Make Office Gossip Work For You

Gossip is not what immediately springs to mind when you think of communication within organizations. Yet it exists at every company, from single-office to multinational. Business leaders typically consider it an unnecessary evil, something to be avoided. Few realize that with careful handling it can actually contribute to better management.

If you find this notion risible, reflect that trying to suppress gossip is like trying to cut off an organization's oxygen supply. We all gossip at the office--men and women, managers and secretaries. The reason is simple. This kind of informal communication allows us to let off steam, garner often precious information and even build team spirit. Colleagues who trade non-official knowledge bond better.

Before we can talk of gossip as a possible management tool, we must first understand how it functions within an organization. This requires exploding a few common myths.

First, despite stereotypes, women do not gossip any more than men. Men just don't admit they're gossiping. Even if they prefer to speak of their exchanges as "discussions" or "intelligence gathering," they address for the most part the same topics as women, and at the same level.

Second, contrary to popular belief, most informal communication does not take place at the coffee machine or the photocopier. Such places are too public to allow gossiping without risk. In reality, the choicest cuts of unofficial information are usually shared behind closed doors, in the security of private offices.

Concern about security also affects written gossip, especially in this age of e-mail and text messages. Well aware of the risks of virtual gossiping, people often employ code names when they discuss colleagues, knowing that an e-mail can easily fall into the wrong hands. That happened to one office worker who inadvertently sent a message to 200 colleagues calling his boss a "desperate case." He left his job not long after.

It should be no surprise that people nearer the top of the management tree are the most common targets of gossip. Just as everyone loves revelations about the lives of celebrities, privileged information about higher-ups will interest most of the personnel at a company. Knowing who will be leaving or joining the business, who will get a raise, or who just stormed out of the CEO's office allows insight that is seldom communicated through official channels.

Since business leaders can't banish gossip, maybe more of them should try to add it to their management toolkit. In order to do so, you must first single out the main sources of gossip within a firm. In every organization there exists a small group of people who typically act as gossip vectors. Cleaning staff and secretaries are usually well-informed because of their contact with every level of the organization. The manager who succeeds in identifying the chiefs or gatekeepers of informal communication will have every chance of actually benefiting from gossip.

Unofficial channels can sometimes be used to test an idea or to take a company's pulse before the announcement of a particular measure. A recent case in Australia illustrates this. A CEO wanted to award a raise to just one part of his staff but worried that that would upset the rest of the personnel. Within earshot of a colleague identified as a key link in the gossip chain, the boss voiced his concerns aloud as if talking to himself about a moral dilemma. His worries quickly filtered down, and before long he was receiving informal feedback assuring him that his workforce would not contest the move. When that kind of use of gossip works, it works extremely well. But it is a tactic on the borderline of manipulation and is not easy to master. You know that people will spread rumors, but you can't easily be 100% sure of the exact messages they'll send.

The time has come to recognize gossip's place within businesses. People running companies must understand that networks of informal communication can often constitute early warning systems that provide valid and useful information. If you listen more to gossip, you will learn more about your organizations and run less risk of being taken by surprise by developments.

So resign yourself to gossip's presence. Even embrace it. As Oscar Wilde said, "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

Grant Michelson is director of research and professor of human resource management at Audencia Nantes School of Management in France.

Thanks to Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2011/05/19/make-office-gossip-work-for-you_print.html