How gossip affects team performance and attitudinal outcomes: a social information processing perspective

Abstract

In work teams, gossip is a pervasive interactive behaviour that enables employees to exchange and validate information, clarify group norms, and make social comparisons. Consequently, it is likely to influence shared perceptions and member relationships, which in turn may shape team effectiveness. However, gossip has primarily been studied at the individual level, with limited attention to its influence on team performance and attitudinal outcomes. Among the few studies examining gossip at the team level, most rely on experimental methods to test how gossip affects members’ contribution decisions in economic games. Findings based on individual contribution decisions are difficult to generalise to core indicators of team effectiveness in real work settings. Specifically, knowledge is limited regarding how gossip influences member interactions and integrated performance and attitudinal outcomes. As a result, organisations lack evidence on how to manage gossip for the collective good.
To address this gap, this thesis investigates the effects of gossip on both performance and attitudinal team outcomes via key team processes. Drawing on social information processing theory, it proposes that negative team gossip reduces team task performance, helping behaviour, and satisfaction by decreasing team information sharing and increasing relationship conflict. In contrast, positive team gossip enhances team task performance, helping behaviour, and satisfaction by facilitating team information sharing and reducing relationship conflict. Furthermore, team performance transparency moderates these effects of gossip across both valences. The hypotheses are tested using data collected from 117 university work teams. The findings extend gossip literature to the team level and offer meaningful implications for when and how gossip should be managed to benefit team outcomes.

Date of Award	19 Jul 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Nottingham
Supervisor	Jie Wang (Supervisor) & Jim Mao (Supervisor)