How Workplace Gossip Shapes Interpersonal Relationships: A Qualitative Study from the Gossip Recipient’s Perspective
从八卦接收者的视角，通过多源数据探讨职场八卦如何影响接收者与八卦传播者及目标对象的关系，发现接收者对八卦者意图（利他、自利或真诚）的不同解读会触发三种不同过程，导致从信任下降到亲密关系建立等多种关系结果。
Although preliminary research implies a tantalizing association between workplace gossip and interpersonal relationships, little is known about how gossip shapes relationships at work. Given that relationships are integral to employee wellbeing and to the development of social capital, it appears vital to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the psychological processes linking gossip and workplace relationships. To this end, we induce theory from qualitative evidence regarding the processes whereby workplace gossip shapes relationships in the workplace. Taking the under-researched perspective of the gossip recipient, our study draws on multi-source data to explore how recipients’ experiences of gossip incidents affect their dyadic relationships with gossipers and gossip targets. We find that recipients’ interpretations of gossipers’ intentions—prosocial, self-serving, or genuine—initiate three distinct processes that engender a range of relational outcomes, from decreased trust to the development of close interpersonal connections. In describing these nuanced processes and their associated relational outcomes, we provide insights that extend and enrich theory and challenge conventional assumptions about workplace gossip.