Gossip from the top: The relationships between negative gossip from supervisor and employee outcomes

Although gossip is very common in the workplace, it has not received enough attention in management and organization studies. This paper builds a conceptual model of negative gossip from supervisors and its effects on subordinates who receive it. After reviewing and clarifying workplace gossip and its social functions, propositions about the effects of negative gossip from supervisors on their subordinates’ supervisor- and task-oriented variables are developed. This paper also suggests how the work-relatedness of the gossip may moderate these effects and discusses implications of the model.