Literature Review: the Evolving Understanding of Employee Cynicism

'In the end, you can only slag people off for so long': Employee cynicism through

work blogging

The paper critiques the ideology perspective of employee cynicism, which emphasises imaginary power and the employee’s dependency on corporate culture initiatives. In contrast to the ideology perspective, this study draws on the narratives of work blogs and interviews with bloggers to suggest that being cynical about work can also give an employee a sense of control and attachment to their own occupational or professional community, while providing distance from corporate culture initiatives. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research about employee cynicism and the expanding possibilities researching cyberspace, which increasingly appears to be utilised by employees.

Keywords: employee cynicism; cyberspace; corporate culture; blogging; internet-based research; ideology perspective

Introduction

Over twenty years ago, Kanter and Mirvis (1989: 2) pointed out that employees in the modern workplace “deeply doubt the truth of what their managements tell them and believe that their companies, given a chance, will take advantage of them”. Since the publication of this seminal text, the phenomenon of employee cynicism has attracted a wide-range of scholarly attention. For instance, in the domain of management and organisation studies, employee cynicism has widely been interpreted as a "psychological defect" that needs correction (Fleming and Spicer, 2003), as it is viewed as a precursor for a wide-range of dysfunctional organisational behaviour (e.g. see

Andersson, 1996; Reichers et al., 1997; Dean et al. 1998; Wanous et al., 2004; Bryne and

1 Hochwarter, 2008). An alternative perspective on employee cynicism interprets such phenomena to be an increasingly common form of employee resistance (e.g. see Taylor and Bain, 2003; Collinson and Ackroyd, 2005; Noon and Blyton, 2006). Taking the resistance view, cynicism is interpreted as a self-infused process or as a group empowering strategy that allows employees to take a step back from the pressures of new labour processes. These processes are typically characterised by corporate culture initiatives, or attempts by large organisations to increase market flexibility through shaping employees' selves in the frame of the corporate image (Kunda, 1992). A further perspective on employee cynicism, led largely by a group of Critical Management Studies (CMS) scholars (e.g. Du Gay and Salaman, 1992; Kunda, 1992; Willmott, 1993; Fleming and Spicer, 2003;

Contu, 2008), critiques the resistance interpretation of employee cynicism and instead interprets employee cynicism as an "ideological" response to corporate culture initiatives. Fleming and Spicer

(2003), for example, argue employee cynicism to be an "imaginary" manifestation of power, rather than an actual detachment from power dynamics at work. In their conceptualisation, cynicism is related to imaginary power because the employee continues to be compliant when displaying such behaviour. The CMS perspective argues that cynicism directed towards corporate culture initiatives counts for little if the employees continue to be involved in the everyday practices within which the organisation is inscribed (Du Gay and Salaman, 1992) with Willmott (1993) arguing that corporate culture can lead to employees becoming caught in a viscous circle of partial work commitment, cynicism and dependence on the employing organisation.

In this paper we take issue with the latter interpretation of employee cynicism provided by CMS scholars and argue that being cynical towards corporate culture initiatives need not necessarily lead to an imaginary sense of power. By contrast, we make the case that employee cynicism can potentially offer employees a sense of control and attachment to their own occupational or professional community, while at the same time providing distance from corporate culture initiatives. A further motivation for joining the debate on employee cynicism concerns recent 2 research on "work blogging" (e.g. Richards, 2008; Ellis and Richards, 2009; Schoneboom, 2011a,

2011b) since blogging platforms have become forums for employees to either individually or collectively vent frustrations at corporate culture initiatives. What is unique to such forums is that they offer the potential to explore employee cynicism in a manner not previously possible. With this in mind, the research was designed with the objective of letting the cynical employee speak for himself or herself as it is evident in extant literature that observations of a cynic are fairly limited.

By way of a novel methodological approach, that uses both blog narratives and interviews with bloggers, we argue that the ideology interpretation of cynicism, advanced by CMS scholars, offers an incomplete account of a common employee response to corporate culture initiatives.

The paper is structured in the following way. Firstly, we explain the theoretical perspective underpinning the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism. Incorporated into this section is a discussion of previous approaches to researching the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism, along with discussion of the work blogging phenomenon. Next, the methodological approach is outlined and the data analysis is presented. The final section presents an overall discussion of the findings and the wider implications of the current study.

The ideology interpretation of employee cynicism and the rise of new forums for

employee cynicism

This section aims to discuss the emergence and basis of the various approaches that constitute the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism. We also introduce the work blogging phenomenon as a space that has become increasingly associated with employees expressing a wide-range of views and opinions related to corporate culture initiatives.

The emergence and basis for the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism 3 The ideology interpretation of employee cynicism emerged around thirty years ago out of attempts to theorise employees’ experiences under corporate culture identity initiatives (Fleming and Spicer,

2003). For instance, at "Tech", an organisation studied by Kunda (1992) in the 1980s, customer service was "pushed" like a religion, in that the employer believed employees should see it as

“morally right” to position the customer before everything else. The study revealed that many employees developed a level of ambivalence towards the organisation's expectations and demands, mainly because of an evident contradiction that emerged between corporate cultural initiatives and workplace realities. In such situations, employee ambivalence typically manifested in the form of cynicism. However, Kunda did not report many examples of employee resistance emerging from widespread cynicism, suggesting employee cynicism was a form of analytical insight, rather than a threat to corporate domination.

Du Gay and Salaman’s study (1992) also examined employee cynicism using a study of employee subjectivity under customer culture initiatives. They presented accounts of employees openly rejecting corporate culture initiatives based on customer service, typically via a cynical commentary, while simultaneously demonstrating high levels of compliance with corporate values and expectations. As such, they argued that despite incidents of verbal outbursts of a cynical nature, employees were de facto reproducing the very corporate culture initiatives that created the cynicism in the first place. A further study by Willmott (1993) maintained that opportunistic forms of employee cynicism, as a response to corporate culture initiatives, tend to lead to the employee eventually acquiring a sense of confusion and emptiness. As such, these studies seem to suggest that employee cynicism leads to negative outcomes for the employee.

More recently, research in the area of employee cynicism sees the development of the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism. Notably, Fleming and Spicer (2003) make the case that cynicism can, on the one hand, be seen as a tactic of transgression that employees use to thwart the

4 colonisation of their identities, yet, on the other hand, can also be seen as an unplanned phenomenon that inconspicuously reproduces the relations of power. The authors contend that employee cynicism can be perceived as a ‘conservative social force’ in the contemporary workplace and that cynicism should be typically seen as little more than a temporary hiding space, particularly in instances when corporate ideology becomes overpowering for employees. Contu (2008) also appears supportive of the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism as she points out:

I am suggesting that what are construed as new forms of resistance - the unofficial transgressions

in the underground of neoliberal working life (i.e. scepticism, humour, cynicism, etc.) consist of

an edulcorated resistance. This is a softer resistance, a resistance without the acid that can

destroy the machine of power. It is a sweetened resistance that we can still practice without too

much damage, without paying the price of destroying the machine of power may bring (Contu,

2008: 374).

In order to get a fuller grasp of the strengths and limitations of the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism, however, it is worth noting how employee cynicism has been studied in methodological terms. While Kunda (1992) adopted an ethnographic approach, which appears particularly suited to studying the everyday reality of corporate culture initiatives, other research associated with the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism seems to be lacking empirical evidence. Instead, we see a range of theoretical frameworks being proposed to analyse and develop existing interpretations of employee cynicism (e.g. Du Gay and Salaman 1992). Willmott (1993) draws on Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four to compare and contrast the "Party" with the ideology- driven initiatives of modern corporations. Crucially, in his account of corporate culture initiatives, employees are expected to be self-disciplined, have no room for channelling their emotions and no respites from enthusiasm. According to Willmott (1993), in the absence of the “Thought Police” and the threat of “vaporisation”, self-discipline is created by hegemonic forms of cultural control.

5 Challenges to authority by employees are tolerated providing that organisational rules are not overtly violated.

The work blogging phenomenon

In contrast with the ideology perspective of employee cynicism, where empirical evidence is thin, this paper draws on blogging as the empirical space for exploring cynicism. Work blogging was first discussed in management and organisation studies in relation to employment law and debates were focused on attempts to consider whether such practices should be seen as a reasonable and potentially protected form of employee expression in response to potential employer hostilities (e.g. see Gely and Bierman, 2006; Coté, 2007). Since then, work blogging research has been associated with challenging popular media and managerialist stereotypes of work blogging, as well as considering how to align such activities with those of organised labour.

Schoneboom (2007), for example, argued that work blogs can constitute a counter-hegemonic force to that of the employer’s ideology by creating parodies of work combined with the anonymity afforded by such communication technologies. Richards’ study (2008) suggests work blogging should be viewed as an expanding forum for self-organised employee resistance and misbehaviour, rejecting a reductive view of blogging platforms as forums for “Cyber-waffle” (Keen, 2007). Ellis and Richards (2009), moreover, found employees to be attracted to blogging about work because these online forums offers a form of voice other than that provided by trade unions. Such studies vary in their discussion of employee cynicism. For instance, Schoneboom (2007) believes work blogging forums have moved on from being sites for explicit cynical attacks on employers to more settled and organised vocal movements. Similarly, Ellis and Richards (2009) found evidence of support networks being formed between work bloggers and the use of such forums to reflect on their work experiences over time. Richards (2008) also alludes to possible positive outcomes for employees initially attracted to work blogging as a means of “venting” practice, including

6 connecting with their occupational-related community, going beyond network formation through more conventional means.

More recent research in this field furthers such possibilities and highlights how media attention given to work blogs has led to intense online discussions about the defence of employee rights

(Schoneboom, 2011a). There is compelling evidence to suggest that employees who previously blogged about work have taken such critical commentary and discussions to rapidly emerging and expanding internet platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter (Schoneboom, 2011b; Richards, 2012).

Given the ease of accessibility to such a wide-range of forums on work-related matters, the case to further study the nuances of employee cynicism through such forums appears most appropriate.

Evaluating the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism

To summarise, there are a range of problems associated with the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism. First, studies that support the ideology perspective are predominantly managerialist in orientation, in that they suggest cynicism can be associated with an irrational response to corporate culture initiatives. There appears to be a lack of optimism emanating from this range of CMS-inspired research, with a rather dystopian view taken on working life under corporate culture initiatives. Second, cynicism is widely portrayed as a meaningless employee activity, with further possibilities, such as the potential for resistance, either not considered or denied. Third, there is a clear absence of empirical evidence to provide support for an ideology interpretation of employee cynicism as the cynics’ actual expressions, experiences and thought processes have been rarely drawn upon as a subject of analysis. Furthermore, it could be argued that previous accounts of employee cynicism tend to present snapshot accounts of such activities. Therefore, this study aims to overcome some of these limitations by way of longitudinal empirical engagement with work bloggers, drawing upon wider narratives of cynicism, and accessing accounts of cynicism through the employees’ own voice.

7 Researching cynicism in cyberspace

This section starts with a discussion of the background and context to the study, followed by an overview and evaluation of the research methods used to explore employee cynicism in cyberspace.

Background and context of the study

In autumn 2004, a range of popular media reports emerged claiming that employees were beginning to use "blogs" to discuss employment-relates issues. Such activities only began to attract popular media attention in great volume when employees were disciplined by their employers for such activities (e.g. see Twist, 2005). At the time, one of the authors set up a blog1 as a supporting research tool with the aim of linking with the burgeoning number of work blogs and in order to develop contacts and start forging relationships with employees who blogged about their jobs. The objective was to develop a trusting relationship with work bloggers over time, because employees who keep blogs about their work tend to fear employer reprisals or intrusive and often compromising press coverage. It soon became evident that the majority of work bloggers valued their anonymity and privacy. The issues of anonymity and privacy seem to be less of a problem in survey-based research utilising electronic questionnaires involving several hundred work bloggers

(Richards, 2008). However, when developing the research project to include interviews in 2007 and

2008 it became apparent that "insider status" would only facilitate access to a small minority of work bloggers. At that time, thirty UK-based work bloggers, typically in public service-related employment, were approached on the basis that their blog contents were centred around cynical work-related commentary. After attempting to recruit up to thirty participants for the study, twelve accepted the invitation, three of which later withdrew. Of the remaining nine participants, three expressed a preference for interviews to be conducted using internet-based written forms of communication, rather than the planned telephone interview.

1 The blog was used to regularly link to news and research features about work blogging and the keeper of the blog also uploaded working papers based on research with work bloggers. (http://workblogging.blogspot.com) 8 Research methods

The mixed method approach adopted in our study initially involved lengthy periods of narrative examination of work blog content. The subsequent stages focussed on a more thorough examination of the selected nine blog narratives constructed by the interviewees (see Table 1 for more details of the research participants and details of their work blogs). To gain insights into the blogging activities of our research informants, we examined each of the nine blogs in their entirety and then revisited blog posts with the aim of identifying narratives characterised by employee cynicism. We searched the data using terms including: “management”, “manager”, as well as the official or pseudonym name of the employee’s employer. Considering that blogging practices are the confluence of a wide range of individuals rather than typical of day-to-day work-related behaviour, it seemed appropriate to apply a relatively simple sampling procedure (Jankowski and van Selm,

2005) for a choice of blog postings. This stage also involved detailed reading and note taking from the blog narratives in order to enable the identification of less obvious examples of employee cynicism manifestations. A range of research findings supports the view that individuals who post to the internet disclose more about themselves, and often in a more candid manner, than in other contexts (Joinson, 2005) and so unedited blog posts were examined in detail. This allows for the presentation of narratives through which the cynical employees speak themselves, unmediated and unprompted, and through their own choice of language.

TABLE 1 INSERTED ABOUT HERE

With regard to the interview process, the intention was to conduct semi-structured interviews, via telephone, with questions promoting deeper understandings of work blogging practices. However, such were the anonymity and privacy concerns of some of our research participants, that we agreed to requests for one interview to be conducted via instant messenger (IM) and another two were conducted via email (see Table 1). There are benefits and limitations when conducting interviews

9 via email or IM, although not all are relevant in the specific context of our study. The email interviews were suited to the context because the participants tend to be comfortable communicating in this manner (Young et al., 1998) and such methods also allow participants time to reflect upon the questions (Kivits, 2005). However, email interviews offer less control over the interview flow, particularly given the absence of visual cues (Curasi, 2001). There are different issues at stake when conducting an interview via IM. Indeed, the conversational nature of IM resembles in many ways the oral interview (Luders, 2004) and allows the benefits of semi-private interaction (Kazmer and Xie, 2008). However, because IM interviews are likely to take place in a less informative social environment, they can lead to a somewhat looser structure and a possibility of miscommunication between interviewer and interviewee (Stieger and Goritz, 2006). For purposes of transparency, the type of mediating technology used in the interviews is signalled in the findings section that follows.

From cynicism to beyond cynicism

This section presents data analysis from the work blogs kept by the nine research participants, along with interview data. Evidence is provided to suggest that employee cynicism need not necessarily lead to powerlessness and a dependency on corporate culture initiatives. Instead, employees can use cynical outbursts not only as a means of detachment from corporate culture initiatives, but also to build more sustainable distance.

Using cyber-cynicism to detach from corporate culture initiatives

It soon became evident when analysing the blogs and interviews, that the participants displayed a strong sense of loyalty and dedication to their job, profession or occupation. However, even the most loyal employees are also capable of being cynical and making cynical comments about their 10 employing organisation. Below is an example of a blog extract, containing evidence of an employee feeling manipulated by management:

So today I was on a course and although it wasn't to [sic] bad, it was still all management spiel

and how they want us supervisors to sell the company to our CSA's [customer service assistant]

and to the public. This is all in preparation for dealing with the increase in travelling customers

during the Olymipics [sic] and how our influence them so we can make there [sic] journeys

better, we even had a video from GOD [underscored to represent a hotlink to a photograph of

Tim O’Toole, Managing Director of London Underground Ltd] himself trying to encourage us as

supervisors in our roles as LUL employees. If it isn't enough that training from HQ is mainly

putting out customer service is the way forward to the new recruits, we now have to try and bring

the old timers (me being one of those old timers) on board so that we all sing from the same song

book (blog extract, Transport Security Manager).

The blog extract demonstrates particular sentiments and an attitude of cynicism towards the employing organisation. In an extract from a health professional blogger, we can see a concomitant stance of distancing and compliance towards organisational objectives:

On top of the relentless calls we have management chasing us to turn round quicker and be

available for more jobs. At the end of the day we are a demand driven service and the public

need us in times of illness or injury…but…we are getting sent to more and more and more and

more and more (you get the picture) and more crap!!!!!!!! The Ambulance Service is supposed to

be for life threatening or serious emergencies and we should be sending the right response to the

right patient at the right time…..but we are not!!! We are responding to everything as though it

was life threatening due to stupid f*****g targets and the only way we can protect ourselves is to

time the last job so we clear at the hospital dead on the hour of finishing. This still means we are

late off due to travelling back to station (blog extract, Emergency Medical Technician 1).

11 These blog extracts indicate that employees provide analytical insights into corporate agendas, but at the same time little evidence of a more radical employee-led agenda. However, accepting such evidence at face value, neglects what may lie behind some of the cynicism expressed directly at corporate culture initiatives.

Inside the cynical commentary

Previous studies have shown that employees can detach themselves from the pressures of employment by making use of blogging platforms (Schoneboom, 2007; Richards, 2008). However, the nature of detachment behaviour appears far from straightforward. For instance, employees may use a largely negative tone when escaping from employment to blogging platforms; yet, this should not be automatically associated with resistance-orientated intentions (Richards, 2008). In this study, we also explored what seems to lie beneath the often cynical tone of the work blog. We found blog forums provide space where employees allow themselves to be more candid about their employment practices compared to on work premises. As a Hospital Consultant reveals: '…I [can] express on the blog [what] I would not dare to express in some work place settings' (email interview, Hospital Consultant). The Hospital Consultant went on to explain how his blog aims to challenge the 'spin' of his employer:

…It’s about saving the NHS. It’s about stopping appalling waste of public money on ludicrous

projects dreamed up in chats on a sofa in number 10. It’s about exposing misleading spin. It’s

about trying to stop the government from blaming staff for what is going wrong when the fault

lies elsewhere (email interview, Hospital Consultant).

Another work blogger expressed fear of being seen in the work setting as a '...professional whinger...' (telephone interview, Emergency Medical Technician 1). It was also suggested that blogging platforms represent the '...only place where we [public workers] can go when fed up with

12 management' (telephone interview, Auxiliary Nurse). Indeed, for one employee, blogging was initially viewed as an ideal platform to '...moan about everything [away from work and stop] being so negative [when at work]' (telephone interview, Emergency Medical Technician 2).

It is also apparent that work bloggers are concerned with the sanctions that are available to management when employees express cynicism during work time, with some employees concerned about retribution or condemnation:

… I used to get massively hacked off by the blatant ignorance and stupidity around me, and

reckoned that I needed an anonymous sounding board or I'd go crazy…I used to get very angry

about it, but you aren't allowed to express that anger while on duty. That way was instant P45

territory (IM interview, Parking Attendant).

However, employees also indicated how blogging platforms could be used by the employee to critique stereotypical images of their work:

…people have perceptions of us as lazy buggers (laughs)…They [customers and passengers] get

to see what it’s really like to work on the [London] underground because they often think we’re

not doing anything (telephone interview, Transport Security Manager).

In other examples work blogs appear to represent an opportunity to share '…stories about what happens when working all day' (telephone interview, Bus Driver). Or, act as a means of '...keeping a record of [career activities, developmental opportunities and work-related experiences]' (telephone interview, Emergency Medical Technician 3).

Our analysis suggests little explicit evidence of an outright desire to escalate distancing behaviour to a more conventional form of resistance and some evidence emerges concerning defeatist attitudes towards corporate culture initiatives. However, there is also strong evidence to suggest that

13 employee cynicism can be a trigger for behaviour that does not fit comfortably with more conventional categories of resistance or corporate compliance.

From cynicism to criticism

Insights from the blog narratives and interviews indicate a versatile path of behavioural and attitudinal change over time, with some employees becoming more detached over time, even if such a state is temporary. Indeed, as the following interview extract suggests, cynical attitudes towards corporate culture initiatives are volatile in nature and can lead to confusion and emptiness:

I can only think of a certain sadness that there is all this ridiculous stuff going on in academia

and it's very difficult to do anything about it, and the only way you can do anything is by

anonymous blogging (fat lot of good that does!) and by whistleblowing (bye-bye career)…

(email interview, University Lecturer).

On the whole, the findings provided evidence of employees acquiring a sense of control and attachment to their own occupational or professional community, while providing distance from corporate culture initiatives, rather than employees acquiring a sense of powerlessness. Over time, channelling their energy previously used for venting seemed to enable employees to create a sense of control and a detachment from corporate culture initiatives. The growth of employee-led discourses witnessed on the blogging platforms appears key to understanding how employees can detach themselves from corporate culture initiatives, as illustrated below:

[Work] blogs provide a counter view to received wisdom from “on high”. They tell the story of

the front line, which can often call into question the decisions they are paid to implement. This

provides a counter groundswell to the “top down” view that those who have attained a position

are always right. The revolution [user-generated internet] is that these voices now have an outlet,

making others feel more able to criticise their “superiors” and provide a more structured

14 argument than “my boss is a prat who doesn't know what he's talking about”… (IM interview,

Parking Attendant).

In this example, the employee recognises that largely indiscriminate venting can be turned into criticism, or something that may appear as a credible voice and a force to be reckoned with. This supports Schoneboom's (2007) view that work blogs often change from a forum for mocking management to a cyberspace where employee-led discourses can be created and shared with other employees. The urge to provide "real" accounts of working life under corporate culture initiatives is further evidenced by the following interview extract:

… I like to tell the truth. I don’t make it all exciting and like “Casualty” [popular British

television drama]. And so I can get on with saying what we get up to and all the crap we have to

put up with… (telephone interview, Emergency Medical Technician 2).

A reframing of the situation towards a non-corporate take on daily affairs can indeed become a more achievable and sustainable possibility, particularly when the employee steadfastly subscribes to working practices shared between the employee’s professional association and the employer organisation:

I wouldn’t breach patient confidentiality. There is also a disclaimer and my blog that says all the

opinions on this blog are not of the [NHS] trust I work for or the medical school that I train

under (telephone interview, Auxiliary Nurse).

Of interest is how the readership of the blogs acts as an important dynamic in the formation and development stages of employee-led discourses, as detailed in the interview extract below:

I see what I do as the work of a writer with a readership and an audience…If you’re not writing

creatively they won’t leave comments; they just take one look and then bugger off. But what

keeps people visiting you again is quite difficult; it’s what you do as a writer. I like having 15 people saying that what I’ve written is a very useful piece, it’s very moving, or whatever

(telephone interview, Emergency Medical Technician 3).

Evidence indicates that at the heart of moving beyond cynicism is a process characterised by the creation of alternative, shared, empowering and detached discourses.

A sense of detachment from corporate culture initiatives

In this section we discuss the ways in which cynical employees reduce or remove their conflictual encounters with corporate culture initiatives. At this stage the employee either reduces their cynicism or significantly withdraws their previous commitment to channelling and projecting cynical views of corporate culture initiatives, instead utilising such energies for the purpose of re- asserting a sense of control over the situation. As one of our research participants explained: 'In the end, you can only slag people off [on a work blog] for so long” (telephone interview, Bus Driver).

This statement represents not just a more resilient view of corporate culture initiatives, but also the possibility of a significant degree of detachment from corporate culture initiatives. For instance, several of our research participants outlined how the blogging process helped enable them to focus more on themselves, their values, and their skills, rather than the corporation. For one work blogger, the blogging process had led to opportunities for an alternative career:

…blogging has opened up new opportunities - a playwright contacted me and wanted to know

what exactly happens when an ambulance arrives. I was involved helping her write a script. Then

off the back of that I began taking part in other writing activities that I otherwise wouldn’t have

expected to have done (telephone interview, Emergency Medical Technician 3).

For several bloggers the discovery process involved a more deep-seated change, such as seeking out particular aspects of the corporate world and regularly integrating such information into critical accounts of the workplace:

16 I sometimes find myself wondering around work and thinking that would be interesting to write

about. I’m going to have to do what Tom Reynolds [author of popular emergency medical

technician work blog] does and take with me a little notebook and start noting things down…

[Blogging] is…such a positive thing and I would encourage everyone to keep a blog. I think it’s

amazing (telephone interview, Auxiliary Nurse).

In the example below, an employee reveals how his blog enables him to negotiate a sense of control over day-to-day duties:

[Blogging has]…given me a closer bond with [deleted reference] because he can see what’s

going on in my head. He knows I’ve got a good member of staff here; I can work with this bloke.

So, he knows if I think there’s something wrong, I’ll either mention it to him or he’ll read about

it on my blog (telephone interview, Transport Security Manager).

For some, a state of being post-cynical is not about changing the way in which one views the day- to-day duties of the job and avoiding conflict, but is associated with a sense of validation about what has been achieved, including making wider contact with other individuals who might be experiencing similar challenges:

[Blogging]…has reinforced my views that there is a silent majority out there that are more likely

to be right than our masters who are generally heading in the wrong direction and driven by

political short term gains (email interview, Hospital Consultant).

What emerges from the findings is a rich picture of how cynicism can lead to the employee developing a deeply held sense of detachment from corporate culture initiatives and a closer connection with their own occupational or professional community. The evidence suggests that the employee can, at the very least, periodically be detached from the domineering affects of corporate culture initiatives.

17 Discussion and conclusions

In this paper we have stated our concerns regarding the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism, arguing that CMS-inspired research offers only a partial account of employees’ cynical attitudes towards corporate culture initiatives. The ideology interpretation appears problematic in terms of representing an overly negative, dystopian and deterministic account of cynicism, as well as being based on limited and narrowly focused empirical evidence. Further, while we have acknowledged and demonstrated that employee cynicism may well have negative consequences for some employees, equally significant is the potential for employee cynicism to result in detachment from corporate culture initiatives.

The nature of the research and design of our study enabled us to go beyond the immediacy of employee cynicism and explore how such behaviour evolves over time. Here, we found evidence to suggest online platforms enabled employees to resurrect and galvanise a sense of control and attachment to their own occupational or professional community, while providing distance from corporate culture initiatives. Seemingly, the possibilities for more control in such situations increases in instances where cynicism is communicated in a more supportive social context where non-corporate attachments can be rekindled or newly created. These supportive social contexts refer to instances of community building, situations where employees come together to share similar experiences of corporate culture initiatives, where the codes of professional conduct are respected and adhered to, and where consistent messages are communicated. In more general terms, the findings provide a critique of the ideology interpretation of employee cynicism, but also act as a stimulus to open up broader avenues in the study of employee cynicism.

18 In order to counteract some of the criticism levelled against the ideology perspective and their lack of empirical engagement, we designed a novel methodological approach to researching the phenomenon of employee cynicism. The recent uptake of employee blogging platforms, which provide an outlet for the discussion of matters related to conditions of work and employment, provide an excellent opportunity for direct access to employee opinions and experiences.

Commitment to the development of a long-term and trusting relationship with this community helped further facilitate interviews with bloggers. Unlike the majority of research on cynicism, the research design enabled us to facilitate the voice of the cynical employees, letting the cynic speak.

Although the mixed methodological approach of analysing work blogs and interviews with work bloggers offers numerous advantages, the findings should be treated with a degree of caution due to the limited sample size of research participants. We suggest further empirical research on employee cynicism is likely to advance insights and larger sample-based studies could furnish additional understanding. Further theory development on employee cynicism would be best served by longitudinal studies of employee cynicism, perhaps by studying the social contexts of employee cynicism, whether in a conventional setting or cyberspace. More empirically-driven research is required concerning the phenomenon of the employees’ colonisation of cyberspace and exploration of how such processes may well shed light on a wider range of issues in unpredictable work environments and the ever more precarious nature of employment.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank the reviewers and the editors of NTWE for comments on drafts of this paper.

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23 Table 1: Work bloggers and details of interviews

Name of blog and URL Gender Age Occupation Employer Blogging since Interview Interview date Details of readership method (provided by blogger) 1. Random Act of Male Mid 30s Emergency Medical NHS – London September 2004 Telephone 22nd November About 30,000 people Reality - Technician (EMT) Ambulance Service to February 2011 2007 per day http://randomreality.bl ogware.com/ 2. Trauma Queen - Male Mid 20s Emergency Medical NHS – Scotland September 2004 Telephone 19th February 2008 1,500 to 2,000 unique http://www.traumaque Technician (EMT) Ambulance Service to present readers en.net/ 3. PurplePlus - Male Late 30s Emergency Medical NHS – unknown October 2006 to Telephone 15th November 2007 About 300 hits per day http://kingmagic.word Technician (EMT) ambulance service February 2010 press.com/ 4. Walking the Streets- Male Late 40s Parking Attendant Unknown local January 2005 to Instant 14th November 2007 150-250 visitors a day http://parkingattendant authority May 2010 messenger .blogspot.com/ 5. Bus Driving - Male Mid 60s Bus Driver Stagecoach April 2004 to Telephone 17th January 2008 About 250 per day or http://busdriving.blogs present 1750 a week pot.com/ 6. I’m Not a Drain on Female Mid-20s Auxiliary Nurse NHS Professionals February 2005 to Telephone 9th January 2008 Normally about 250- society - present 300 per day, but can http://bloodystudents.b rise to 2-3,000 logspot.com/ 7. What a Complete Brunt Male Early 40s Transport Security Transport for London April 2005 to Telephone 6th February 2008 About 100-130 hits - manager present per day http://whatacompleteblunt. blogspot.com/ 8 UniSpeak Lossy - Male Age not University Lecturer – Unknown UK September 2004 Email 2nd November 2007 Not known http://unispeak.blogspot.co known computing university to January 2008 (received final m/ email) 9 Dr Grumble - Male Mid 50s Hospital Consultant NHS – unknown October 2007 to Email 4th November 2007 Not known http://drgrumble.blogspot.c region present (received final om/ email)