Rumour Mills
Employees seek insights into their organization's heading.
And they should, because what their organization does has a
direct impact on their well-being. If your organization is
planning to retrench 50% of its staff, for instance, you'd
better start looking for new job right away.
Who do you turn to when you pine for information? Your
management would have you listen to them. From the
employee's perspective, this may not be the smartest move.
But fret not, there is an alternative.
There is a city underground. Parallel to the world of
corporate memos and communication meetings, this rumour
city trades information, often generating it as needed.
Employees flock to the rumour mills, not out of their
inherent malevolence for their employers, but because of a
well-founded and mutual mistrust. Management tends to be
cautious (and therefore less than candid) with their
announcements, while over 80% of office rumours turn out to
be accurate, as some studies show.
Let's take a hypothetical situation. Suppose five years
ago, your CEO took to the podium and declared that there
would be absolutely no retrenchments. How many of you would
have believed it? Those who believed would almost certainly
wish they had listened to the grapevine instead.
This credibility gap that a typical management team suffers
from can be addressed only though open and candid
communication. Therein lies the rub. The management cannot
always be as candid as they would like to be. And, they
certainly cannot afford to be as candid as the employees
would like them to be.
Lack of candour in an atmosphere of uncertainty breeds
rumour. Rumours, as defined in psychology, are hypotheses
with widespread impact. They abound when the management
refuses to trust the employees with strategic information.
This lack of trust and information leaves them with no
choice but to interpret the developments themselves. In
such interpretations lie the origins of office rumours.
Rumours are not to be confused with gossip. While rumours
are based on conjecture and are presented as future,
corporate-wide eventualities, gossip can be idle or with
malicious intent directed at individuals. And gossip is
usually presented as fact. In highly competitive settings,
gossip can inflict irreparable damage on unsuspecting
victims.
Once a rumour attains a high level of credibility, the top
brass will be forced to talk. But the talk has to be candid
and serious. And it has to be timely. If they wait for too
long, their attempts at a tête-à-tête
would resemble feeble attempts at damage control. And if
the talk is a mere torrent of clichés and rhetoric,
it will be taken as an effort to gloss over potentially
catastrophic changes. In fact, such weak communication
fuels more rumour than it quells.
Given that critical job-related information usually flows
down the grapevine, the employees are going to talk. The
only sure-fire strategy for any management is to make use
of the underground rumour mill -- the classic "if you can't
beat'em, join'em" paradigm.
If you are a part of the top brass, here is what you can
do. Circulate as much accurate and timely information as
you possibly can. If you cannot do it officially through
formal channels, try informal ones, such as lunches and
pantries. This way, you can turn the rumour mills to serve
your purpose rather than let them run amok.
Do not underestimate the power of the grapevine, lest all
your corporate communication efforts should come to naught.
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