Article: COMMUNICATION ; Workplace Gossip - It's not all bad Pssst... Have you heard the latest? People gossip at work. Susan Hafen argues that gossiping workmates are not always bad news for companies.

While networks, grapevines and rumours are acknowledged forms of organisational communication, little has been done to understand the role of gossip in the workplace. Perhaps that's because gossip is associated more with women and therefore scholars have ignored it as trivia, but Susan Hafen says it's time gossip got some air time. An associate professor in communication at Weber State University in Utah, Hafen chalked up experience in human resources in the energy and manufacturing industries before she became an academic.

"Gossip needs to be legitimised as an important workplace communication," she told a seminar at Waikato Management School during a recent visit to New Zealand.

Hafen ...

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