Change-Specific Cynicism among Academia in Malaysian Polytechnics

Abstract

Workers’ cynicism towards organizational change or known as change-specific cynicism refers to the tendency of workers to be cynical about any changes introduced by their respective organisations. Specific change in the organization of this study focuses on the changes of system in Malaysian Polytechnic regarding the corporatization of the organization. This survey-based quantitative study examines the level of informational, organizational and social support factors in association with the academia’s change-specific cynicism towards their organisational change. 263 sets of questionnaires were analysed in this study. The descriptive analysis showed the moderate level for change-specific cynicism among academia and all three main factors associated with change-specific cynicism. Despite the moderate level for independent variables, the results showed that social support was the highest level, followed by organizational relation and information. This indicates that the formation of a framework based on a study of Social Information Processing Theory found the meaningful impact on the findings. Theoretical and practical implications of the study as well as suggestions for future research are discussed.