Abstract
Cynicism and turnover intentions are highlighted as being detrimental to organisations’ sustainability. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this paper aims to examine the effect of organisational cynicism on turnover intention and the mediating role of organisational support on this relationship. A survey was conducted with 289 employees and managers. Data were gathered from 54 technology firms from Istanbul, Turkey, and analysed through structural equation modelling using AMOS. The findings suggest that the cognitive and affective dimensions of cynicism are significant predictors of turnover intention, and further that organisational support mediates the relationship between the cognitive and affective dimensions of cynicism and turnover intention. This research is novel in that it deepens our understanding of how detrimental workplace perceptions might affect employees’ intentions to leave their organisations and to what extent organisational support mediates this relationship in technology firms in Istanbul, Turkey. To our knowledge, no study has investigated these three variables together, as in the proposed model.
Highlights
Cynicism, i.e., being distrustful in what is generally an unwarranted fashion, has a set of negative consequences on cynics themselves (Morf et al, 2019), their careers (Roberts and Zigarmi, 2014) and the teams and organisations (Andersson, 1996) in which they work
Since other researchers have investigated the relationships between cynicism and job satisfaction, ethical climate and organisational commitment, among other variables, we examine the interplay between cynicism turnover intention in technology firms in Turkey, a sector in which the demand for performance improvements is intense; the paper discusses what organisations may do in response
Our study was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the way in which the pandemic has engendered negative organisational outcomes highlights the relevance of our key finding, that perceived organisational support could be used as a means to lessen the impact of one such negative organisational phenomenon, namely, cynicism, on turnover intentions
Summary
I.e., being distrustful in what is generally an unwarranted fashion, has a set of negative consequences on cynics themselves (Morf et al, 2019), their careers (Roberts and Zigarmi, 2014) and the teams and organisations (Andersson, 1996) in which they work. Turnover intention, if it remains unaddressed, leads to loss of talent and has dire consequences for the longevity and sustainability of an organisation, and emerges as a symptom of poor management practices and ineffective engagement of workers (Shuck et al, 2014). Cynicism and turnover intentions are two significant indicators of toxic workplace relations. Turnover intention emerges as one of the most studied effects of cynicism. It is argued that turnover is a costly process for businesses (O’Connell and Kung, 2007; Gim and Ramayah, 2020) and that certain factors, such as occupational stress, burnout and organisational cynicism, can fuel it significantly; others, e.g., job satisfaction, quality work-life and organisational support, effectively mitigate it. We take perceived organisational support as a mediator which is considered as one of the workplace factors affecting employees’ turnover intention
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