Justice perceptions, perceived insider status, and gossip at work: A social exchange perspective

Gossip is a ubiquitous phenomenon found in organisational life but has been under-researched within organisational literature. Our study elaborates on the multidimensional nature of workplace gossip in terms of valence (i.e., positive and negative) and targets (i.e., supervisors and organisations). We derive perceived justice and insider status as an antecedent and boundary condition of workplace gossip from social exchange theory. Our analysis of data collected from 329 nurses largely supports our hypothesised relationships between organisation-initiated (i.e., procedural and distributive) justice and gossip about the organisation, as well as between supervisor-initiated (i.e., interpersonal and informational) justice and gossip about the supervisor. With the exception of distributive justice, our work indicates the moderating effects of perceived insider status on the positive linkages between justice perceptions and positive gossip behaviours. Our findings provide theoretical implications for the gossip patterns across gossip triggers and gossipers and offer practical guidelines for effectively managing workplace gossip.