Workplace Inauthenticity Increases Organizational Cynicism: Multimethod and Multicultural Evidence

Organizational psychology portrays workplace inauthenticity as an aversive state that individuals passively endure. Social psychology regards it as a threat to individuals’ virtuous true self that they actively defend against. Bridging the two literatures, the authors predict that workplace inauthenticity triggers an active defense in the form of organizational cynicism, an effect mediated through perceived person–organization value incongruence. The current research reports six studies (total N= 2,844) testing these novel predictions. Using an experimental-causal-chain design, Studies 1a and 2 found that experimentally manipulated workplace inauthenticity predicted perceived value incongruence, and experimentally manipulated value incongruence predicted organizational cynicism. Using a cross-lagged design and a multicultural sample, Study 1b triangulated Study 1a in the field. Using a time-lagged design and ecologically valid or behavioral measures of organizational cynicism, controlling for trait cynicism and trait negative affectivity, and bolstered by non-US or preregistered pilot studies reported in the Supplemental File, Study 3 found support for their predictions in the field. Experimentally or statistically excluding negative affect as a confound or an alternative mechanism, and bolstered by pilot studies reported in the Supplemental File, Studies 4a and 4b examined indirect effects of manipulated workplace inauthenticity on organizational cynicism via perceived value incongruence. They conclude that individuals agentically cope with workplace inauthenticity through morally delegitimizing expressions and subversive behaviors toward employing organizations.