Goal Ambiguity and Organizational Cynicism in the Public Sector: Is the Perception of Organizational Politics Effective Variable?

Since the main mission of public organizations is to continuously improve the quality of services provided to citizens, cynic employees are seriously threatened by the severe impact of the workplace to fulfilling this important mission. Therefore, it is necessary that each organization design strategies to minimize organizational cynicism. Accordingly, the present study considers the effect of the organizational goal ambiguity on organizational cynicism with regard to the important factor of "perception of organizational politics". The statistical population consisted of managers and staffs of 18 public organizations, of which 926 were selected randomly for the sample. For data collection, a questionnaire was used in Likert scale. Validity and reliability of questionnaires for each variable were confirmed by construct validity and Alpha-Cronbach's coefficient. The analysis of the research data was carried out by structural equation modeling and path analysis, Smart PLS software and SPSS. The results show that, in addition to the effective role of goal ambiguity in targeting organizational cynicism, the organizational goal ambiguity through the perception of organizational politics has a significant impact on the formation of organizational cynicism.