TARC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

LEARNING & TEACHING 2016 (TIC 2016)

TAR UC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Cynicism Toward Educational Change on Job Satisfaction of Teachers

in an Educational District - Once Bitten, Twice Shy?
Joanne Sau-Ching Yim*1, Priscilla Moses 2, Siew Chee Choy 3
1
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, MALAYSIA.
(yimsc@mail.tarc.edu.my)
2
Universiti Tunku Abul Rahman, MALAYSIA.
(priscilla@utar.edu.my)
3
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, MALAYSIA.
(choysc@mail.tarc.edu.my)

ABSTRACT

This study investigates teachers‟ cynicism toward educational change and their job satisfaction on the
implementation of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, a major education transformation effort in
Malaysia. Data were collected from 628 practicing teachers, selected through cluster sampling from an
education district in Malaysia. Two well established instruments were used, the Job In General (JIG) scale to
measure satisfaction, and the Cynicism About Organisational Change (CAOC) scale to measure pessimism
about change being successful and attribution of likely failure of change on people responsible for change.
The prevalence of teachers‟ cynicism toward the blueprint is examined with descriptive analysis, and
hierarchical regression is used to determine the relationships and contribution of cynicism toward teachers‟
satisfaction. Findings are discussed with implications that may contribute toward successful educational
change.

Keywords: Cynicism Toward Change, Job Satisfaction, Educational Change, Malaysia Education
Blueprint 2013-2025

Introduction: The Malaysia Education Blueprint
2013-2025 (MEB 2013-2025) is currently the
signatory education reformation package offered
by the government. It is described as the biggest
manifestation of government transformation so as
to get the best returns in human capital to drive all
national development aspirations. The blueprint
outlines comprehensive transformation programs
with 11 improvement thrusts to enhance outcomes
of education (Ministry of Education [MOE],
2013). One of the thrusts is to specifically
“transform teaching into the profession of choice”
(MOE, 2013, p. E-14), to attract top academic
achievers to propel the system to be one of the top
third countries in terms of student performance
(MOE, 2013). As the country heads toward a
developed nation in 2020, this blueprint could
well be the final thrust toward the realization of
this vision. However, it has been observed that
not all reforms have been successful. Some of the
less successful ones have been left aside while
other newer initiatives are introduced
(Malakolunthu, 2010). Some of the reforms have
not achieved the impact it purported to produce,
with u-turns carried out in the form of major
policy changes (Hallinger, 2010; Malakolunthu,
2010). For example, the medium of instruction for
Science and Mathematics initially in Malay was
changed to English, and then back to Malay again
due to the deterioration of student performance
for both subjects (Rokiah et al., 2012). Efforts
toward implementing ICT in education also did
not manifest clear success. Despite investment of
about RM 6 billion over the past decade, ICT
usage in schools still fall short with reports that
computer use in the classroom has not gone
beyond word-processing as an instructional tool
(MOE, 2013). Not all changes are ideal and past
changes that were not successful can leave
teachers extremely wary about accepting further
attempts of change, predisposing cynicism toward
future changes (Greenberg & Baron, 2000;
Wanous, Reichers, & Austin, 2000).
Qian and Daniels (2008) suggest that cynicism
toward change is a passive barrier to
organisational change. Investigations into this
construct is important especially in Malaysia
where cultural norms of high power distance and
collective attributes result in stakeholders‟
inclination to accept educational change without
resistance in order to preserve group harmony
(Hallinger, 2010). This tendency to avoid public
dissent may result in suppressed disagreement and
delay change adaptation (Hallinger, 2010).
Reichers, Wanous, and Austin (1997) suggest
employees do not simply decide to be cynical, as
their cynicism is developed through experience,
and persists due to mixed record of successful and
unsuccessful change, and influence by other
people who have similar cynical views. Such
context of change have led scholars to
conceptualise cynicism about organisational
change to be a learned response, rather than a
personality trait (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003;
Wanous et al., 2000).
The current study adopts the Cynicism About
Organisational Change (CAOC) scale which
consisted of two components: Pessimistic
viewpoint about change being successful and
Blaming people responsible for change for likely
failure of change (Wanous et al., 2000). This scale
was developed with reference to Attribution
Theory which postulates that people are inclined
to impute two types of factors to an observed
outcome: Situational factors and (or) dispositional
factors (Heider, 1958). Situational factors are
aspects beyond the control of a person which may
affect change such as unexpected departmental
budgetary cut, while dispositional factors are
within-person factors such as competency and
ability of managers that determine change
success. Konakli (2016) illustrated the
contribution of dispositional factors to cynicism
when it was found that dispositional traits of
school management inversely influence teachers‟
cynicism. The more sensitive and sincere on the
part of school management, the less cynical
teachers may become. Based on the theoretical
foundations of Attribution Theory, the two
components of the CAOC scale were labelled as
Pessimism which is caused by situational
attribution, and Cynicism Toward Management
which is caused by dispositional attribution (Kath,
2005). This study adapts these two components of
CAOC, and investigates their effect on teachers‟
job satisfaction.
Researchers in educational change noted that the
global patterns of educational reform overload
and teachers‟ work intensification has affected
their job satisfaction (Fullan, 2007). Although
teachers‟ job satisfaction is a widely investigated
construct, it deserves update whenever new
changes are introduced, lest these changes result
in “self-deceiving public exercise of education
reform and a waste of energy and resources”
(Nurul-Awanis et al., 2011, p. 110). The inclusion
of cynicism in investigating job satisfaction is
supported by studies that found negative
correlations between organisational cynicism and
job satisfaction (Arabaci, 2010; Volpe,
Mohammed, Hopkins, Shapiro, & Dellasega,
2014)), while meta-analyses have noted an effect
size of .58 true score correlation (Chiaburu, Peng,
Oh, Banks, & Lomeli, 2013). Other researchers
have suggested that organisational cynicism has
resulted in a decrease of job satisfaction level in
the last decade (Nafei, 2013). Hence, an
investigation into teachers‟ cynicism toward
change would be timely with the implementation
of MEB 2013 – 2025.
Statement of the Problem:
This study aims to investigate the effect of
teachers‟ cynicism toward educational change on
their job satisfaction. While studies have
improved our understanding of teachers‟
satisfaction, there is a paucity of studies about
their cynicism toward educational reformation.
Prolonged and widespread cynicism could
potentially become a precursor to more aggressive
expression of dissent such as resistance to change
(Qian & Daniels, 2008). Hence it is important to
examine teachers‟ opinion during educational
change as they are the very people who are tasked
to implement changes. It must be noted that a
majority of studies done on cynicism have
focused on organisations in Western countries
(Mohd Noor, Mohd Walid, Ahmad, & Darus,
2013), hence the findings from this study will
contribute to bridging this literature gap in
Southeast Asian countries.
Objectives of the Study: Three research
questions (RQ) underpin the current study:
RQ1: What is the level of cynicism among
teachers toward the MEB 2013-2025?
RQ2: Is there any relationship between teachers‟
cynicism toward the MEB 2013–2025 and their
job satisfaction?
RQ3: What is the relative contribution of
Pessimism and Cynicism Toward Management as
predictors of teacher job satisfaction?
Research Method: A cross sectional design was
used in this study. Permission to adopt and adapt
the questionnaire was sought and granted by the
scales‟ authors. Permission to collect data was
also sought and granted by the relevant authorities
in the Ministry of Education at the federal, state,
district, and school level. The respondents were
selected through cluster sampling from an
educational district in Malaysia, and were
informed they could withdraw from the study at
any time, and their identity will be kept in
confidence. The respondents consisted of 628
practicing teachers from 26 schools. There are
483 (76.9%) females and 145 (23.1%) males. In
terms of highest qualifications attained, 37 (5.9%)
possess a post graduate qualification, 383 (61.0%)
have a bachelor degree, and 208 (33.1%) have a
diploma. The sample had a mean age of 39 years
(SD = 1.03) with an average weekly workload of
36 hours (SD =1.54), and a mean teaching
experience of 14 years (SD = 1.77).
The instrument consisted of three sections: (1)
Respondents‟ demographic profile, (2) CAOC
scale (Wanous et al., 2000), and (3) JIG scale
(Brodke, et al., 2009). Permission to use the
scales was sought and obtained. The CAOC
consisted of eight negative worded items which
measures Pessimism (four items) and Cynicism
Toward Management (four items) with a five-
point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5=
strongly agree). Higher mean score indicates
higher cynicism (Wanous et al., 2000). The JIG
consisted of 18 items, and the original scoring
format offered a three-point option to indicate the
extent respondents agree with the scale items.
Results /Discussions: The Cronbach‟s coefficient
alpha obtained for CAOC and JIG were 0.92 and
0.89 respectively. The first RQ sought to
descriptively examine the prevalence of change
cynicism toward MEB 2013-2025 in an
educational district. The second RQ tested the
relationship between change cynicism and job
satisfaction, and RQ3 investigated the relative
contribution of CAOC components in predicting
job satisfaction.
In answering RQ1, teachers reported to be
moderately cynical toward the MEB 2013-2025
with CAOC scoring a mean of 3.23 (SD = .85).
This confirmed that cynicism is a norm in
organisations as suggested by Nafei (2013). For
RQ2, Pearson correlation indicated a significant
inverse relationship between cynicism toward
MEB 2013-2025 and job satisfaction (r = -.35, p <
.05). Results concurred with research that
suggested the potential relationship of cynicism
about organisational change and job satisfaction
(Arabaci, 2010; Chiaburu et al., 2013; Yim &
Moses, 2016).
In addressing RQ3, hierarchical regression
analysis was used and some possible confounding
variables such as gender, age, tenure and
workload were controlled because respondents
were working in the same education district and
performing similar duties, but varied in these
demographic factors. As shown in Table 1, the
demographic control variables were entered into
Step 1, F(4, 623) = 2.07, and failed to account for
significant amount of variance in job satisfaction.
To enable an appraisal of each component‟s
individual effects, the Pessimism component was
first entered in Step 2, because literature had
shown it to be more meaningful in explaining job
satisfaction (Polat & Gungor, 2014). Pessimism
explained 24.3% of the total variance in job
satisfaction with an additional 22.9% of variance
explained after controlling for demographic
factors, R2 change = .229, F(5, 622) = 16.30, p <
.001. Cynicism Toward Management was entered
in Step 3, with the model as a whole accounted
for 32.1% of the variance in job satisfaction. This
component explained an additional 7.2% variance
in job satisfaction, R2 change = .072, F(6, 621) =
15.70, p < .001. The changes in R2 for both
components were significant, indicating that they
account for a significant proportion of the
variance of job satisfaction. Pessimism was found
to explain the larger variance in job satisfaction,
affirming earlier literature that this component has
higher influence than Cynicism Toward
Management on job satisfaction (Polat & Gungor,
2014).
 Table 1 which often involve uncertainty, employees
Relative Contribution of Pessimism and Cynicism observe the behaviors and actions of management
Toward Management as Predictors of Job Satisfaction in an effort to make sense of change (Rafferty,
Jimmieson, & Restubog, 2013). For instance, a
Independent Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 recent cross national study revealed some
Variables β SE β SE β SE education reforms were not fully implemented,
burdening teachers and eroding their job
Constant
satisfaction (Liu & Onwuegbuzie, 2014). While
Gender -.04 .06 -.04 .05 -.03 .05 adjustments may be necessary in the course of
Age -.06 .05 -.11 .05 -.12 .04 education reform, practical implications here
Tenure .12 .03 .13 .05 .12 .03 suggest that management or change proponents
Workload -.09* .02 -.10 .01 -.09 .01 have to reveal or chart the change progress to
Pessimism -.48** .03 -.45** .03 teachers. Teachers who are involved in executing
changes should be constantly updated to make
CAOC - Mgt -.28** .02
sense of their involvement in reforms. Other
R2 = .01 R2 = .243** R2 = .321** situational remedy for cynicism include the
∆R2 = ∆R2 = improvement of working conditions and benefits
.229** .072** (Abraham, 2000). Change proponents may
n = 628, *p<.01, **p < .001. consider such remedies by having revisions of
CAOC – Mgt: Cynicism Toward Management teachers‟ benefits and remuneration with the
introduction of major educational reforms. Such
Implications of the study: This study revisions are within the jurisdiction of the
highlighted the prevalence of cynicism during Ministry of Education and could be improved on
educational change, adding to the existing to counter cynicism.
knowledge of teachers‟ opinion toward major
education reformation. One of the items in the Alternatively, Cynicism Toward Management can
scale, “Most of the programmes that are supposed be decreased by including teachers extensively in
to solve problems around here will not do much making decision in the change process (Volpe et
good” scored the highest item mean, indicating al., 2014). Attribution Theory includes the notion
teachers to be cynical about the effectiveness of of „self-serving bias‟ which describes the
the improvement programmes in schools. This tendency of people blaming external factors for
constitutes an important finding as teachers are failures, and rarely sees themselves as
involved in delivering these programmes. This contributors to the failures (Heider, 1958; Wanous
suggest that the efficacy of these programmes et al., 2000). Hence, involving teachers in
need to be monitored, as some 100 of them are directing the change process will alleviate their
implemented annually in certain districts, leading change cynicism in the event of negative
to a lack of focus, burdening teachers and outcomes as they will have to take ownership of
constraining financial resources (MOE, 2013). failures.

Besides confirming the potential relationship
between change cynicism and job satisfaction, the
current study delves deeper into this notion by
examining the relative importance of the
components of CAOC as predictor variables of
job satisfaction. The Pessimism component
reflects situational factors beyond the control of
management, while Cynicism Toward
Management reflects the attribution placed on
management for likely failure of change. Both
components significantly predicted job
satisfaction with the former component having a
larger influence. Hence, situational factors of
change may have precedence over the
dispositional traits of management when
addressing cynicism toward change. CAOC in
this study context could be managed as is a
learned response and not a personality trait.
Research suggest that, during periods of change
Lastly, job satisfaction may be alleviated when
change cynicism is addressed as suggested by the
inverse relationship found between the two
components of cynicism (Pessimism and
Cynicism Toward Management) and job
satisfaction. As change cynicism come about
through work experiences (Wanous et al., 2000),
employees who fail to see improvements in their
jobs from proposed changes may direct their
resentment toward the job itself and become
dissatisfied (Abraham, 2000). It is thus apparent
logic that teachers‟ job satisfaction can improve if
the changes proposed in the MEB 2013-2025
bring about improvements it purports to produce.
Limitations: Part of the limitations of the current
study is that data is collected by way of self-
reporting surveys. It was assumed that
respondents would honestly respond to the survey
items. Inevitably, some degree of subjectivity
would be inherent in the data collected. Other
observational measures from different sources and
methods can be utilized to triangulate and support
the validity of self-report measures, and to add to
the richness of these quantitative findings.
Besides, the investigation is carried out in an
educational district and findings might not be
generalisable to other districts.
Conclusion: This study looks at cynicism during
educational change through the lens of Attribution
Theory. Cynicism is a common reaction among
employees during change, and this study also
found it to be prevalent during educational
change. Situation-induced cynicism was found to
have a larger variance in predicting job
satisfaction compared to personal factors. As
cynicism toward change is predisposed by prior
change attempts, the management or change
proponents need to deal with previous
experiences before implementing new ones. It
may also be good practice to provide some
direction of change with constant updates of
change outcomes. Instead of announcing
comprehensive change results at the end, small
successes may be revealed continually to imply
positive directions of change.
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