Predicting cynicism as a function of trust and civility: a longitudinal analysis

AIM: The aim of this study was to examine whether participant views of job resources (i.e. trust and civility) towards their co-workers and supervisors were longitudinally predictive of workplace cynicism, an aspect of burnout. BACKGROUND: Cynicism is a significant predictor of intention to quit among nurses. Social supports are hypothesized to protect workers from becoming increasingly cynical. METHOD: Measures of cynicism, and trust and civility in both co-workers and supervisors were part of a survey completed by a sample of 323 Canadian nurses whose responses were matched across two time-points, 1 year apart. RESULTS: Hierarchical multiple linear regression analyses revealed that co-worker civility enhanced the ability of our regression models to predict cynicism by explaining 1.1% of the variance in cynicism. The addition of co-worker trust, supervisor civility and supervisor trust did not enhance the ability of the models to predict cynicism. CONCLUSION: The results indicated the importance of workgroup civility in diminishing workplace cynicism. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Efforts to reduce burnout may be improved by decreasing cynicism through interventions aimed at increasing workgroup civility.