As the public sector continues to go through
transformational change, it is important to identify
organizational factors that impact on employee attitudes
to change. There is limited empirical evidence about the
determinants of cynicism toward change, particularly in
the public sector environment. In this paper, a model is
proposed which identifies three key antecedents of
cynicism toward change: change information,
involvement in change, and trust in senior management.
Data were collected from two public sector organizations
to identify levels and correlates of cynicism toward
change and to test the proposed model. The results of
exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis
and structural equation modeling suggest that change
information, involvement in change processes, and trust
in senior management influence cynicism toward change.
More specifically, evidence is presented which suggests
that involvement in change, communication about
change, and trust in senior management directly
influence cynicism toward change, and that information
about change and involvement in change directly
influence trust in senior management. Collectively the
antecedent variables accounted for just over fifty percent
of the variance in cynicism toward change. In general
terms, the findings will prove helpful to human resource
practitioners interested in diagnosing and managing
attitudes to change in public sector organizations.