Investigating the Impact of Organizational Rumor and Gossip on Employees’ Job attitudes and Performance through Organizational Cynicism in the Public Sector

Over the centuries, spreading gossip and rumors has been a common act among all cultures and some measures have been taken to put an end to these acts. these two important social phenomena have found their way into organizations and workplaces. the researches have shown that most of the employees spread gossip, eavesdrop on others’ conversations, or at least, express their assessments about people who are absent. the existing evidence indicates that spreading gossip and rumor affects the employees’ behavior. however, the researchers are not interested in investigating spreading gossips and rumors and their impact on employees' behavior and job attitude. human resource managers can monitor the spread of gossips and rumors and take proper measures to reduce their negative influences by having a better understanding of their affecting factors. taking into account that employees behave in different ways and every behavior in the workplace cannot be monitored, this research focuses on employees’ cynicism and some outcomes. it seems that in the new millennium the employees are more subject to cynicism than before because today's corporate environments are riffed with mistrust, scandals, and opportunistic behaviors. according to previous research, employees' cynicism is accompanied by negative consequences such as reduced level of performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment, and increased turnover intention. the current research accordingly aims at investigating the impact of spreading organizational rumors and gossip on employees' job attitudes and performance through cynicism in public organizations of mashhad city.

In general, gossip is described as a conversation between two or more people about absent people stated that gossip is a dynamic process the impact of which gossip depends on the gossip triad i.e., the interaction between the gossiper, listener/respondent, and the target. rumor is also defined as the person-to-person circulation of stories, information, and unfounded news, which is based on common opinions and obtains credit through its repetition and dissemination. the rumor's veracity cannot be confirmed however it is not necessarily untrue. the association between gossip and rumor with cynicism is considered because of the following reasons: a) cynicism provides the best food for the gossipers, bystanders, and people who like making and spreading rumors; b) gossip and making rumors require a social setting as a tool for transmitting the information; c) some people, based on the theory of social information, may receive valuable information through gossips and rumors and act based accordingly. besides, it appears that cynicism has a negative relationship with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance, and a positive relationship with intent to leave the organization. the employees, who have high organizational cynicism, less trust the organization because they believe that the organization does not consider their interests. in addition, a deep emotional bond with the organization is necessary to build commitment and, thus, it can be argued that high levels of organizational cynicism are associated with low levels of organizational commitment. additionally, these cynical people have negative attitudes toward their job (e.g., lower job satisfaction) and organization (e.g., lower organizational commitment) resulting in organizational turnover. finally, cynical employees who are disappointed with the performance of the organization probably do not find any relationship between their own performance and the reward they receive and, thus, consider themselves as a tool for the organization to fulfill only its goals. this perceived instrumental attitude can lead to decreased efforts and performance.

The current study was an applied and analytical survey. the statistical population of this study was comprised of employees working in public organizations of mashhad city 480 of which questionnaires were surveyed by distributing a questionnaire designed based on 5-point likert-type scales. the face and content validity of the questionnaire were examined and approved by evaluating the opinions of management experts. the construct validity of the questionnaire was approved by conducting a confirmatory factor analysis. the questionnaire's reliability was assessed using cronbach's alpha coefficient, all of which were above 0.7. research results indicated the significance of all the factor loadings. to analyze the obtained data, a structural equation modeling was employed in amos software.

Research results revealed a positive significant relationship between organizational cynicism, non-workplace gossip, and rumors. these results are consistent with that of kuo et al. (2015) and hornuvo (2017). besides, research results demonstrated the stronger impact of workplace gossip on organizational cynicism than on non-workplace gossip. in accordance with the obtained results, it can be stated that the employees might show less tendency to notice this type of gossip and may not show earnest response to its sources. also, given the fact that the non-workplace gossip is pertinent to personal life, the employees may not associate the pressure regarding this gossip with their colleagues or the organization. on the other hand, workplace gossip has more impact on the employees' perception and behavior in the workplace, since it is pertinent to the employees' job, colleagues, and customers. in addition, results indicated a positive and significant impact for the variable of spreading rumors on cynicism. this effect was stronger than the other two variables i.e., the workplace and non-workplace gossip. consistent with the relevant literature, it can be argued that spreading rumors could involve a large number of people and, therefore, might have a greater impact on cynicism. regarding the four final hypotheses, cynicism had negative impacts on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance, and a positive and significant impact on turnover intention. these results are also consistent with that of sungur et al. (2019) and wilkerson et al. (2008).

In general, it can be stated that cynicism in public organizations may decrease the motivation to render services and subsequently reduce the efficiency of these organizations. considering the fact that the iranian society welcomes gossip and rumors and is prone to cynicism, the same culture is unfortunately transferred into the organizations and may result in decreased job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and performance, and increased turnover intention. therefore, people's satisfaction with the public sector may be reduced. the managers of public organizations should accordingly pay special attention to the understudy variables. taking into account the results, we recommend future researchers examine the proposed model moderated by organizational or national culture and compare the results with that of the current study.