Gossip in the workplace and the implications for HR management :
a study of gossip and its relationship to employee cynicism

Kuo, CC; Chang, K; Quinton, S; Lu, CY; Lee, L

Abstract

Gossip is a common phenomenon in the workplace and 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. Firstly, we have identified
two constructs of gossip, job related and non-job related gossip not previously reported and a validated scale
has been created. Secondly, 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.

Citation

a study of gossip and its relationship to employee cynicism. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(18), 2288-2307. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.985329

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 1, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Dec 1, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: Oct 21, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Journal: International Journal of Human Resource Management
• Print ISSN: 0958-5192
• Electronic ISSN: 1466-4399
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 18
• Pages: 2288-2307
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.985329
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2014.985329
• Related Public URLs: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rijh20#.VgWAoqhdUuc
• Additional Information: Funders : National Science Council; Projects : Employee bahaviour in the workplace; Grant Number: 103-2912-I-004-504