Embracing the ‘fad of the day’

Many employees have seized to embrace organizational changes the way their bosses expect them to, grudgingly dismissing every new transition effort as yet another management ‘fad’ which, too, shall pass. Contrary to what their leaders frequently think, however, such reluctant responses to change on their part often have little to do with a general unwillingness to support change. Much rather, they may be rooted in deep frustration and irritation due to a history of prior changes which the affected employees experienced as costly and painful, but which failed to yield satisfactory results. Therefore, trying to cope with such negative feelings about corporate transitions, they eventually adopt a cynical attitude towards changes and change agents – cynicism which may leave its marks in terms of resistance and withdrawal, though, and which may thus become an obstacle to the implementation of change. After providing a detailed analysis of the significance of cynicism in organizations, this book offers a comprehensive new approach to the notion of change-oriented employee cynicism and carefully explores its causes and implications in a meta-analysis and two distinct empirical studies. Based on these insights, detailed recommendations for Organization Development (OD) consultants, change practitioners, and HR managers are given as to how corporate changes can be designed in less cynicism-provoking ways to make future change programs more successful.