VIEWPOINTS : Countering Cynicism in the Workplace : Management Can Create a Sense of Fairness, Foster Realistic Hopes

It’s easy to spot the cynics at work. Simply listen to conversations on the shop floor, at the water cooler, in the executive washrooms. The message is the same: “They (the authors of management communications, the sponsors of new corporate programs, the champions of company innovations) are not to be trusted and are only out for themselves.”

More than 40% of the American work force doubts the truth of what management tells them, according to a study we recently concluded. A like percentage believes that management will take advantage of them, given a chance.

At best, cynics adopt a “wait and see” attitude. At worst, their negativism becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy of failure through which any message, program, or innovation is doomed. This corrosive outlook threatens country and community, and, in business, the fabric of organization life.

Surely some of the increase in alcohol and drug consumption among the work force, as well as the decrease in product quality and productivity, is related to cynicism at work. In order for America’s business to redress these trends, it has to manage cynicism and cynics.

In order for managers to deal with cynicism in the workplace, they need, first of all, to understand its origins.

Some companies consciously bring out cynicism in people. Certain industries, such as high finance and advertising, cultivate the cynical personality. And certain ways of doing business--the use of tall hierarchies, for example, or allowing decision-making to become politicized--produce the same result.

Many companies also unintentionally play on people’s high expectations and then disillusion them. As an example, annual reports say that “people are our most important asset” and then provide no evidence that people are well managed or developed.

Promises of generous benefits, frequent performance reviews and bright career opportunities, while motivating, breed cynicism when benefits are reduced by corporate fiat, reviews become perfunctory and ceremonial and career planning gets put off until a better quarter.

On the other hand, many workers--particularly the baby boomers and newcomers--have developed insatiably high aspirations. Many believe that they are entitled to outstanding pay, benefits and security and expect to be fulfilled on the job. It doesn’t matter that their aspirations might be unrealistic. What does matter is that they mistrust management statements that the company has to reduce costs to become more competitive and chafe in jobs that don’t meet their needs for self-actualization.

Such workers are victims of their own expectations about their pay and job opportunities, about how they will be treated and how much they will contribute. Along the way, many discover that raises are not related to merit, that work is often mundane and boring and that nobody recognizes or appreciates what they are doing. Their experience of disappointment and disillusion breeds cynicism. In turn, cynicism detaches them and shows them that involvement has no real payoff.

It’s a vicious cycle. High expectations are setting people up for disappointment. Yet, in many instances, managers contribute by playing on those expectations and then failing to deliver.

Our data show that 43% of the working population fit the profile of the “strong” cynic, who sees selfishness and guile as the dominant part of human nature. Strong cynics believe that most people will lie if they can gain by it, that they pretend to care about one another more than they really do and that they claim to be honest and moral but fall short when money is at stake.

Strong cynics are more prevalent in the lower echelons of organizations and have less education than other workers. Still, cynics are found in all ranks and from all socioeconomic groups.

Put Style to Work

Stockbrokers involved in insider trading deals have figured out how to work the system. Corporate chieftains, buying and selling companies, and young careerists, jumping from job to job, have put the cynical style to work as well. But the largest proportion of cynics comes from the ranks of those with less education, those on the lower rungs of the income ladder and the minorities. They can’t turn to creative finance and have no other job prospects. Their retreat to cynicism has left them cold and embittered.

What can companies do to reach an increasingly cynical work force? To temper their expectations, counter their suspicions and gain their confidence?

Our formula for countering cynicism--by no means magical--involves atmosphere, the basics and trustworthy communication.

Atmosphere goes a long way in determining whether cynicism grows or withers. There is a great need for egalitarian atmospheres in which workers and managers share common parking places and lunchrooms, and in which management perks such as stock options and bonuses are either eliminated or shared. Many corporate “excellence” programs, which call for less bureaucracy and more management by walking around, also address this need.

Cynics trade in symbols and seize on signs that those in authority are only out for themselves. A people-oriented atmosphere carries quite a different message. It puts bosses in touch with workers, de-bureaucratizes a company and makes people central to the success of the enterprise.

A second way to reach cynics is through better management of the basics--pay, benefits, reviews, promotions and so on. Cynics won’t be taken in by symbols. Human resource systems must be truly fair to people and responsive to their needs. Moreover, management must provide information about these systems, ensure that they are competently and fairly administered and assess their impact through periodic reviews with the people whose lives they affect.

Cynics are convinced that “something” is being manipulated behind their backs. To counter this belief, management systems have to be open and transparent.

Edward Lawler, a management professor at the University of Southern California, proposes, for example, that companies adopt open pay systems, where all of the rates, steps and grades are made public to employees. Interestingly, Lawler finds that people overestimate what their peers are making until the rates are made public. More broadly, this implies to us that management has got to convince cynics--through substance, not symbol--that the “game” is fair.

Another way to fight cynicism is by giving people more say in the basic operations of a company. Participative management can be helpful in the design of compensation and career development systems, and in shop floor and office decision-making. This brings people inside the mechanics of running a business and makes them responsible for their own careers. It also counters cynics’ claims that decisions in a company are always rigged and manipulated.

Communication is the final, and most important, key in reaching cynics. Cynics believe that communications are intended to deceive and manipulate, and they distort management communications to fit their cynical outlook.

Communication needs to be two-sided, so that charges of any cover-up can be neutralized. And it needs to be honest, for cynics will pick up on discrepancies and doubt the truth of everything that has been said. The presentations should be low-key, cool and factual, giving people information, not propaganda. The spokesperson, in turn, should be someone from senior management, not a flunky, because cynics are especially interested in hearing things from a credible source.

Finally, communications need to be followed by conversation. Informal rap sessions can be used to defuse cynics’ twisted perspectives on information and can expose them as a minority when the heretofore silent majority speaks its piece.

Let’s face it: The solution is not as simple as A-B-C, and surely cannot be implemented by the one-minute manager. Old gimmicks--uplifting but empty promises and special programs that are more show than substance--won’t reach the cynical worker or manager. Companies have to approach them in a more genuine--and less cynical--fashion.