Gossip at work: a model of narcissism, core self-evaluation and perceived organizational politics

Purpose Although many probable consequences of workplace gossip have been featured prominently in the organizational behavior literature, existing research lags in identifying the possible causes behind it. In the present research, the authors aim to examine self-focused personality traits such as narcissism and core self-evaluation (CSE) as predictors of negative (NWG) and positive workplace gossip (PWG). In addition, the study tests the moderating influence of perceived organizational politics (POP) on the aforementioned relationships. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a time lagged field study on a sample of 616 employees from various organizations across India. The proposed theoretical model was tested using structural equation modeling procedures in AMOS. Findings Narcissism was found to relate significantly with NWG as well as PWG. CSE, on the other hand, showed significant association with NWG only. Further, POP was found to moderate the relationship between narcissism and PWG. Practical implications Present study makes practitioners aware of the ubiquity of the phenomenon of gossip and encourages them to design and implement policies that cater to the needs of communication of employees. It also advises managers to carefully examine political scenario in the organization, and understand how it can be moulded for the betterment of employees as well as the organization. Originality/value First, using social comparison theory, the authors introduce personality traits as predictors of NWG and PWG. Second, by exploring POP as the boundary condition, the authors take into account the most common yet unexplored factor that affects gossip behavior in the organizations.