Who is gossiping? Interactive effects of status and status conflict on competence-related gossip
Publication Type
Conference Proceeding Article
Publication Date
8-2024
Abstract
Laypersons and scholars have conflicting views on the effect of status on gossip. Some argue that individuals with higher status may engage in less gossip than their lower-status counterparts because gossip is socially undesirable and associated with social costs, while others suggest that high status might engage in more gossip as it can be used to maintain/attain status and enhance relatedness with others. We draw on status and gossip literature to argue that the effect of status on gossip depends on one important characteristic of hierarchy — group status conflict. We also focus on one particular type — negative competence-related gossip, which refers to sharing negative information about a target’s abilities and skills at work with others (e.g., lack of competence). Specifically, we hypothesize that status enhances negative competence-related gossip only when people perceive a higher level of group status conflict. In a two-wave field study with a round-robin design, we show that when status conflict is perceived as higher, higher-status individuals engage in more negative competence-related gossip. The supplemental analyses suggest that status did not interact with group status conflicts in predicting other types of gossip. We discuss the implications of our research for both status and gossip research and practice.
Keywords
Gossip, Status, Status conflict
Discipline
Organizational Behavior and Theory
Research Areas
Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources
Publication
84th Annual Meeting of Academy of Management (AOM 2024) : Chicago, IL, USA, August 9-13
Identifier
10.5465/AMPROC.2024.19665abstract
City or Country
Academy of Management annual meeting
Citation
DONG, Pei and VADERA, Abhijeet K..
Who is gossiping? Interactive effects of status and status conflict on competence-related gossip. (2024). 84th Annual Meeting of Academy of Management (AOM 2024) : Chicago, IL, USA, August 9-13.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7661
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2024.19665abstract
