Gossip and Organizations

206 Pages·2012·2.634 MB·English

by  Kathryn Waddington

Gossip and Organizations
Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations, and Society
This series presents innovative work grounded in new realities, addressing
issues crucial to an understanding of the contemporary world. This is the world
of organised societies, where boundaries between formal and informal, public
and private, local and global organizations have been displaced or have van-
ished, along with other nineteenth century dichotomies and oppositions. Man-
agement, apart from becoming a specialized profession for a growing number
of people, is an everyday activity for most members of modern societies.
Similarly, at the level of enquiry, culture and technology, and literature and
economics, can no longer be conceived as isolated intellectual fi elds;
conventional canons and established mainstreams are contested. Manage-
ment, Organization and Society addresses these contemporary dynamics of
transformation in a manner that transcends disciplinary boundaries, with
books that will appeal to researchers, student and practitioners alike.
1 Gender and Entrepreneurship 7 Management and the Dominance
An Ethnographic Approach of Managers
Attila Bruni, Silvia Gherardi, and An Inquiry into Why and
Barbara Poggio How Managers Rule Our
Organizations
2 Understanding Organization Thomas Diefenbach
as Process
Theory for a Tangled World 8 International Management and
Tor Hernes International Relations
A Critical Perspective from Latin
3 Time in Organizational America
Research Edited by Ana Guedes and
Edited by Robert A. Roe, Mary J. Alex Faria
Waller and Stewart R. Clegg
9 Visual Culture in Organizations
4 Effi ciency and Management Theory and Cases
Guy Callender Alexander Styhre
5 Values-Based Service for 10 Style Differences in
Sustainable Business Cognition, Learning, and
Lessons from IKEA Management
Bo Edvardsson and Bo Enquist Theory, Research, and Practice
Stephen Rayner and Eva Cools
6 The Public Services under
Reconstruction 11 Storytelling and the Future of
Client Experiences, Professional Organizations
Practices, Managerial Control An Antenarrative Handbook
Marja Gastelaars Edited by David M. Boje
12 Pluralism in Management 20 Gossip and Organizations
Organizational Theory, Management Kathryn Waddington
Education, and Ernst Cassirer
Eirik J. Irgens Other titles in this series:
13 Why Organizational Change Fails Contrasting Involvements
Robustness, Tenacity, and Change A study of management accounting
in Organizations practices in Britain and Germany
Leike van Oss and Jaap van ’t Hek Thomas Ahrens
14 Imagining Organization Turning Words, Spinning Worlds
Performative Imagery in Business Chapters in organizational ethnography
and Beyond Michael Rosen
Edited by François-Régis Puyou,
Paolo Quattrone, Chris McLean, Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling
and Nigel Thrift Women, power and leadership in
agricultural organizations
15 Gender Equity in Science and Margaret Alston
Engineering
Advancing Change in Higher The Poetic Logic of Administration
Education Styles and changes of style in the art
Diana Bilimoria and Xiangfen of organizing
Liang Kaj Sköldberg
16 Commitment to Work and Job Casting the Other
Satisfaction Maintaining gender inequalities in the
Studies of Work Orientations workplace
Edited by Bengt Furåker, Kristina Edited by Barbara Czarniawska and
Håkansson and Jan Ch. Karlsson Heather Höpfl
17 Fair Trade Organizations and Gender, Identity and the Culture of
Social Enterprise Organizations
Social Innovation through Hybrid Edited by Iiris Aaltio and Albert J. Mills
Organization Models
Benjamin Huybrechts Text/Work
Representing organization and
18 Organizations and the organizing representation
Bioeconomy Edited by Stephen Linstead
The Management and
Commodifi cation of the The Social Construction of
Life Sciences Management
Alexander Styhre Texts and identities
Nancy Harding
19 Managing Corporate Values in
Diverse National Cultures Management Theory
The Challenge of Differences A critical and refl exive reading
Philippe d’Iribarne Nanette Monin
Gossip and Organizations
Kathryn Waddington
NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2012
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2012 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kathryn Waddington to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Waddington, Kathryn.
Gossip and organizations / by Kathryn Waddington.
p. cm. — (Routledge studies in management, organizations, and
society ; 20)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Communication in organizations. 2. Gossip. 3. Corporate culture.
4. Organizational behavior. I. Title.
HD30.3.W33 2012
650.01'4—dc23
2011052506
ISBN13: 978-0-415-41785-3 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-11178-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
Frontispiece Gossip © Copyright Pol Ledent.
Dedicated to my Dad
Reg Croft (1920–2009)
Contents
List of Figures and Tables xiii
Foreword xv
Preface xvii
Acknowledgements xix
1 Introduction 1
2 Organizing Gossip 18
3 Gossip and Ethics 39
4 Gossip and Emotion 58
5 Gossip and Identity 77
6 The Politics of Gossip 98
7 The Management of Gossip 118
8 Future Directions 138
Appendix A: Summary of PhD Thesis: The Characteristics
and Function of Gossip in Nursing and Healthcare
Organizations 161
Appendix B: Summary of HRM Strategies and
Academic Engagement Project 165
Bibliography 167
Author Index 187
Subject Index 189
Figures and Tables
FIGURES
2.1 Women at work in domestic service. 21
2.2 Men at work in the shipbuilding industry. 22
2.3 An example of Rubin’s ‘face-vase’ illusion. 28
8.1 Framework for theorizing gossip and organizations. 149
8.2 The Roaring Forties: Seven Boards in Seven Days. 149
A.1 Example of diary record sheet. 162
A.2 Framework for combining and integrating qualitative and
quantitative data. 163
TABLES
2.1 Gossip-as-Knowledge Typology 33
5.1 Categories and Constructs of Gossip 87
5.2 Characteristics of the ‘Out and Out’ and
‘Destructive’ Gossips 89
7.1 Factors Contributing to Failure to Heed Warning
Signs of Failure 128
8.1 Exploring Contextualized Critical Incidents of Gossip 156
A.1 Summary of Interview Guide 162