Organizational Gossip: A revolving door of regulation and resistance

• Autores: Susan Hafen
• Localización: Southern communication journal, ISSN 1041-794X, Vol. 69, nº 3 (PRIMAVERA), 2003, págs. 223-240
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Empirical studies of gossip are unusual in organizational communication, where gossip as a specific communicative practice has been largely ignored. This interpretative 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 throught 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