ABSTRACT

This study examines how group diversity affects individual group members’ negative gossip about their colleagues and how this linkage is altered by group structure. We hypothesize that group diversity in terms of organizational tenure reduces individual negative gossip about coworkers, and that the diversity–gossip linkage is moderated by a self-managing structure. With a multi-source dataset collected from 312 nurses employed in 39 nursing groups at four healthcare organizations, our random coefficient modeling analysis revealed that employees in groups with high tenure diversity are less likely to negatively gossip about their coworkers when the group has a greater self-managing structure. This study provides theoretical implications pertaining to the contextual influences on workplace gossip. Our findings offer practical implications regarding the management of employee gossip at work.

摘要

这项研究探讨了群体多样性如何影响个体成员对同事的负面八卦，以及这种联系如何因群体结构而改变。我们假设，就组织任期而言，群体多样性减少了对同事的负面消极闲话，而多样性与闲话的联系则由自我管理的结构来缓和。通过从四个医疗机构的39个护理小组中聘用的312名护士收集的多源数据集，我们的随机系数模型分析显示，拥有较高任职期的小组中的员工在自我状况更好时，对同事的负面闲话可能性较小。管理结构。这项研究提供了有关上下文对工作场所八卦的影响的理论含义。