Organizational communication is an important sub-dimension of communication with its own specific studies, practical and theoretical subjects (Hogard and Ellis, 2006: 174). Organizational communication which is planned to accomplish a certain purpose, coordinated and considered as an official process (Mc Donald and Tanner, 1999: 7) has a significant role in organizations to work effectively and productively (Ekinci, 2006: 14).

Building a healthy communication within an  Organization affects the construction and culture of the organization, the relationships among the staff, technology usage, reporting, information flow, etc. This also provides the organization to reach its goals by affecting the behaviors of the personnel which increase the performance personally and productivity organizationally (Ak?nc?, 1998: 113). In order to develop the organizational communication, it is recommended that the following points be taken into consideration (Vecchio, 2006: cited by Bozkurt, 2010):

1. Using an appropriate language understandable by the receiver.

2. Applying emphatic communication

3. Encouraging feedback

4. Creating a trustful climate

5. Using appropriate communication tools

6. Encouraging effective listening

The quality in education should be increased in order for an education institution to accomplish the functionality expected from it (Özdemir, 2003: 45). To increase quality in education, it has gained significant importance that the satisfaction levels of the personnel working in the education institution should be increased, they should feel they have important roles in the organization, and they should be considered as important individuals (Y?ld?z, 2013). At this point, the communication between teachers, principals, students and other partners of education should be in high quality to increase the satisfaction of individuals and to make them feel they are important in the school. To provide qualitative communication in educational organizations, the principals can identify themselves with the teaching staff, create communication channels according to their needs and provide these channels to be open constantly, provide the teaching staff the chance and opportunity to be aware of what’s going on in the organization and to express their opinions (Gürsel, 2006: 79). It should not be forgotten that creating a democratic environment and achieving the goals effectively in a school firstly depends on mutual communication, such as principal-teacher, teacher-principal, communication and the quality of these communication processes (Celep, 2000: 41).

It has been proved by researches that the communication levels of school partners affect motivation in educational organizations (Özbek, 1998); organizational communication is effective in the management of change (Aksoy, 2005); organizational communication affects organizational commitment (Akba?, 2008; Ba?yi?it, 2006; Ekinci, 2006; Erboz, 2008); there is a positive significant relationship between school culture and organizational communication (Ay?k and Fidan, 2014); the perceptions about organizational communication increase as the behavior of agreeing with the decision increases (Takmaz, 2009); organizational communication affects organizational identification positively (Smidts and Von Riel, 2001); there is a positive relationship between job performance and organizational communication (Chen, Silverthorne, and Hung, 2006), and organizational communication affects job satisfaction positively (Rajesh- Irudhaya,  and Suganthi, 2013; Nobile and McCormick, 2008).

It is thought that besides the fact that effectiveness of intra-organizational communication is a factor that affects the success of the organization, it also has a quiet significant effect on the psychological situations of the individuals working in the organization. It is known that as the motivation levels of the staff decrease when the communication is not in the desired level, the staff develop several negative attitudes. One of these negative attitudes shows itself as organizational cynicism.

Cynicism is the attitude of the individual in which they are pessimistic about their latent purposes, they explain things based on disappointment, and their tendency is to pay attention to others as an instrument to take care or increase their interests (Tokgözv, 2008: 285). Organizational cynicism is defined as the negative attitude of staff towards the organization (Bedeian, 2007:10). Organizational cynicism is “a negative attitude including three components as a belief that someone believes the organization he works for has no honesty or righteousness, critical and abusive tendencies including negative beliefs, feelings and attitudes towards the organization” (Dean et al., 1998, 345).

On analyzing the literature, it is seen that the factors causing cynicism are dealt with under two titles (Karacao?lu and ?nce, 2012:79-81):

Individual factors; personal characteristics are generally used as control or mediating variable. For example; age, gender, marital status, education level, period of service, etc.

Organizational factors; are mostly about the policies applied in the organization. For example; violation of the psychological contract, organizational injustice, the lack of meaning of work, lack of participation in decision-making processes, lack of true support and management, the low quality of leader- member interaction, institutionalized organizational hypocrisy, etc.

Almost every organization has personnel who may display cynical behaviors. It is possible that educational organizations whose input and output are humans can also have teachers, principals and other educational staff who display cynical behaviors. Catching the organizational success, implementing qualitative and productive applications in school are mostly based on the attitudes of the teachers towards the school they work. Therefore, the teachers should not display cynical behaviors or  cynical behaviors that one should try to minimize or eliminate.. A teacher experiencing organizational cynicism can stop  voicing ideas to improve his school, thinking that his ideas about improving the quality of his school will be futile.  He/she may have the idea that his work to improve his school is not appreciated  by others, or to preconceive that the school is not treating  anyone equitable resulting in favoritism. He/she then fails to  , believe that  things are going to be OK, and become pessimistic about the future of the schools (Kala?an and Güzeller, 2010:84-85). In this sense, the teachers should get rid of these thoughts for the effectiveness of the school and organizational communication is thought to have a significant role to play. .

In analyzing the literature, it can be seen that cynicism has three sub-dimensions. Cognitive dimension: It occurs with feelings such as anger, scorn, and condemnation and is a belief that the organization lacks righteousness (Dean et al., 1998: 345-346). Abraham (2000, p.270) stated that because cynics have the belief that organizations lack righteousness, they will not be able to display guiding behaviors to improve the prosperity of the organization, self-sacrifice, voluntariness and positive social behaviors in defending the organization. Affective dimension: It consists of strong emotional reaction such as nuisance, embarrassment (Abraham, 2000: 269). That is, it can be stated that this dimension consists of feelings such as disrespect, disdain, anger, hatred, smugness, moral corruption, disappointment and lack of confidence (Brandes, 1997: 31). Behavioral dimension: It includes pessimistic expressions of the personnel about the things happening in the organization in the future, sarcastic humors, strong critical expressions, etc. (Kutani? and Çetinel, 2010: 188). The most common behavior of the individuals with cynical attitudes is that they have strong critical expressions about the organization. These criticisms may be in different forms, such as using open expressions about the organization’s lack of righteousness and sincerity, etc. (Brandes, 1997, p.31).

In the literature, the types of cynicism are also classified as personality (general) cynicism, social cynicism, personnel cynicism, cynicism towards organizational change and professional cynicism (Abraham, 2000; Dean et al., 1998).

To sum up, it can be said that a healthy school environment can be ensured by the teachers and the principal with less cynical behaviors. It is also thought that organizational communication is the key to prevent cynic behaviors to occur; and the higher the value of the organizational communication is, the less the value of the organizational cynicism is. When the literature is analyzed, it is suggested that the organizational cynicism can cause the organizational communication to decrease (Öncer, 2009:2), and in this case activating intra-organizational communication can prevent organizational cynicism to occur (Efilti et al., 2008; Reichers et al., 1997). In this case, it is expected that the results of this study will contribute to the literature considering that affective communication is a solution offer.

In the literature, limited number of research has been done on cynicism towards change (Reichers et al., 1997) and personnel cynicism towards communication and organizational change (Qian and Daniels, 2008) among the types of cynicism. As a result of the conducted researches, it is considered that communication is both the cause of cynicism towards change and the solution process to remove this kind of cynicism (Reichers et al., 1997). Once again, it has been shown that the communication process, knowledge and the change in the relationships in the work environment have important causative effects on personnel cynicism (Daniels, 2008). As there are  few  researches  analyzing  the  relationship between the organizational communication and cynicism (T?naztepe, 2012), the results of this research are important for the literature. In this study,in which the relationship between the organizational communication and cynicism is to be analyzed, the answers to the questions below are sought:

1. What levels are the perceptions of the teachers working in secondary schools towards the organizational communication and cynicism?

2. Are there significant relationships between the perceptions of the teachers working in secondary schools towards organizational communication and their perception own cynicism?

3. Are the perceptions of the teachers working in secondary school towards organizational communication a significant predictor of organizational cynicism?

Research design

In this survey model study, the relationships between the perceptions of the teachers working in secondary schools towards organizational communication and cynicism are studied. In addition, as the current studies are considered to be inadequate in relating cause and effect relationship between dependent and independent variables, the relations between the variables and the prediction levels of the variables are analyzed within the study.

 

Study group

The study has been conducted on the teachers working in state schools in Palandöken County, Erzurum, Turkey, 2013-2014 academic year. The study group of this research consists of 274 teachers working in 15 secondary schools. The participants consist of 106 (38.7 %) female teachers and 168 (61.3 %) male teachers. On analyzing the distribution of the participants according to professional seniority, it is seen that 32 11.7 %) of the teachers have 1-5 year, 59 (21.5 %) of them have 6-10 year, 75 (27.4) of them have 11-15 year, 65 (23.07 %) of them have 16-20 year, and 43 (15.07 %) of them have 21 year and over professional seniority.

 

Data collecting tools

The data collection process of the study comprises two sections. The first section includes demographic information of the teachers like gender, branch and period of service in the school they work. The second section includes organizational cynicism scale to determine the perceptions about organizational cynicism and organizational communication scale to determine the perceptions about organizational communication.

Organizational Cynicism Scale: “Organizational Cynicism Scale” developed by Brandes (1997) and adapted into Turkish by Erdost et al. (2007) has been used to determine the perceptions of the participants about organizational cynicism. The scale consists of 3 dimensions–cognitive, affective and behavioral-and 14 items. Cognitive dimension consists of five items, affective dimension consists of four items, and behavioral dimension consists of five items. The scale is a five-point Likert scale. Each question is graded as “Strongly Agree”, “Agree”, “Agree Somewhat”, “Disagree” and “Strongly Disagree”. The items of the scale explain 4.19 % of the total variance. In the reliability analysis done by the researchers, Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient for the scale in general is .94, and the coefficients are .88 for cognitive dimension, .88 for affective dimension, and .86 for behavioral dimension, respectively.

Communication Scale: Data about organizational communication were collected with “Communication Scale” whose reliability and validity has been tested in “The Relation between Organizational Communication and Teachers’ Organizational Identification in General High Schools” by Erel-Yetim (2010). The scale includes 34 items related to organizational communication. Communication scale  comprises knowledge based communication (6-16 items), duty based communication (1-5 items), feedback (17-23 items) and attitude and behavior based communication (24-34 items) sub-dimensions. In the research done by Yetim (2010), the internal consistency level of the scale has been determined as Cronbach alpha=.91. The factor load values of the items in this scale range between 0.47 and 0.83. In this four-structured scale, the total explained variance is 53.24 %. This explained variance is accepted to be adequate. In the reliability analysis done within this study, it has been found that the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the scale is .96, and for the sub-dimension they are .83 for knowledge based communication, .90 for duty based communication, .79 for feedback and .89 for attitude and behavior based communication, respectively.

 

Data analysis

Data analysis has been done basically in two steps. In the first step, the data transferred into computer has been analyzed for missing or wrong extreme values; in the second step, the sub-problems of the study have been analyzed. In the analysis for wrong values, the values that have been submitted wrong unintentionally have been fixed.

To analyze the sub-problems in the study, arithmetic mean values of the items in each sub-dimension were determined and a score for that factor was calculated. Analyses were done based on this factor.  In the calculation of the relationships between variables, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was used. However, multiple linear regression analysis was done to determine the prediction levels of the independent variables on dependent variables. In the interpretation of regression analyses,  standardized Beta (β) coefficients and t-test results related to the significance of these were considered. .05 significance score was used in the analysis of the data. 

The findings related to the perceptions of the participants about organizational communication and organizational cynicisms are indicated in Table 1. 

 

 

In analyzing the distributions related to organizational communication and organizational cynicism according to teachers’ perceptions, it is seen that the highest mean in terms of organizational communication dimension is in the knowledge based communication ( =3.66), the lowest mean is in duty based communication ( =3.60) and attitude and behavior based communication ( =3.60) dimensions. The highest mean score in terms of organizational cynicism is in behavioral dimension ( =2.31) and the lowest mean score is in cognitive dimension ( =2.16).

In the next phase of the study, two-way correlation analysis have been done to determine the relations between organizational cynicism and organizational communication according to the perceptions of teachers in the work group, and the results are indicated in Table 2. 

 

 

In analyzing Table 2, it can be seen that there are significant and negative relations between the perceptions of the participating teachers about organizational communication and organizational cynicism. 

After analyzing the correlation coefficients among the variables, it has been found that there are significant and negative relations between the knowledge based dimension of organizational communication and the cognitive dimension  (r=-.47, p<.01), affective dimension (r=-.47, p<.01),  behavioral dimension (r=-.52, p<.01) of organizational cynicism. 

It has been shown that there are significant negative relations between the feedback dimension of organizational communication and the cognitive (r=-.48, p<.01), affective (r=-.47, p<.01), and behavioral (r=-.51, p<.01) dimensions of organizational cynicism.

Besides, it has been found that there are significant negative relations between the attitude and behavior based communication dimension of organizational communication and cognitive (r=-.51, p<.01), affective (r=-.53, p<.01), and behavioral (r=-.56, p<.01) dimensions of organizational cynicism.

In the study, multiple regression analysis has been done between organizational communication and organizational cynicism for the prediction of organizational identification, and the results are indicated in Tables 3, 4 and 5.

 

 

 

 

The prediction of cognitive dimension

Table 3 indicates the multiple linear regression analysis results related to the prediction of the cognitive dimension of organizational cynicism.

As it can be seen in Table 3, it has been found that knowledge based communication, duty based communication, feedback and attitude and behavior based communication dimensions of organizational communication have statistically significant prediction power on the cognitive dimension of organizational cynicism (F=25.937, p<.01). All the dimensions of the organizational communication together can explain 28% (R=.53, R2=28) of the change in the cognitive dimension score. Only the attitude and behavior based communication dimension (β=-.326, p<.01) of organizational communication negatively and significantly predicts the perceptions of the teachers participating in this study about cognitive dimension of the organizational cynicism. Knowledge based communication (β=-.093, p>.05), duty based communication (β=-.063,  p>.05) and feedback (β=-.088,  p>.05) dimensions are not only the predictor of the cognitive dimension of organizational cynicism.

 

The prediction of affective dimension

The multiple regression analysis results related to the prediction of affective dimension of organizational cynicism are indicated in Table 4.

As it is seen in Table 4, it has been found that the knowledge based communication, duty based communication, feedback and attitude and behavior based communication dimensions of organizational communication have statistically significant prediction power on the affective dimension of organizational cynicism (F=28.640, p<.01). All the dimensions of organizational communication can explain 30 % (R=.55, R²=30) of the change in the affective dimension score. The duty based communication (β=-.166, p<.01) and attitude and behavior based communication (β=-.359, p<.01) dimensions of organizational communication predict significantly and negatively the perceptions of the teachers participating in the study about the affective dimension of organizational cynicism. The knowledge based communication (β=-.051, p>.05) and feedback (β=-.023, p>.05) dimensions are not solely the predictor of the affective dimension of organizational cynicism.

 

The Prediction of Behavioral Dimension

Table 5 indicates the multiple linear regression analysis results related to prediction of the behavioral dimension of organizational cynicism.

As it is seen in Table 5, it has been found that the knowledge based communication, duty based communication, feedback and attitude and behavior based   communication   dimensions    of    organizational communication have statistically significant prediction power on the behavioral dimension of organizational cynicism (F=34.147, p<.01). All dimensions of organizational communication together can explain 34 % (R=.58, R2=38) of the change in behavioral dimension score. Only the attitude and behavior based communication dimension (β=-.320, p<.01) of organizational communication predicts significantly and negatively the perceptions of the teachers participating in the study about the behavioral dimension of organizational cynicism. The knowledge based communication (β=-.131, p>.05), duty based communication (β=-.135, p>.05) and feedback (β=-.058, p>.05) dimensions are not solely the predictor of the behavioral dimension of organizational cynicism.

 

The prediction of organizational cynicism

The multiple linear regression analysis results related to the prediction of organizational cynicism are indicated in Table 6.

 

 

It can be seen in Table 6 that the knowledge based communication, duty based communication, feedback and attitude and behavior based communication dimensions of organizational communication have statistically significant prediction power on organizational cynicism (F=38.312, p<.01). All dimensions of organizational communication together can explain 36 % (R=.60, R2=36) of the change in organizational cynicism score. Only the attitude and behavior based communication dimension (β=-.365, p<.01) of organizational communication predicts significantly and negatively the perceptions of the teachers participating in the study about organizational cynicism. The knowledge based communication (β=-.103, p>.05), duty based communication (β=-.131, p>.05) and feedback (β=-.061, p>.05) dimensions are not solely the predictor of organizational cynicism.

In this study, the relations between the perceptions of the teachers about organizational communication and organizational cynicism have been studied. The results of the study have proved that organizational communication is an important variable that predicts of organizational cynicism.

According to the results of the study, the mean scores of the teachers’ perceptions about organizational communication are 3.63. These values show that the perceptions of secondary school teachers range highly between “Agree”. The results of the study show parallelism with studies of Erel-Yetim (2010), Okkal? (2008) and Y?ld?z (2013), in which the organizational communication scores of the teachers were higher than the average. Moreover it has been found that the highest perceived dimension of the organizational communication is knowledge based communication, and the lowest ones are duty based communication and attitude and behavior based communication dimensions. Aksoy (2005) stated in his study in which the perceptions of teachers and principals about organizational communication have been analyzed that motivation, communication new values, participation dimensions have been perceived moderately adequate by the sample. Tulunay (2010) in his study conducted on classroom teachers found that the organizational communication levels have been at medium level.

The results of the study show that the general mean score of the teachers’ perceptions about organizational cynicism is 2.23. This mean value shows that the perceptions of the secondary school teachers range in low level between “Disagree” of organizational cynicism. These results show similarities with the study results of Güzeller and Kala?an (2008) and Y?ld?z et al. (2013) in which they analyzed the attitudes of the teachers working in primary and elementary schools towards organizational cynicism. The behavioral dimension of organizational cynicism is the highest perceived dimension, and the lowest one is cognitive dimension. This evidence conforms to the research results of ?çerli and Y?ld?r?m (2012) which, have resulted that the highest perceived dimension has been behavioral and the lowest one is cognitive dimension and the study has been done on the institutions apart from educational institutions.  Moreover, in the study conducted by Arslan (2012) it has been determined that the lowest perceived dimension of organizational cynicism is cognitive dimension. On the other hand, Özgan et al. (2012) and Kasalak and Aksu (2014) have determined in their study that the cognitive dimension of organizational cynicism is the highest perceived dimension. It can be interpreted that the results may vary because the sample groups and/or the instruments are different. According to the result of the study, the cognitive dimension whose mean score has been found to be lower can be interpreted as the belief that the individuals are not honest about the institution they work in; their tendency to have intensive negative feelings and to react happens less. The results of the study show that the dimensions of organizational communication have negative and significant relations with all the dimensions (cognitive, affective and behavioral) of organizational cynicism. T?naztepe (2012) has determined in his study about the relation between organizational cynicism and organizational communication that intra-organizational communication has significant negative effects on organizational cynicism. This result can be interpreted that as the perceptions of the teachers about organizational communication increase, their perception levels about organizational cynicism decrease. 

Regression analysis results explain 36 % of the total variance of organizational cynicism together with all the dimensions of organizational communication. The regression analysis results show that duty based communication dimension of organizational communication predicts the affective dimension of organizational cynicism significantly and negatively. Organizational communication provides the members of the organization transfer, share and create meaning (Bakan and Büyükbe?e, 2004), and thus it provides the productivity of the organization to increase. The affective component of organizational cynicism consists of strong feelings like disdain, anger, sadness and shame (Abraham, 2000: 269). In this context, it can be said that the positive perceptions of the teachers about their duty can predict that they feel less disdain, anger, sadness and shame about their organizations.

Only the attitude and behavior based communication dimension of organizational communication has significantly and negatively predicted the cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of organizational cynicism. Current research results support the results of the studies by Reichers et al. (1997), Wanous et al., (2000), Qian and Daniels (2008), T?naztepe (2012). According to Reichers et al. (1997), change programs that fail constantly, lack of information about change and tendency to cynicism cause the development of cynicism towards organizational change. Reichers et al. (1997) stated that among the possible reasons of organizational change are personnel’s feelings that they are uninformed, the negative attitudes of principals and union representatives, lack of communication and respect, and lack of opportunity to participate in resolution process. According to Wanous et al. (2000), cynicism towards organizational change is caused by organizational factors. These factors are pessimism about the amount of the change experienced before and the success rate of the previous change attempts, the amount of the principals’ allowance the teachers to participate in decisions and the effective role of the administration. According to the study, the role of the administrator is effective listening, providing information, communicating effectively, approaching the personnel from their view of perspectives, encouraging to participation, involving them in decisions, answering the questions, etc. Qian and Daniels (2008) have stated that communication plays a key role in the happening of employee cynicism, communication process-information and relations around the organization have important causative effects on employees’ cynicism.

The important results of the study can be summarized as:

1) Organizational communication according to teachers’ perception in secondary schools range highly interval “agree”.

2) While the knowledge based communication is the highest perceived dimension of the organizational communication, the lowest level perceived dimensions are duty based communication and attitude and behavior based communication.

3) The perception levels of the teachers working in secondary school about organizational cynicism range between “disagree”, and are at low levels.

4) While the highest perceived dimension is the behavioral dimension of organizational cynicism, the lowest perceived one is cognitive dimension.

5) It has been seen that organizational communication has significant and negative relations with all the dimensions (cognitive, affective and behavioral) of organizational cynicism.

6) It has been determined that the affective dimension of the organizational cynicism significantly and negatively predicts the duty based communication dimension of organizational communication.

7) Only the attitude and behavior based communication   dimension   negatively   and   significantly    predicts    the    cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions of organizational cynicism. 8) Only the attitude and behavior based communication dimension of organizational communication significantly and negatively predicts the perceptions of the teachers about organizational cynicism.

Based on the study results, seminars related to the importance of organizational communication and organizational cynicism can be given to the school principals to prevent the teachers to have cynic behaviors, attitudes and judgments. The variables of the study can be studied on different sample groups by using qualitative research methods. 

The author has not declared any conflict of interests.