RE: GOSSIP LO393

jack@his.com
Sun, 12 Mar 95 00:41:50

Marilyn Darling asks in LO381: "I pose this question to the list: Which
is more similar -- gossip and dialogue or team meetings and dialogue?
Why?"

This is an interesting question. In my opinion, gossip and dialogue are
more likely to be alike, since team meetings tend to operate with agendas,
and these tend to promote discussion with convergence as the goal. Gossip
is more likely to be open-ended, and is therefore more likely to promote
inquiry and divergence. People engaged in gossip tend to hear each other
out; this is less so in team meetings, for reasons I don't fully
comprehend, but which I have always written off as "the pressure of
business", that is, the need to accomplish something.
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In my original remark, I stated that "the gossip mill is often the only
venue in organizations for genuine dialogue"; what I meant is that
organizational structure often prevents or prohibits inquiry and the
openness of exchange that we mean when we speak of dialogue. I added that
this dialogue is "then contaminated by the gossip and the habits of
gossip." What I meant is that gossip has inherent characteristics which
makes *all* gossip - even that gossip which is "only small talk" -
ultimately destructive of social integrity.

In a different message, Liz Greene says: "The method in which this "bad
talk" (as well as "good talk") occurs is, in organizational communication
terms, the "grapevine." The grapevine is a long-recognized essential part
of organizational communication and is not necessarily a bad thing."

I disagree. The grapevine - exactly because of its methods - is most
assuredly NOT a good thing, even when apparently positive or benign. By
its very nature, it is exclusionary and distorting. If it is a
long-recognized essential part of organizational communication, that only
stresses both the difficulty and importance of creating environments in
organizations in which the grapevine becomes unnecessary and obsolete,
something I believe can only occur through conscious design and/or
intervention...

--
jack@his.com           Tell me, what street compares with Mott Street in July?
Jack Hirschfeld