Besides formal communication flows coming from the management, their are also informal communication flows, such as rumours and gossip between co-workers. Why is this so important within organizations and what is the effect on employees?
Informal communication is a natural process consisting of interaction between people. Informal communication consists of all forms of communication which are not explicitly determined by means of communication structures. Moreover, informal communication exists from non official sources from the organization and is mainly important to the preservation of the organization as social entity (Elving, 2006). Informal communication is created out of a social need. Issues are frequently discussed (DiFonzo & Bordia, 1998; Bordia, Jones, Gallois, Callan & DiFonzo, 2006). Furthermore, informal communication plays an important role for the need to belong to groups within an organization. Personal relations are maintained by means of informal conversations. When people do not have the feeling to belong to a certain group, this has negative effects on the physical and emotional wellbeing of people (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
People are motivated to belong to a group. This is a natural process in order to start and maintain interpersonal relationships. People have the need to search regularly to affection and positive interaction with the final goal of creating a mutual feeling. The mutual feeling exists within informal communication processes (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Moreover, people make sense to changes by using informal communication. Communication within organizations are networks of conversations where sense making processes are involved and where a reality is created (Ford, 1999; Ford & Ford, 1995). Informal communication functions therefore as a way for employees to make sense out of the change process. Sense making can be of influence on the attitude and the feeling one has about the change (Weick, Sutcliffe & Obstfeld, 2005).
Informal communication can shape itself into rumors and gossip. Rumors and gossip might exist when there is no clear and unambiguous formal communication. As a result it is necessary for employees to make sense out of the situation on the work floor in order to understand it (DiFonzo & Bordia, 1998). People tend to make use of tactics in order to decrease insecurity, which has a strong relation with gossip and rumors. Gossip and rumors can result in insecurity, stress and being unproductive and unmotivated. This can have negative effects on the organization. In this case, employees construct their own reality when they do not receive accurate information out of formal communication lines. The more informal communication is produced out of this, the more employees are going to stand back from reality. This makes the situation ambiguous, which makes it difficult for an organization to keep everyone on the same page (Elving, 2006).
Research from DiFonzo and Bordia (2000) showed that managers are at least once a week confronted with gossip and rumors which can damage the organization. Employees receive information about the organization more frequently out of informal communication flows than out of formal ones. Besides this, the information coming out of informal communication is accurate in 90% of the cases. According to Bordia, Jones, Gallois, Callan and DiFonzo (2006) rumors and gossip can be transferred to a way organizations can anticipate to the change. The content of rumors and gossip can predict the direction a change is heading towards. Furthermore, gossip and rumors are known to be spread quickly within organizations and they have a high reach. Crampton, Hodge and Mishra (1998) do not see the benefits of gossip and rumors. Rumors and gossip can damage the management as well as the employees. According to the authors damage is seen as individual stress and insecurity. Employees formerly trust rumors and gossip when the informal communication around the change is unclear and ambiguous. Even though the information obtained via informal communication is for 90% accurate, it is the 10% of inaccurate information that causes the problems (Crampton, Hodge & Mishra, 1998).
Research from Bordia, Jones, Gallois, Callan and DiFonzo (2006) showed that people experience more stress when surrounded by negative rumors and gossip. Furthermore, the authors also demonstrated relations between people who do not belong to a group or have the feeling to be alone and their physical and emotional wellbeing. People who do not have the feeling to belong to a group and have the feeling to be alone, had more physical and emotional health problems than people who did have the feeling to belong to a group. Informal communication and therefore the need of the individual to belong to a group, has an important and necessary function for the wellbeing of people (Baumeister & Leary, 1995).
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