1. Who Are the Objects of Positive and Negative Gossip at Work?
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Who Are the Objects of Positive and Negative Gossip at Work?
Lea Ellwardt
University of Groningen / ICS
Joe Labianca
University of Kentucky
Rafael Wittek
Lea Ellwardt (

2. Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Why Study Gossip?
Informal, sozializing ties affect organizational outcomes
Workplace gossip as mechanism to reinforce solidarity and ostracism of colleagues from network
Gossip = “informal evaluative talking about absent colleagues”
Need to distinguish between positive and negative gossip
To date hardly research on objects of gossip
Lea Ellwardt (

3. Gossip Triad: Who Are the Objects?
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Gossip Triad: Who Are the Objects?
gossip object
Two predictors per relationship: connectedness (contact frequency, quantitative aspect) and liking/trust (qualitative aspect)
gossip sender
gossip receiver
Lea Ellwardt (

4. Main Propositions Types of Gossip
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Main Propositions
Types of Gossip
Positive gossip as means for interpersonal affection and solidarity
Negative gossip as means for social control and ostracism
Gossip as Group Process
Employees simultaneously embedded in work groups and organizational network
Group membership and social position in the broader network determine likelihood of being gossiped about
Lea Ellwardt (

5. Group-level Hypotheses
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Group-level Hypotheses
Employees of a group are goal interdependent
Benefits of socializing within group
Costs of negative gossip high within groups (solidarity norm), but much lower outside groups
Use negative gossip against rivaling groups for social comparison, group identity, discrimination
H1: Positive gossip is about employees from the gossipers’ work group.
H2: Negative gossip is about employees outside the gossipers’ work group.
Lea Ellwardt (

6. Network-level Hypotheses
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Network-level Hypotheses
Again, invest solidarity in important others: people high in social status (bask in glory, hope for reciprocity)
High costs of negative gossip due to supporters and retaliation
Low costs of negative gossip about low-status people → no defenders (“picking on the weak”)
H3: Positive gossip is about people high in social status.
H4: Negative gossip is about people low in social status.
Lea Ellwardt (

7. Network-level Hypotheses
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Network-level Hypotheses
Negative gossip as means for norm enforcement and ostracism by the entire group
Uneven distribution among colleagues, focus on single individuals (“picking on a few”)
Social norm to dislike someone
 black sheep
H5: Negative gossip in organizational networks is concentrated on a small number of objects (“scapegoats” or “black sheep”).
Lea Ellwardt (

8. Model Social status in the informal network
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Model
Social status in the informal network
Centrality in friendship network H4 H5 -
Ostracism
Negative gossip about an employee
Ostracism
Negative gossip about an employee + H3 H2
Shared group membership
Formal work units in the organization -
Solidarity
Positive gossip about an employee + H1
Lea Ellwardt (

9. Research Design Data collection in Spring 2008
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Research Design
Data collection in Spring 2008
One department in a medium-sized Dutch child care organization
Population: mostly female social workers in part-time
Flat hierarchy: one line-manager supervises all others
Computer-assisted questionnaire
Response rate = 83%
N = 30
Lea Ellwardt (

10. Measures Dependent variables
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Measures
Dependent variables
Gossip about colleagues (negative and positive)
Independent variables
Formal work groups
Social status = in-eigenvector centrality in friendship network (UCINET VI)
Controls
Social relationships (valued network)
Contact frequency (valued network)
Job satisfaction (attribute)
Lea Ellwardt (

11. Peer-rated gossip about colleagues
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Peer-rated gossip about colleagues
object
“Alter gossiped about object”
Reduced biases of social desirability and self-serving attribution
Reduced impact of non-response
cf. research on bullying
ego
(informant)
alter
Lea Ellwardt (

12. Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Method of Analysis
Exponential Random Graph Modeling (ERGM), also called p* model
Statistical package: SIENA-p* in STOCNET
Two models:
Negative/mixed gossip network
Positive gossip only network
 overlap was eliminated
Lea Ellwardt (

13. Negative Gossip – Scapegoating
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Negative Gossip – Scapegoating
Circle sizes represent social status (in-eigenvector friendships)
Lea Ellwardt (

14. Positive Gossip – broadly distributed
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Positive Gossip – broadly distributed
Circle sizes represent social status (in-eigenvector friendships)
Lea Ellwardt (

15. ERGM Results picking on the weak scape-goating
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
ERGM Results
August, 2009
picking on the weak
scape-goating
Lea Ellwardt (

16. Conclusion & Discussion
August, 2009
Conclusion & Discussion
Choice of gossip object driven by group solidarity and social status
Social status affects positive and negative gossip differently  group picking scapegoats (bullying)
Shared group membership leads to both positive and negative gossip
 showing and reinforcing solidarity within groups (social control)
 inderdependence creates any type of gossip

17. Conclusion & Discussion
August, 2009
Conclusion & Discussion
Limitations
Context specific findings
Cross-sectional design
Future research
Elaborate on outcomes of gossip:
Ostracism and integration of individuals over time (structural holes vs. closure)

18. Thank you for listening! …Questions or comments?
Talking About the Boss: A Social Network Approach to Organizational Gossip
August, 2009
Thank you for listening! …Questions or comments?
Lea Ellwardt (