In the first survey, employees completed a questionnaire designed to measure personality traits that may affect cynicism. For example, they were asked to record how often during an average work day they felt distressed, irritable, nervous, hostile, etc. During the second survey 21 months later, workers completed a survey measuring their cynicism about organizational change at the plant. Those who were highly negative, who reported being more irritable and hostile, were not necessarily those who were most cynical. Our questions measuring cynicism had nothing to do with compensation, yet highly cynical workers still saw a connection.
Cynicism spills over and colors how employees see everything about the company and their jobs.
Wanous said managers can reduce worker cynicism by clearly publicizing all successful changes in their company, no matter how small. Sometimes managers may be embarrassed because the improvements seem slow in coming or relatively minor. But if you say nothing, workers are only going to assume that nothing has changed, or that things have actually gotten worse. Wanous uses a baseball analogy to explain how managers should react. You don't have to wait for a home run - let employees know every time you hit a single.