100,199 research outputs found
Gossip at Work: Unsanctioned Evaluative Talk in Formal School Meetings
This article uses a form of linguistic ethnography to analyze videotaped recordings of gossip that took place during formal school meetings. By comparing this gossip data against existing models of gossip based on data collected in informal settings, we identify eleven new response classes, including four forms of indirectness that operate to cloak gossip under ambiguity, and seven forms of avoidance that change the trajectory of gossip. In doing so, this article makes three larger contributions. First, it opens a new front in research on organizational politics by providing an empirically grounded, conceptually rich vocabulary for analyzing gossip in formal contexts. Second, it contributes to knowledge about social interactions in organizations. By examining gossip talk embedded within a work context, this project highlights the nexus between structure, agency, and interaction. Third, it contributes to understandings of gossip in general. By examining gossip in a context previously unexamined, this project provides analytical leverage for theorizing conditions under which gossip is likely and when it will take various forms
Talk Me Home: Visibility in Shared Narrative
Cultural inclusion requires locations in which people can âdiscursivelyâ gather
and reside. One method of creating a lesbian-specific location is through the
reiterations and repetitions of narratives. Narrative structure is an effective
heuristic in what could be called a naturalisation process. Using a well-known
lesbian gossip column this paper demonstrates that a sense of cultural groupmemory
is produced and shared through the narrative of gossip. The degree of
assumed knowledge subsequently attained is textually inscribed in the
trajectory of gossip over time. In this gossip column, celebrities, through their
ongoing coming-out processes, are participants in the naturalisation process,
informing and normalising a historical background for lesbian community.
Inclusion operates through this narrativisation to produce a cultural memory
that becomes an assumed aspect of social interactions. Visibility is the
predominant experiential choice of the writer in all of the individual recount
segments around which the narrative structures of gossip are built. In this way,
the intimate details of a celebrityâs âvisibilityâ process become the basis of the
âunfolding intimaciesâ of this social groupâs âmain charactersâ (Dunbar, 1995:
5). The âsynchronicâ moment through reiteration in gossiped-about visibility
creates a diachronic collective memory to support an inclusive culture. In the
instances of a lesbian gossip column this is accomplished through the
established and everyday paradigms of narrative structure which produces a
shared and mutually understood experiential meaning
Rethinking gossip and scandal in healthcare organizations
Purpose â The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to argue that gossip is a neglected aspect of organizational communication and knowledge, and an under-used management resource.
Design/methodology/approach â The paper challenges mainstream managerial assumptions that gossip is trivial or tainted talk which should be discouraged in the workplace. Instead, gossip is re-framed at an organizational level of analysis, which provides the opportunity for relational knowledge about systemic failure and poor practice in healthcare to surface.
Findings â Rather than simply viewing gossip as an individual behaviour and interpersonal process, it is claimed that organizational gossip is also a valuable early warning indicator of risk and failure in healthcare systems. There is potentially significant value in re-framing gossip as an aspect of organizational communication and knowledge. If attended to (rather than neglected or silenced) gossip can provide fresh insights into professional practice, decision-making and relational leadership.
Originality/value â This paper offers a provocative challenge to mainstream health organization and management thinking about gossip in the workplace. It offers new ways of thinking to promote patient safety, and prevent the scandals that have plagued healthcare organizations in recent years
Searching in Unstructured Overlays Using Local Knowledge and Gossip
This paper analyzes a class of dissemination algorithms for the discovery of
distributed contents in Peer-to-Peer unstructured overlay networks. The
algorithms are a mix of protocols employing local knowledge of peers'
neighborhood and gossip. By tuning the gossip probability and the depth k of
the k-neighborhood of which nodes have information, we obtain different
dissemination protocols employed in literature over unstructured P2P overlays.
The provided analysis and simulation results confirm that, when properly
configured, these schemes represent a viable approach to build effective P2P
resource discovery in large-scale, dynamic distributed systems.Comment: A revised version of the paper appears in Proc. of the 5th
International Workshop on Complex Networks (CompleNet 2014) - Studies in
Computational Intelligence Series, Springer-Verlag, Bologna (Italy), March
201
Everyday Secrecy:Boundaries of Confidential Gossip
Gossip is an everyday part of organizational life and has been increasingly researched. However, some gossip has a particular character, whereby it is to some degree secret. Drawing on studies of both gossip and secrecy, in this paper we explore this âconfidential gossipâ via a participant observation case study. This was based on an internship with Quinza, a British media company, and had a covert element which is discussed and justified. Specifically, we show how the boundaries around confidential gossip are marked in organizational interactions. The paper contributes to existing knowledge about organizational gossip by showing the particular significance of secrecy which makes confidential gossip a more potent source of group inclusion and exclusion
Effects of Positions in Knowledge Networks on Trust
This paper empirically explores relations between network positions in knowledge networks and trust. In social network theory the closure argument and the gossip argument describe this relation. These two arguments do not distinguish between different dimensions of trust. In this paper we estimate effects of closure positions on two dimensions of trust (trust in abilities and trust in intentions). The closure argument emphasizes that dense network structures enforce individuals to be trustworthy. The gossip argument emphasizes that dense networks amplifies gossip. Since it was found that different network positions are optimal for different tasks, we propose that the content of a network is an intrinsic characteristic of a network that influences whether gossip is neutral or judgmental. To discern between different contents we consider two task-specific knowledge networks. Empirical data were collected on a network of 55 individuals in the setting of account management. These data strongly support the gossip argument for both dimensions of trust. However, the data only gave weak and ambiguous support for the closure argument
Gossip in the workplace and the implications for HR management : a study of gossip and its relationship to employee cynicism
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
GOSSIPKIT: A Unified Component Framework for Gossip
International audienceAlthough the principles of gossip protocols are relatively easy to grasp, their variety can make their design and evaluation highly time consuming. This problem is compounded by the lack of a unified programming framework for gossip, which means developers cannot easily reuse, compose, or adapt existing solutions to fit their needs, and have limited opportunities to share knowledge and ideas. In this paper, we consider how component frameworks, which have been widely applied to implement middleware solutions, can facilitate the development of gossip-based systems in a way that is both generic and simple. We show how such an approach can maximise code reuse, simplify the implementation of gossip protocols, and facilitate dynamic evolution and re-deployment
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