Search

We conducted three studies to examine how the recipients of negative workplace gossip judge the gossip sender's morality and how they respond behaviorally. Study 1 provided experimental evidence that gossip recipients perceive senders as low in morality, with female recipients rating the sender's morality more negatively than male recipients. In a follow-up experiment (Study 2), we further found that perceived low morality translates into behavioral responses in the form of career-related sanctions by the recipient on the gossip sender. A critical incident study (Study 3) enhanced the external validity and extended the moderated mediation model by showing that gossip recipients also penalize senders with social exclusion. We discuss the implications for practice and research on negative workplace gossip, gender differences in attributions of morality, and gossip recipients' behavioral responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workplace gossip, a ubiquitous organizational behavior broadly defined as talking about an absent target in an evaluative way, has received increasing scientific attention over the past few years. The complexity and dynamism of the workplace gossip phenomenon create challenging research conditions such that studies focusing on the allegedly same type of workplace gossip can produce differential findings. To address this problem and better align theory and methodology, our manuscript first proposes a framework of workplace gossip that accounts for the interdependencies of the context-embeddedness and dynamism of workplace gossip. Guided by this framework, we systematically evaluate extant workplace gossip research, spanning a total of N = 104 empirical research articles. Highlighting current methodological challenges that indicate a neglect of the dynamic nuances and contexts of workplace gossip, we argue that previous organizational research painted an overly simplistic picture of workplace gossip. By looking beyond traditional organizational research designs, we derive recommendations to advance research on workplace gossip and, ultimately, to establish it as a complex and dynamic social interaction behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines why and when negative workplace gossip promotes self-serving behaviors by the employees being targeted. Using conservation of resources (COR) theory, we find that targets tend to increase their political acts as a result of ego depletion triggered by negative gossip. We also show that sensitivity to interpersonal mistreatment and moral disengagement moderate this process. Specifically, we demonstrate that targets with high levels of sensitivity to interpersonal mistreatment are more likely to experience ego depletion, and that targets with high levels of moral disengagement will find it easier to persuade themselves to engage in political acts. We conducted a three-wave time-lagged survey of 265 employees in Guangdong, China, to test our hypotheses. The results support our theoretical model and indicate that COR theory can be used to explain the impacts of negative workplace gossip. Alongside our important and timely theoretical contributions, we provide new perspectives on how managers can avoid or mitigate these political acts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a bottom-up exploration of the social evaluations that emerge from the gossip people hear about others in a workplace context. We used the Dual Perspective Model (DPM: Abele & Wojciszke, 2007, 2014, 2018) to code openformat gossip stories provided by 522 participants for evaluations of gossip targets’ warmth and morality (i.e., communion) and competence and assertiveness (i.e., agency). We additionally coded evaluations of work-effort, self-control, and stress, as well as the gossip topic. Our analysis revealed that communion facet evaluations were more frequent than agency facet evaluations. Additionally, gossip was predominantly negative, reflecting the fact that evaluations usually conveyed information about low warmth, morality and competence; assertiveness was an exception, with high evaluations more common than low. These negative evaluations were most frequently contained in gossip about the negative character of the target and work-related norm transgressions. Our analysis further revealed distinct patterns of co-occurrence for the DPM facets, providing further evidence of the utility of distinguishing not only between the major dimensions of social evaluation, but also their facets. This research provides new insights regarding the variety, prevalence, and valence of social evaluations that emerge from workplace gossip. Most important in the present context, it shows the usefulness of the DPM facets in understanding the content of gossip. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small but growing body of research suggests that witnessing mistreatment affects third-party observers' attitudes and behaviors. Based on the framework of belief in a just world theory, this study examines perverse secondary victimization which is particularly pervasive in negative workplace gossip from a third-party perspective but has nonetheless received little attention in organizational research. We present a moderated mediation model and hypothesize that third-party observers' deservingness judgment would mediate the effect of observed negative workplace gossip and interact with their just world beliefs (BJW) in predicting their unfavorable reactions toward the target (i.e., withholding target support, engaging in target exclusion, or target negative gossip). Additionally, an observer's BJW would exacerbate the positive relationship between observed negative workplace gossip and deservingness judgment, that is, third-party observers with high BJW are more susceptible to victim derogation bias and consider that the target of gossip deserved the victimization experience to maintain their worldview. Data were collected from 210 full-time employees through online questionnaires and the empirical results supported the hypotheses. The study discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers are interested in promoting frontline employees’ proactive behavior because proactivity is crucial for organizational success. This study examined the link between perceived workplace gossip and employees’ (targets’) proactive service performance by focusing on the mediating role of employees’ harmonious passion and the moderating role of perceived job social support. Using time-lagged survey data from 218 supervisor-subordinate dyads in a commercial bank in China, we found that perceived workplace gossip negatively influences employees’ proactive service performance, and that this relationship is mediated by reduced harmonious passion. In addition, perceived job social support attenuates the negative relationship between perceived workplace gossip and harmonious passion, with harmonious passion having a mediating effect on the relationship between perceived workplace gossip and proactive service performance. These results provide new directions for understanding workplace gossip, harmonious passion, proactive service performance, and job social support. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present and test a self-consistency theory framework for gossip: that perceived negative workplace gossip influences our self-perceptions and, in turn, this influences our behaviors. Using supervisor-subordinate dyadic time-lagged data (n = 403), we demonstrated that perceived negative workplace gossip adversely influenced target employees’ organization-based self-esteem, which, in turn, influenced their citizenship behavior directed at the organization and at its members. Moreover, by integrating victimization theory into our framework, we further demonstrated that negative affectivity, an individual’s dispositional tendency, not only moderated the self-consistency process but also predicted perceived negative workplace gossip. Our study therefore shifts attention to the target of negative workplace gossip and in doing so offers a promising new direction for future research. Implications to theory and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to first bring to light the essential digital strategies to study organizations. Second, how businesses can improve their strategic capabilities by using the information gathered from internet sources or networks. Third, this study investigates how employees in an organization tend to engage in positive and/or negative gossip and how gossips affect coworker-rated informal influence in organization and supervisor-rated performance. Social network analysis is used to find the underlying relationships between gossips, coworker-rated influence and supervisor-rated performance.Design/methodology/approach This research paper is divided into two parts. The first study based on profound synthesis of literature. Major digital sources to study organizations are identified. The strategies requirement for each channel is identified. Suggestions are given to managers to improve strategic decision-making based on big data. The second study is a cross-sectional study where questionnaires (survey) are used to elicit data. Social network analysis is used to analyze the data using ucinet 6 software.Findings The findings of the study pinpoint the skills required to analyze large data, available in organizations. The second study finds out that close friends are more engaged in gossips than coworkers who have only working relationships. The friends having high structural embeddedness are more likely to be involved in negative gossips. Coworker perceives those employees who are engaged in negative gossips as having high informal influence. However, there is negative relationship between negative gossips and supervisor-rated influence.Research limitations/implications The research study is cross-sectional in design; however, longitudinal design can be used to gain more insights about negative gossips and their effects. Second, a very small sample is used in this study.Practical implications This study can be used to understand informal communication network in the organization. Managers can use this channel to pass information quickly, as informal channels are faster than formal communication channels. This research can be used to understand the underling relationships between the coworkers in organizationsOriginality/value This paper provides guidelines to organizational life and information on how the informal networks within organization can be studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined the relationship between workplace negative gossip, as perceived by the targets, and proactive behavior by focusing on the mediating role of the target’s emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of the target’s traditionality. Our results from dyadic data on 234 supervisor-subordinate relationships in China revealed that (1) workplace negative gossip was negatively related to proactive behavior; (2) emotional exhaustion mediated this relationship; and (3) traditionality strengthened both the relationship between workplace negative gossip and emotional exhaustion and the indirect effect of workplace negative gossip on proactive behavior via emotional exhaustion. Our findings have a number of theoretical and practical implications for the research on mistreatment and proactive behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of supervisor gossip in the workplace. This paper proposes a hypothetical model in which supervisor gossip has an effect on leader-member exchange (LMX), in turn resulting in perceived supervisor ostracism among subordinates.Design/methodology/approach A dyadic research design was applied to collect data from Taiwanese employees. Supervisors participated in a survey containing measures of supervisor gossip and control variables, whereas subordinates responded to a questionnaire on LMX, perceived supervisor ostracism, and control variables.Findings The results indicated that positive supervisor gossip significantly affected LMX. Furthermore, healthy LMX reduced subordinates’ perceptions of supervisor ostracism.Research limitations/implications All participants were recruited in Taiwan, which is a limitation for generalising the research findings. Future studies should investigate multiple societies of various cultural profiles.Practical implications To improve the quality of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, supervisors should adopt a positive informal communication style, and organisations should provide supervisors with information regarding the implications of workplace gossip, illustrating the substantial benefits of positive gossip and the potential drawbacks of negative gossip.Originality/value The present study highlighted the role of supervisor workplace gossip in the field of leadership and empirically investigated the impact of supervisor gossip on subordinates’ reactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay considers the central role of gossip in Lord Jim (1902) as Joseph Conrad's response to the end of the 'working age of global sail' and the rise of modern professionalism in the first decades of the twentieth century. While several critical readings mention the presence of professional gossip in Conrad's fictions, this essay contends that his use of gossip in Lord Jim represents a significant engagement with questions regarding the function of orality in the modern novel. Lord Jim juxtaposes 'idle' talk with physical labour in depicting characters talking about professional-related matters rather than performing maritime labour. In the contrast between talk and toil, Conrad's novel asks: What is work? Lord Jim redefines the concept by showing that gossip is an essential speech mode for executing the necessary work of establishing and reinforcing professional identity. This novel complicates dominant cultural understandings of labour and communication at the century's start, at the same time destabilising categorical distinctions between oral storytelling and gossip. These subversions illuminate a number of ways in which the latter can be understood as a generative mode for narrating the experience of a world transformed by modernisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gossip is a common phenomenon in the workplace, but yet relatively little is understood about its influence to employees. This study adopts social information theory and social cognitive theory to interpret the diverse literature on gossip, and to develop and test hypotheses concerning some of the antecedents of gossip, with an aim of developing knowledge of the relationship between gossip and employee behaviour in the workplace. The study analysed survey data in a two-stage process, from 362 employees across a range of industries in Taiwan. The findings revealed that job-related gossip predicted employee cynicism and mediated the relationship between psychological contract violation and cynicism, and that non-job-related gossip showed a similar but weaker effect to employee cynicism. The contribution made by this paper is of value to both the academic subject domain and managers in Human Resources. First, we have identified two constructs of gossip, job-related and non-job-related gossip not previously reported and a validated scale has been created. Second, we have confirmed that these different constructs of gossip impact differently on employee behaviour and therefore HR managers should be cautious about gossip in the workplace, as it can cause cynical behaviour amongst employees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study developed and tested a relational theory of positive and negative gossip about managers. It is argued that spreading information about managers depends on trust in organizations, more specifically the employees’ generalized and interpersonal trust in managers and colleagues. Hypotheses were tested by conducting two studies in a medium-sized Dutch child care organization, namely, an employee survey (N = 132) and a network study at two sites (N = 58). Multiple regressions and cross-sectional social network analysis (exponential random graph modeling [ERGM]) revealed that negative gossip about managers increases when employees have low trust, nonfriendly relationships, and infrequent contact with the managers. This effect is further enhanced when contacts between employees are trusting and frequent. Implications for theories about management and organizations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Gossip is informal talking about colleagues. Taking a social network perspective, we argue that group boundaries and social status in the informal workplace network determine who the objects of positive and negative gossip are. Gossip networks were collected among 36 employees in a public child care organization, and analyzed using exponential random graph modeling (ERGM). As hypothesized, both positive and negative gossip focuses on colleagues from the own gossiper''s work group. Negative gossip is relatively targeted, with the objects being specific individuals, particularly those low in informal status. Positive gossip, in contrast, is spread more evenly throughout the network. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the author's views on the importance of managing healthy relationships in the workplace. He notes that an effective organizational management could encourage mutual respect, harmony, and propel productivity. The author suggests ways of setting boundaries at workplaces including management of time, positive self-expression, playing ones role at work, and changing unproductive topics.

The article offers information on the identification, control and prevention of gossip in the workplace. Topics discussed include impact of gossip on productivity and morale, identification of reason for gossip, addressing problems of team members, importance of communication, role of leaders in gossip control, team members training to handle gossip and conflict resolution.