Kevin Grein
June 28, 2018
31144744
The Workplace Grapevine
The article Hearing it through the Grapevine: Positive and Negative Workplace Gossip, best
defines gossip as “a social exchange that must be evaluative talk between two or more persons
about a third party that is absent from the conversation.” According to the article, there are six
primary functions of gossip: getting information, gaining influence, releasing pent-up emotions,
providing intellectual stimulation, fostering interpersonal intimacy, and maintaining and
enforcing group values and norms.
