Organizational gossip

A revolving door of regulation and resistance

Bibliographic Data

ID5814735
AuthorsSusan Hafen (corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume69
Issue3
Pages223-240
Publication date2004-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouthern Speech Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-4585 • E-ISSN: 1930-3203
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10417940409373294
OpenAlexW2016418701
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited46

Empirical studies of gossip are unusual in organizational communication, where gossip as a specific communicative practice has been largely ignored. This interpretive study was conducted with four organizations in various geographical regions in the United States: a manufacturing plant, an electrical utility, a worker-owned restaurant, and a college. Thirty-one narrators were asked to share their opinions about and experiences with gossip in their workplaces. Their accounts illustrate how gossip serves organizational regulation and individual resistance through its performance as a "gossip-information revolving door" and through accounts of company (anti)heroes and cautionary tales, gossipy humor and nostalgia, and interpersonal maneuvers. Gossip can be understood in the context of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) as "social capital" that enhances the organization or workplace deviance behaviors (WDBs) that detract from the desired goals of citizenry

Deviance · Complex Network Analysis Techniques · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Plant and animal studies

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