The Rumor Mill

Whenever rumor-mongering at the DreamWorks studio ramps up to a dangerous level, marketing chief Terry Press huddles her staff to confront the speculation head-on.

No, she tells employees, we are not being bought by Studio XYZ. And no, I am not moving to Walt Disney Co.

Gossip reminds Press of jungle drums beating relentlessly--if haphazardly. “It is a way to communicate,” she says, “but it’s very dismissive . . . and disrespectful of people.”

Few tendencies are as ingrained in human beings as the desire and willingness to exchange tidbits of information, real or imagined. Whether gossip passes digitally across electronic networks or from ear to ear at the water cooler, it is an inevitable aspect of corporate life.

For those Machiavellian types bent on using office politics to advance their careers, plugging in to the company grapevine can be a key strategy. How better to learn which power brokers are flying high and which have fallen out of favor?

At its worst, gossip can consist of malicious back-stabbing, with the objective of undermining an enemy. At its best, it can build trust and camaraderie and a feeling of being tapped in to a shared experience, such as a corporate reorganization or a merger.

Too often, however, managers who are unwilling to share discomfiting news directly with employees let gossips spread the word--often with debilitating effects for the organization.

Since emerging on the Savannah Plain 200,000 years ago, Homo sapiens has been hard-wired to schmooze, says London Business School professor Nigel Nicholson. In the Stone Age, savvy hunter-gatherers survived based on their ability to anticipate power shifts and adjust for them. The same can be said of modern corporate minions and mavens.

“To maintain a good status, you need smarts,” Nicholson said. “You need to be able to understand the intricacies of the politics, to know whom to make alliances with and whom to impress.

“From time immemorial,” he added, “there’s plenty of evidence that people are vitally interested in anything that indicates where threats may come to their social position, where they may secure a social advantage or get information that might pertain to them.”

In today’s office environment, Nicholson noted in an article for the current Harvard Business Review, “expert gossips time and again know key information before everyone else. . . . The people who chat with just the right people at just the right time often put themselves in just the right position.”

For all its negative connotations, gossip can be an emotionally satisfying way of building solidarity with colleagues.

“When people are distressed, they come together to discuss the situation,” said Jone Pearce, a professor of organization behavior at UC Irvine. Rumors tend to be strongest when people want information about something and the company is not providing it, especially at times, say, when mass layoffs are imminent.

Managers run a risk when they expect the rumor mill to do the communicating for them. After all, not every employee participates in the gossiping. The hardest workers--those who keep their nose to the grindstone--can often be caught unawares by unfortunate news, even if it has been buzzing around their heads for weeks. That in turn can create a poisoned atmosphere of distrust and disillusionment.

So, too, can sniping spawn trouble in the workplace.

“People take it upon themselves to confuse personal attributes with professional skills and competencies and job descriptions,” said Karen Stephenson, a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School. “Usually, gossip is generated around the misalignment of any of those.”

The safest course is never to say anything you wouldn’t want to see written on your office wall, said Marilyn Moats Kennedy, publisher of Career Strategist, a suburban Chicago newsletter devoted to career planning and office politics. Otherwise, gossip can quickly get out of hand.

“You cannot control it; you can’t spin it,” she added.

That is especially true with the rise of electronic mail, noted Karen Coyle, regional director of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Employees often forget that e-mail is a written record.

“Many people are unaware that an employer can and often does monitor e-mail,” Coyle said. “Most people see it as water-cooler communication, when in fact they should see it as posting a memo on the bulletin board.”

Given employees’ limitless appetite for office chatter, managers would be smart to keep an ear to the ground. Plug in to the grapevine, advocates Nicholson, and make sure it remains healthy, not malicious. Managing by wandering about can be the best way to communicate.

To cut down on any ill effects, managers should create an environment where people feel comfortable about sharing concerns and raising questions, said Judith R. Gordon, an associate professor of management at Boston College and author of the textbook, “Organizational Behavior: A Diagnostic Approach.”

When rumors do start floating, savvy managers should acknowledge them quickly, correcting any inaccuracies.

As for politically minded workers, they should keep in mind that every rumor comes with an agenda attached. The employee should take into account who’s delivering the information and why.

“In many cases, where there’s smoke there’s fire,” said Terry Curtin, head of publicity at Disney. “But nothing is absolutely true.”

Perhaps most important, don’t let yourself be used by vicious or manipulative colleagues who don’t want to be held responsible for spreading tales.

“You don’t want to be seen as the office gossip,” said Pearce of UC Irvine. “Be leery of people who feed you information.”