Culture | Can office gossip be good for workers?

There is a fine line between polite chit-chat about weekend plans and hurtful office gossip that will ruin a colleague’s reputation. To keep a healthy corporate culture and encourage strong colleague relationships, office gossip is often discouraged because of its negative impact.

However, new research has found that office gossip might actually have a positive impact on employees.

Research, which was conducted by the University of Salford academic Kirk Chang, Professor of Human Resources Management, involved a sample of 307 employees from differing companies in Taiwan finding that 61% of office gossip was identified as positive.

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While this figure may not seem hugely significant, the research indicated that gossip could be considered beneficial.