By ANITA BURZZESE
Gannett News Service

Heads up all you managers who think a bad attitude among your workers is simply the result of a few "bad apples."

It turns out the "rotten" apple is really the arrogant, unfeeling and uncaring manager who makes employees become so cynical they are absent more, gripe more and work less productively.

For all those workers who have crummy bosses, this may not be much of a news flash.

But a new study lends credence to those who complain they don't have an attitude problem, they have jerks leading the office.

In a study by researchers from the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University, it was found that employees were more likely to be cynical because of the actions of supervisors rather than their own personality traits.

The study of 1,000 workers at a Midwestern auto-parts manufacturing plant during a three-year period asked employees to record how often in the workday they felt distressed, irritable, nervous or hostile. Further, they were asked questions about situations at the plant that might contribute to cynicism, such as the amount of change; how much they participated in decision-making; and how well their supervisor did at keeping people informed, caring about employees or admitting mistakes.

"Like most normal human beings, managers go through life thinking they are pretty competent," said John Wanous, co-author of the study and professor of management and human resources at Ohio State.

But the news is bad for managers. The study found that employees reporting ineffective supervisors were given little say in decision-making and were much more likely to be cynical.

The survey also found:

• More grievances were filed by cynics. About 38 percent of those who scored high on cynicism had filed a grievance against the company in the two years before the survey, compared with 21 percent of those low in cynicism.

• Cynics were less committed. Only 38 percent of those who were highly cynical showed high levels of commitment to the company, compared with the 81 percent of those low in cynicism.

• Cynicism colors compensation. Salaried employees who were high in cynicism were much less likely than others to think they would be paid more if they performed well.

"This shows how cynicism can poison a company," Wanous said. "Our question measuring cynicism had nothing to do with compensation, yet highly cynical workers still saw a connection. Cynicism spills over and colors how employees see everything about the company and their jobs."

He said many companies don't take action on improving management abilities, believing that instead it is the fault of workers with cynical personality traits.

"Human nature has a tendency to blame other people, and that's what managers do," Wanous said. "They say there is a small group of bad apples. But we found it wasn't the bad apples that caused the problems, it was the management that spoiled the fruit."

What can be done to improve worker cynicism?

He said that management must begin by getting a commitment to making things better from the top brass, then work on letting workers know about changes for improvement and successes, no matter how small.

"You don't have to wait for a home run to let employees know every time you hit a single," he said. "Sometimes managers may be embarrassed because the improvements seem slow in coming relatively minor. But if you say nothing, workers are only going to assume that nothing has changed, or that things have actually gotten worse."

Wanous said it really isn't tough to figure out how to eliminate cynicism in the workplace. Tried and true management techniques that stress open communication, employee participation and follow-through on plans are the best remedy for rotten workplaces.

"There's nothing special about cynicism. It just comes from bad management."

For more information, contact Wanous at Wanous.1@osu.edu.

Write to Anita Bruzzese c/o: Business Editor, Gannett News Service, 1000 Wilson, Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22229-0001. For a reply, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.