Gossip and Organizations (Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and Society) - Hardcover

Waddington, Kathryn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0415417856 ISBN 13: 9780415417853

Publisher: Routledge, 2012

Synopsis

Gossip is a complex and ubiquitous phenomenon, widely found and variously practiced. Gossip and Organizations provides the reader with an analysis of gossip and informal knowledge across different national, organizational and cultural contexts, drawing upon empirical findings and the author's experiences of researching gossip in nursing and healthcare organizations and higher educational institutions. Kathryn Waddington aims to dispel once and for all the myth that women gossip and men have conversations, shattering the illusion that gossip at work is trivial talk.

This book challenges the assumption that gossip is a problem that should be discouraged. While there is undoubtedly a dark side to gossip, Kathryn Waddington argues that paying closer attention to gossip as organizational communication and knowledge enables exploration of other ways of seeing, interpreting and understanding organizations. Gossip is not merely an impediment of organizing, it is a form of organizing which shapes perceptions and actions, and can forewarn managers of future failure in organizational systems.

The complexity of gossip is such that a of range inter-disciplinary explanations is necessary in order to account for this form of communication and knowledge across multiple levels and spaces in and around organizations. Waddington provides a new evidence-based framework incorporating ethics, emotion, identity, sensemaking and power as a guide future research, theorizing and critical reflective and reflexive practice in the field of organizational gossip.

About this title

Review:

'Gossip and Organizations has shown me gossip in a new and different light and has given me a keen interest in this fascinating phenomenon. It is an excellent book on all fronts and one that I would highly recommend to others.' - Ali Abington, Action Learning: Research and Practice

'An exciting and innovative book that makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of gossip in organizations.' - Andrew Brown, University of Bath, UK

Synopsis:

Gossip is a complex and ubiquitous phenomenon, widely found and variously practiced by different individuals and groups. "Gossip and Organizations" provides the reader with an analysis of gossip and informal knowledge across different national, organizational and cultural contexts, drawing upon empirical findings and the authors' experiences of researching gossip in nursing and health care organizations, higher educational institutions, non-government organizations and private sector organizations in Australia and the UK.Co-authors Kathryn Waddington and Grant Michelson aim to dispel once and for all the myth that women gossip and men have conversations, shattering the illusion that gossip at work is trivial talk. This book challenges the assumption that gossip is a problem that should be discouraged arguing instead that paying closer attention to gossip enables exploration of other ways of seeing, interpreting and understanding organizations and people's experience in organizations. The complexity of gossip is such that a range of psycho-social-cultural explanations are necessary in order to account for human interactions at all levels in organizations.

Waddington and Michelson provide a new framework that synthesizes these elements to further illuminate gossip and/in organizations and guide future research, theoretical development and critical reflection in the field.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0415417856
• ISBN 13: 9780415417853
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 212