Gossip and Rumor in Organizations
A Brief Overview

by Ramona Houmanfar & Rebecca Johnson

In organizational systems, the dominant patterns of organizational members’ behaviors are perhaps the most challenging components to analyze since they are somewhat informal and are strengthened and transmitted at the individual level. Gossip and rumor are examples of informal practices and communication methods that can either work for or against an organization. Our paper entitled “Organizational Implications of Gossip and Rumor” (in press) draws upon a number of perspectives: anthropological, sociological, social psychological and behavior analytic. These distinctions are followed by an elaboration on the role of rumor and gossip in ambiguous circumstances since environmental ambiguity seems to be one of the primary factors that participate in the development and maintenance of gossip and rumor.

Gossip and Rumor Defined and Distinguished

From a behavior analytic standpoint, rumor and gossip can be defined as learned interactions with organizational stimuli (e.g., rules, policies, mission statements, vision, other organizational members, etc.) that are shared among members of a given organization. Gossip and rumor tend to occur most frequently when rules, information, and/or policies are unclear, inaccurate or incomplete. In other words, gossip and rumor-type practices increase in ambiguous organizational environments where information regarding work related matters lacks clear description, and key words, phrases, or strategic concepts are ill defined which can leave low-level manager and employees too much room for misunderstanding. In these types of circumstances, employees are likely to engage in problem-solving behaviors such as gossip and rumor to explain the unexplained.
The stimulus in the rumor-type interaction between a speaker and listener is primarily information regarding an upcoming or past event (e.g., I have heard that some of us might lose our jobs due to the upcoming change in management). The stimulus in the gossip-type interaction is primarily information regarding a third party (e.g., I have heard that the new boss has a tendency to be hot tempered).
In general, employees gossip for the purposes of gaining information, influencing other individuals, and socializing with other members in the organization (Rosnow, 2001). On the other hand, rumor is a process of communication that is constructed around unauthenticated information and is viewed as having a sense-making function for understanding one’s environment (DiFonzo & Prashant, 1997; Rosnow & Fine, 1976). As in the case of gossip, rumor may increase in circumstances where there is a great deal of environmental ambiguity (Rosnow, 2001). This type of situation is usually promoted where employees have a low level of involvement with the outcome of their jobs and what they interact with in terms of rules, policies and information may not be clear, complete, or accurate. Accordingly, engagement in rumor may decrease the level of employees’ uncertainty about work-related situations and alleviate the possible apprehension about a disappointing job outcome.

Solutions

In order to avoid an unhealthy level of gossip and rumor type practices, organizations should acquire and/or maintain a balance between high productivity and commitment to organizational members by practicing open communication. The open communication system includes a clear description of what the top management is doing, why they are doing it and how what they do affects the organization’s accomplishments and goals. Our paper entitled “Organizational Implications of Gossip and Rumor” (in press) includes a discussion regarding the organizational models such as Tosti’s Organizational Alignment (Kolvitz, 1997) that promote the establishment and maintenance of effective verbal network systems in organizations. In addition, we provide an overview of rule-governance literature that relates to the analysis of environmental ambiguity (e.g., Pelaez and Moreno, 1998) and ways that rule statements might impact the rule following and verbal problem solving behaviors (e.g., gossip and rumor) of workers in organizations.

References

Difonzo, N., & Prashant, B. (1997). Rumor and prediction: Making sense (but losing dollars) in stock market. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 71, 329-353.
Houmanfar, R., & Johnson, R. (in press). Organizational implications of gossip and rumor. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management.
Kolvitz, M. (1997). Donald T. Tosti, Ph.D. and Stephanie F. Jackson, M. A.: The organizational scan, performance levers, and alignment. In P. J. Dean & D. E. Ripley, Performance improvement pathfinders: Models for organizational learning systems (pp. 124-141). Washington DC: The International Society for Performance Improvement.
Pelaez, M. & Moreno, R. (1998). A taxonomy of rules and their correspondence to rule-
governed behavior. Mexican Journal of Behavior Analysis, 24 (2), 197-214.
Rosnow, R. L. (2001). Rumor and gossip in interpersonal interaction and beyond: A social exchange perspective. In R. M. Kowalski (Ed.), Behaving badly: Aversive behaviors in interpersonal relationships (pp. 203-232). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Rosnow, R. L., & Fine, G. (1976). Rumor and gossip: The social psychology of hearsay.
New York: Elsevier.