05.08.06 The 4th Managerial Flaw that Encourages Negative Gossip : Managerial Participation in Office Gossip

Managerial Participation in Office Gossip

Managerial participation is a notorious promoter of negative gossip.

The bible is silent about whether Aaron was in agreement with the assertion that Moses may never come back. However, implementing what the people had asked could in a way indicate that he condoned their request thence participating in, or contributing to the tail-end of their negative gossip since he agreed with the masses. Rather than controlling the community as a leader, Aaron allowed the community’s rumour to control him. It is important to note that it can’t have been the entire six hundred thousand men talking to Aaron all at once. The community must have sent their representatives or leaders to engage Aaron. That is why I suggest that the information must have moved from place to place through some form of a grapevine and that the heads of the community, apart from the Levites, must have participated in disseminating the rumour.

Looking at JuaLink, four supervisors participated in negative gossip, influencing their team members in the process. The first one was Obed the human resource officer, who had engaged in the ‘abortions gossip’ with Lulu albeit his junior, then deployed resources for a Pro-Life Seminar, going as far as getting team members ‘off their desks’ to attend. The second one was Yubu the board chairman. As already mentioned in several places elsewhere, the chairman had stooped so low as to use Obed’s slanderous gossip to bias an entire board against Faraja and Neema; and to approve the release of funds for an unnecessary and useless investigation. The third supervisor to have participated in negative gossip was the managing director, Njia, who would consistently ferry rumours to a junior employee, Lulu, by updating her off-record, each time that Faraja complained about the publicity officer in management meetings. This had ultimately widened the chasm between Lulu and her immediate supervisor, Faraja; and fanned the ‘negative gossip’ even further. Then of course the fourth one was the very Lulu, who would use gossip to bias her colleague, Neema, against Faraja; and also feed her followers cum prayer partners with dirty and sometimes slanderous rumours. The thing to note in those examples is that the negative impact of ‘gossip-friendly’ supervisors on team members cannot be overemphasized. In summary, since many members consider such supervisors as role models, the supervisors end up ‘mentoring’ or inculcating a ‘negative gossip’ culture in the team, unit, department or organisation that they lead.

Managerial participation is a notorious promoter of negative gossip. Such participation sets a bad example for team members to follow. To add fuel to the flames, some supervisors tend to reward team members for ferrying gossip, which motivates members to sink deeper into the habit. Therefore, the warning in Proverbs 29:12 is spot on when it says (MSG): ¹²When a leader listens to malicious gossip, all the workers get infected with evil.