IBM

IBM Author’s Name The Institutional Affiliation Course Number and Name Instructor Name Assignment Due Date Answer 1 IBM employees perceive cynicism about the company's duality regarding age discrimination for job applicants. Atikbay and Öner (2020) illustrated that organizational cynicism, based on Reichers et al., is a negative attitude marked by beliefs that any organization lacks integrity, and a person feels negative emotions towards the company. Considering the Gosselin and Tobin (2018) case, the lack of transparency by IBM and the organization's failure to give a valid reason for termination, especially for older employees, give rise to mistrust among the employees. Many employees left without a single word, which impacted their careers and raised a significant question about the company's integrity. This tarnishes the public image of IBM as the leader in diversity and innovation, creating a lot of mistrust and cognitive dissonance. As per Sinclair et al. (2024), cognitive dissonance theory elaborated that such contradictions cause discomfort in the company as the employees struggle to reconcile the external portrayal of IBM's fairness and the discrimination it is doing. Also, IBM's actions are under introspection, which is a violation of the psychological contract. This contract implies long-term employment in trade for the company's loyalty. This intricate agreement is the foundation of the company's relationship with the employees, who expect at least job security and fairness for the commitment and performance they provide their company. Removing older employees systematically despite their hard work represents a breach of contract, making cynicism deep in the employees' minds (Roscigno et al., 2022). Such a breach of contract impacts the employees and reduces their professional commitment and trust in the company, resulting in lower productivity. Further, the thought that there is a false meritocracy in the company worsens the cynicism of the employees. When they see high-performing older employees getting laid off, the less experienced younger employees get disheartened, and this sends a message that performance and experience have no value in the company's eyes. This perceived unfairness towards older employees aligns with the Equity Theory, which argues that employees expect to be treated fairly and judged on th...