LONDON - Gossiping over lunch or a coffee break is one of the joys of office life. But is it a waste of valuable time or a key factor in the smooth running of an organisation?
While employers might disagree, a conference at the Warwick Business School, England, has been told that gossip is a much undervalued communication system. Dr Kathryn Waddington, senior lecturer at the South Bank University, London, said: "Gossip is an important feature of organisational communication which is worthy of further recognition in terms of the development of theory and research."
Dr Waddington said gossip had numerous beneficial effects, not least helping newcomers to understand an organisation's culture and history.
