Exploring the relationship of horizontal violence, organizational cynicism and turnover intention in the context of social exchange theory Yasin Munir, Muhammad Mudasar Ghafoor and Amran Md. Rasli Yasin Munir and Muhammad Mudasar Ghafoor are Assistant Professors, both at the Department of Commerce, University of the Punjab, Gujranwala Campus, Gujranwala, Pakistan. Amran Md. Rasli is a Professor at the Faculty of Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia. Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship of horizontal violence, organizational cynicism and turnover intention in the nursing profession. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative approach was utilized and 870 questionnaires were distributed to collect data from nursing staff working in Punjab region of Pakistan by using non-probability multistage sampling technique. A total of 711 questionnaires were returned, out of which, 668 questionnaires were scrutinized. Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were applied to analyze the data. Findings – The results revealed an insignificant mediating effect of organizational cynicism between the relationship of horizontal violence and turnover intention. Research limitations/implications – The current study has adopted a multistage non-probability sampling technique to collect data because the management of hospitals restricted researcher access to personal information about the nurses. Therefore, at the first stage, the researcher used convenience sampling and at the second stage, the researcher utilized quota sampling to collect the data. Moreover, the findings of the current study are based on cross-sectional data because of the limited time and resources. Practical implications – The current study fosters the ongoing debate in organizational studies related to cynicism, and it is noteworthy for the nursing managers to understand the significant factors which directly or indirectly affect the nursing attitude. Originality/value – The current study explored the mediating role of organizational cynicism between horizontal violence and turnover intention to fill the research gap. Keywords Structural equation modeling, Social exchange theory, Organizational cynicism, Turnover intention, Confirmatory factor analysis, Horizontal violence Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Organizations flourish because of favorable work attitudes of their employees. However, in many organizations unfavorable attitudes among employees are being explored deliberately. According to attitude theory, attitude is a disposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object, person, institution or event (Ajzen, 1991). A recent survey conducted by Shahzad and Malik (2014) in the health care sector of Pakistan found that the health care sector of Pakistan faces critical issues regarding the attitude of health care staff. An emerging topic in this context is organizational cynicism, which has been defined as follows: “A negative attitude toward one’s employing organization, comprising three elements: (1) a belief that the organization lacks Received 28 August 2016 Revised 24 September 2016 Accepted 14 October 2016 PAGE 254 j INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN HEALTHCARE j VOL. 9 NO. 4 2016, pp. 254-266, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2056-4902 DOI 10.1108/IJHRH-08-2016-0014