Örgütlerde Dedikodunun İşyeri Morali ve Çalışma Eforu Üzerindeki Etkisi
The Affect of Gossip in Organizations on Workplace Morale and Work Effort

Summary/Abstract: Purpose – Gossip harms organizations due to the several negative consequences it causes in the work environment. It creates discomfort in the working environment and causes low morale in organizations. In addition to preventing those who gossip and those who are subject to gossip from working, it also leads to a decrease in the work effort of employees by the low morale it creates. Previous research has revealed that understanding gossip mechanism and its effects is important for organizational practitioners and there is a need for the development of a more rigorous analysis of the role of organizational gossip with reference to the effects it can have for the organization as a whole, its managers and its workforce. However, there is a lack of academic research addressing the gossip in organizations. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the effect of gossip in organizations on workplace morale and work effort. Design/methodology/approach – In the study, a conceptual framework was formed by searching the literature and a questionnaire was prepared by using well accepted scales. Data was collected from ten companies operating in manufacturing sector in Istanbul using convenience sampling method between October 14th and December 22nd, 2019. 397 fully filled questionnaires returned from employees, working at least for three years in the same company, have been analyzed with SPSS statistics program. Finally, reliability, factor, correlation and regression analysis were performed on the obtained data, and hypotheses were tested. Findings – The results reveal that gossip in organizations has a negative effect on both workplace morale and work effort, and additionally workplace morale has a moderating effect on the relationship between gossip in organizations and work effort. Discussion – Today gossip in organizations is a bigger problem than ever before. Although gossip is a part of life and thus neither the managers nor the human resources departments can completely eliminate gossip in organizations, they can take steps to control and stop the people who gossip and spread gossip in the organization by using strong communication channels within the organization, by training the employees about the potential harms of the gossip, and by applying organizational policies that contain sanctions about gossip.

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