Do leaders reap what they sow? Leader and employee outcomes of leader organizational cynicism about change Robert S. Rubin a, ⁎, Erich C. Dierdorff a , William H. Bommer b , Timothy T. Baldwin c a Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, DePaul University, United States b Craig School of Business, California State University, Fresno, United States c Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, United States article info abstract Despite increased attention given to the attitude of organizational cynicism, few studies have examined the impact of leader cynicism in organizations. The present study sought to investigate relationships between leader cynicism about organizational change (CAOC) and outcomes relevant to both the leader (performance and organizational citizenship behavior ratings) and his/her employees (employee organizational commitment and CAOC). Using data from 106 manufacturing managers, leader CAOC was found to negatively influence both leader and employee outcomes. Of particular importance, transformational leader behavior was found to fully mediate these relationships and thus served as an important explanatory mechanism. A discussion concerning the potential consequences of these findings for organizations is provided. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Cynicism Cynicism about organizational change Transformational leadership Leader attitudes The last decade has witnessed increased scholarly attention paid to the construct of organizational cynicism. Organizational cynicism is generally defined as an attitude of “contempt, frustration, and distrust toward an object or multiple objects” (Andersson, 1996, p.1397). This general attitude is known to be theoretically and empirically distinct from dispositional constructs (Bateman, Sakano, & Fujita, 1992; Guastello, Rieke, Guastello, & Billings, 1992; Kanter & Mirvis, 1989) including but not limited to trait cynicism (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003; Stanley, Meyer, & Toplnytsky, 2005), negative affectivity, and skepticism (Reichers, Wanous, & Austin, 1997; Wanous, Reichers, & Austin, 1994). Further, organizational cynicism has been shown to be malleable (e.g., Bommer, Rich, & Rubin, 2005) and “susceptible to change by exposure to factors in the environment” (Andersson, 1996, p. 1397). In this sense, organizational cynicism cannot be simply attributed to feelings that “negative people bring into the organization” but is “shaped by experiences in the work context” (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003, p. 640–641). Such experiences can include organizations achieving consistently poor results, layoffs, repeated failed change efforts, psychological contract violations, and excessive executive compensation (Andersson & Bateman, 1997; Davis & Gardner, 2004; Wilhelm, 1993). The preponderance of research examining organizational cynicism suggests that cynicism has important and prolonged negative effects on individual and organizational effectiveness. For example, organizational cynicism has been associated with decreases in organizational citizenship (Abraham, 2000; Andersson & Bateman, 1997), job satisfaction, organizational commitment (Abraham, 2000; Reichers et al., 1997), motivation, and intent to create change (Stanley et al., 2005; Wanous, Reichers, & Austin, 2000). Thus, it appears that organizational cynicism is often associated with a certain level of toxicity in organizational environments. Yet, a close examination of the extant literature reveals studies exclusively focused on the effects of cynical employees to the large neglect of cynicism among managers. Such neglect is rather unfortunate as managers occupy positions that provide them the legitimate role and potential to influence both the attitudes and behaviors of numerous people (Bass, 1990). Thus, the magnitude of a manager's cynical attitude can have far-reaching negative effects both for him/herself and the people he/she leads (Bommer, The Leadership Quarterly 20 (2009) 680–688 ⁎ Corresponding author. Department of Management, DePaul University,1 East Jackson Blvd., Suite 7000, Chicago, IL 60604, United States. Tel.: +1312 362 6145. E-mail address: rrubin@depaul.edu (R.S. Rubin). 1048-9843/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.06.002 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect The Leadership Quarterly journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/leaqua