Gossip is a common phenomenon in the workplace, but yet relatively little is
understood about its influence to employees. This study adopts social information
theory and social cognitive theory to interpret the diverse literature on gossip, and to
develop and test hypotheses concerning some of the antecedents of gossip, with an aim
of developing knowledge of the relationship between gossip and employee behaviour
in the workplace. The study analysed survey data in a two-stage process, from 362
employees across a range of industries in Taiwan. The findings revealed that jobrelated
gossip predicted employee cynicism and mediated the relationship between
psychological contract violation and cynicism, and that non-job-related gossip showed
a similar but weaker effect to employee cynicism. The contribution made by this paper
is of value to both the academic subject domain and managers in Human Resources.
First, we have identified two constructs of gossip, job-related and non-job-related
gossip not previously reported and a validated scale has been created. Second, we have
confirmed that these different constructs of gossip impact differently on employee
behaviour and therefore HR managers should be cautious about gossip in the
workplace, as it can cause cynical behaviour amongst employees.