Cynicism in Which Organisation Does It Thrive?

Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. ANALYSIS OF CYNICISM ON THE WORKFLOOR 4

2.1 DEFINITION OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF CYNICISM 4

2.1.1 View of Andersson 4

2.1.2 View of Mc Namara 5

2.1.3 View of Dean, Brandes and Dharwadkar 5

2.2 CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CYNICISM 6

2.2.1 Theory of contract violation 7

2.2.2 Causes and effects by McNamara 9

2.3 RELATION BETWEEN EMPLOYEE CYNICISM AND ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN 9

2.4 CYNICISM AND THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ORGANIZATION 12

2.4.1 Entrepreneurial organisation 12

2.4.2 Machine organisation 13

2.4.3 Diversified organisation 13

2.4.4 Professional organisation 14

2.4.5 Innovative organisation 14

2.5 REDUCING CYNICISM WITH CHANGES IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN 15

3. CONCLUSION 17

4. REFERENCE LIST 18

1. Introduction

Nowadays cynicism can be found in every organisation and everywhere in the world. It started early with the establishment of a cynic school by a Greek scholar Antisthenes in the fifth century. More precisely, it was one of his pupils, Diogenes who “wished to live an exemplary life of worldly goods” (Andersson, 1996, p.1395). He created the way of thought and the way the cynics lived. The prevailing mission in their minds was to live at the minimum standard of living with a few clothes and high standards of ethics and morality. They refused the social standards of living and are contemptuous of society’s institutions, including cherish, religion association, which were unnatural and unnecessary. Later on, their view changed, believing that it is not enough to follow ethics and morality rather stating resistance and apathy. Evidence suggests that there is a distrust of government, business and labour since the 1960’s (Andersson, 1996). Also, in large as well as in small organisations cynicism is at stake, a topic that attaches the society with its importance. Especially, cynicism on the workfloor, which is indicated by an extremely negative attitude of the employee and even scorn toward the organisation, needs to be discussed (Dean, Brandes and Dharwadkar, 1998). The organisational cynicism results in frustration, hopelessness, disillusionment and hence harms the competitiveness of the firm as well as inhibits effective organisational change if necessary. The increasing number of cynics and the decreasing confidence in organisations will lead to serious problems in the future, where organisations are getting more complex and are subject to change in today’s environment. However, every form of organisation is affected differently. Therefore the following question arises: In which kind of organisation is cynicism prevailing and how does the organisational design affect cynicism?

To analyse this broad topic, several subquestions should be clarified to provide an answer to the thesis statement. They are subdivided into different chapters. The first chapter addresses the questions what cynicism exactly is and how it is defined by various authors. To get a deeper explanation about the topic, the second chapter analyses the causes and effects of cynicism. After clarifying the background knowledge, the third chapter explains the relation between organizational cynicism (or employee cynicism) and organizational design. To get more to the answer of the thesis statement the fourth chapter expresses the affect on cynicism within the different types of configurations distinguished by Henry Mintzberg. The last chapter draws the attention to possible solutions of how a change in design could reduce cynicism. Finally, a conclusion with the important results addressed will be given.

2. Analysis of cynicism on the workfloor

2.1 Definition of different kinds of cynicism

The meaning and relevance of cynicism changed over the years. The ancient Greek established it and today cynicism is widespread all over the world in every kind of business and institution. The organisational or employee cynicism is an important kind of cynicism where the employee or the manager acts cynically. According to the Oxford English dictionary a cynic