicism about organizational change: Measurement, antecedents, and correlates”. Group & Organization