Organizational Cynicism and Employee Performance: Moderating Role of Employee Engagement

Organizational cynicism is a growing trend in contemporary organizations. However, its impact on employee performance remains understudied. The study addresses this gap by investigating its effect on employee performance. The study also investigates the moderating effect of employee engagement on the relationship between organizational cynicism and employee performance. Primary data is collected through questionnaire from employees (N=200) of various health organizations in Pakistan by employing a convenient sampling technique. Multiple regression models are employed by using SPSS. The findings reveal that organizational cynicism has a significant negative relationship with employee performance, while employee engagement moderates this relationship. Moreover, the findings indicate that the majority of respondents are not happy with their organizations. They have the feeling that their organizations are not fulfilling their promises, in fact, are betraying them in different ways. This breach of contract becomes the reason for organizational cynicism among employees and negatively affects their performance at work. The study has some limitations and implications. The organizational culture can mitigate the negative effect of organizational cynicism and enhance performance by promoting employee engagement. The study helps psychologists to understand employees’ attitudes and improve personnel selection to ensure they recruit the right people. Openness, honesty and early communication can increase predictability and controllability of future events. The job insecurity and lack of adequate compensation are assertive factors towards low productivity and negative attitude toward organization. According to the researchers’ best knowledge, only few studies tried to investigate the relationship between organizational cynicism and employee performance by employing the moderating effect of employee engagement. Therefore, it will be a good contribution in existing literature to understand consequences of cynicism.