In Praise of Gossip: The Organizational Functions and Practical Applications of Rumours in the Workplace

Workplace gossip is a ubiquitous phenomenon around the world: research on organizations in both the United States and Western Europe suggests that over 90% of the workforce engages in at least some gossip activity on the job (Gosser et al., 2012). Organizational literature has paid little attention to gossip and, perhaps because of its complexity, management research surrounding gossip is scant (Hafen, 2004; Kurland & Pelled, 2000; Noon & Delbridge, 1993). Almost always, in this field of study, the term “gossip” has negative connotations, and some people consider it improper (Kurland and Pelled 2000). In organizational literature, gossip is often considered like a form of aggression (Severance et al., 2013), also from a cross-cultural point-of-view. A paradox of gossip is that it is ubiquitous, though there are numerous social sanctions against it.