【学术讲座】Are Gossipers Looked Down Upon? A Norm-Based Perspective on the Relation between Gossip and Gossipers’ Status

Date & Time: 9:30-11:00, July 4^th, 2019

Venue: Room 2101, Tongji Building A

Language: English

Speaker: Prof. Huiwen Lian

ABSTRACT

Gossipers are often looked down upon and have low status in organizations. However, by commenting on what is (un)acceptable at work, gossipers transmit and enforce organizational norms and thus should gain status. To reconcile these seemingly contradictory propositions, we develop an integrated model where we distinguish positive gossip from negative gossip, theorizing their independent and joint effects on gossipers’ status via both norm violation and norm transmission effects. We argue that negative gossip serves to transmit norms but also violates norms, whereas positive gossip serves to transmit norms without violating norms. Interactively, positive gossip buffers the norm violation effect and synthesizes the norm transmission effect of negative gossip. Norm violation and norm transmission are two concurrent but countervailing mechanisms explaining the effects of workplace gossip on gossipers’ status. We found empirical support for our key predictions in a 2-by-2 between-subject experiment in which positive gossip and negative gossip were manipulated (Study 1), and a multi-wave field survey with data collected from 192 full-time employees (Study 2).

Speaker’s Bio

Huiwen Lian is an associate professor of management at University of Kentucky and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She graduated with PhD degree from University of Waterloo, Industrial/ Organizational Psychology department. Her research interests include abusive supervision, workplace deviance, and leadership. She has published many papers in top-tier journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Annals, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and so on. She has been served as member of editorial board for Journal of Applied Psychology (2015-present), Personnel Psychology (2017-present), and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (2013-2016).

All the faculties and students are welcome to attend this lecture!