Cynicism at the Workplace

There are various forms of irony in the workplace, which has increased over the past few years due to mass layoffs, mergers, and corporate scandals (Anderson, 1996). In 1991, Milvis and Kantor reported that 43% of American workers showed a very cynical attitude toward their work. The popularity of Dilbert cartoon further shows the popularity of cynicism in today's workplace (Dean, Brandes, and Dharkwadkar, 1998). Google search "Cynical Workplace" produced 408 thousand results including the NPR section on the cynical theme of May 2007.

Mirvis and Kanter (1989) discusses the influence of cynicism from a management perspective. If the cynics are administrators, the sarcastic influence can be disastrous. They explained that the cynical attitude of managers "lacks a permanent vision of what the company and its products should be, with a temporary impact on the working environment" (Mirvis & Kanter, 1989, p .382). According to the previous chapter, one of the most important effects of cynicism is the decline of employee motivation. Before we can provide a possible solution to this motivation problem, we need to study Hertzberg's two factor motivation theory. In this chapter I will explain Herzberg's theory and then I will explain how to use this theory to motivate employees and enrich their work.

This article describes some aspects of cynicism. The first is a summary of various definitions of cynicism. It discusses the way and place it happens and proves that the cynicism can be determined in context as well as being a personal matter. Several reasons and implications are stated. Miniaturization, executive compensation, and high expectation are the main reasons leading to cynicism. Important influences are as follows. Declining commitment, satisfaction, and high motivation to work hard. Herzberg's two-factor model is a possible solution to the problem of motivation / cynicism. Another important solution to reduce irony is to get people to understand the situation, minimize accidents, and involve people in making decisions affecting them. But the most important thing for organizing and managing syncism is that they try to recognize that their employees do not use irony emotions to protect themselves.