False and incomplete information, such as that transmitted via gossip, triggers
employee cynicism (ECN) (Abraham, 2000; Anderson & Bateman, 1997), while
McAndrew, Bell, and Garcia (2007) posits that positive gossip facilitates information
transmission and group dynamics. These findings suggest that gossip and employee
behaviour are somehow connected. Surprisingly, despite the connection, researchers do
not appear very interested in gossip and its role and influence in employee behaviour andthe literature on gossip –cynicism is also limited, with the exceptions of Kurland and
Pelled (2000) and Kuo (2010). Furthermore, from a human resource management
perspective, there is a need to conduct further research on the role of gossip in the
workplace, as through a better understanding of the antecedents of gossip and its
relationship to employee behaviour, managers and leaders can monitor the formation of
gossip and respond appropriately to alleviate any resulting negative impact on employees.
Specifically, this study adopts social information theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) and
social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1988) to help interpret the diverse literature on gossip,
and to develop and test hypotheses concerning some of the antecedents of gossip, with the
aim of contributing to knowledge on the relationship between gossip and behaviour in the
workplace.