Have you heard? Office gossips are self-assured people and hold positions of power in the workplace.
The findings are among the results of two separate studies recently conducted by researchers at Oklahoma State University and Albright College in Reading, Pa.
"Rather than being lonely social isolates who utilized gossip as a means to elevate low status, gossipers emerged as influential people likely at the hub of their communications networks,'' said Sally D. Farley, social psychologist and principal author of the Albright study.
Albright researchers asked 129 working adults to think of a frequent female gossiper and rare female gossiper, and their perceptions of need for power, inclusion and affection. Research shows gossips are equally comprised of men and women. Their study focused on women, simply because of student design, Farley said.
Compared with rare gossipers, frequent gossipers were perceived as significantly more powerful, and possessed more masculine, or dominant and aggressive, traits and fewer feminine, or soft-spoken and submissive, traits.
"Though gossip is seen as a typical female behavior, it requires women to possess specific masculine characteristics that contribute to the overall perception of having power,'' Farley said.
"Gossiping,'' she said, "can be an attempt by powerful people to reveal information about others in selective self-promotional ways, such as spreading positive information about in-group members and negative information about out-group members.''
Previous research shows gossip is just as likely to be positive as negative, Farley said. Moreover, between 75 and 90 percent of grapevine communication is accurate.
Among other things, gossip can increase intimacy of social bonds and clear up matters that aren't explained well in formal communications, Farley said.
"For example, saying 'Mary came to work the other day wearing a skirt way too short' is a way to let people know what dress code is and isn't acceptable.''
Albright researchers were surprised with one finding. Frequent female gossipers emerged as more emotionally distant and not especially well-liked.
"So, while women who gossip are influential in their communications networks, with many friends, perhaps those relationships are less intimate,'' Farley said.
The OSU study focused on followers' undermining of leaders, including spreading rumors about leaders and reducing contributions. Researchers found individuals with better self-esteems are more likely to engage in spreading rumors about their leaders, yet they don't intentionally alter contributions.
They also found there's less undermining among followers when they perceive their work environments as supportive.
"Leaders need to be aware of the potential dangers lurking below,'' Marie Dasborough and her co-authors from New Hampshire and Cornell universities concluded. "Followers' ability to directly undermine leaders through their use of words and actions can cause organizational chaos.''
That includes lowered productivity that in turn can harm leaders' reputations and ultimately their relationships with their peers.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service)
