Office Intelligence
For some managers, knowing exactly what your colleagues think of you can be a hard pill to swallow. Graham Barkus , managing director of the Effective Dialogue Group Ltd., a Hong Kong-based executive evaluation and coaching firm, found this out the hard way in 2003 when giving a South Korean manager feedback from subordinates. "First, he hit the table," says Mr. Barkus. "And then he hit me."
Not everyone responds well to "informal communications," or company gossip and small talk, which is essentially what bubbled up in the feedback that Mr. Barkus provided. The executive, the head of a high-tech company's product-development team, considered himself a people-person with strong team-building skills. But the consensus of the 13 colleagues who anonymously responded to a critique of him instead painted the picture of "a power-crazed, highly competitive slave driver," Mr. Barkus says.
The executive learned in a few short minutes what the grapevine had been saying about him all along -- and exploded with anger as a result.
He wasn't the first to feel threatened by company gossip, which -- whether it happens at water coolers, in bathrooms or online -- is seen by many as not only a waste of employees' time but also a direct attack on office morale. A 2002 survey of Australian and New Zealand white-collar workers by Hudson Global Resources, a division of Hudson Highland Group Inc., found that across industry sectors more than a third of workers said workplace gossip has "gotten out of control."
Yet a growing group of researchers and industrial psychologists say executives should view informal communications not as a threat, but as an opportunity. Gossip, they say, is a powerful force for spreading information through an organization, and executives would do better to join and even cultivate the grapevine rather than try to stamp it out. There are right and wrong ways to go about this.
"Plugging into the gossip network will tell you something about the underlying culture of your company," says Nigel Nicholson, an evolutionary and industrial psychologist at the London Business School. Whether the gossip is right or wrong, he adds, is beside the point.
Moreover, complaining in the workplace is therapeutic and, contrary to conventional wisdom, a great bonding force among colleagues, says Janet Holmes, head of the Language in the Workplace Project at New Zealand's Victoria University of Wellington. A report last year by the university shows that venting to colleagues provides an "emotional release" from work stress that, in turn, builds rapport.
If you're convinced that gossip is nothing but monkey business, you're not far from the truth: a study last year led by Kate Fox, social anthropologist and a director of the Social Issues Research Centre in Oxford, in the U.K., said gossip -- in the office, over the Internet, or on the phone -- is the human equivalent of the social grooming found in chimpanzees and gorillas.
"It has similar effects...its stimulated production of endorphins causes us to relax and reduces heart rate," she says. "Gossip serves an important role in the workplace to provide a social map of your (work) environment and navigate the terrain."
Gossip, in short, can be good -- if approached correctly. Here are ways that some companies and individuals have learned to benefit from it:
Embrace Feedback
What are employees and colleagues saying about you behind your back?
Plenty, according to research on office gossip. Yuko Ogasawara, a professor of sociology at the Nihon University in Tokyo, went undercover for six months, working as an office lady at a Japanese bank. Office ladies are a peculiarly Japanese segment of the work force who perform tasks somewhat like secretaries in the West but with many additional duties.
"Reputation is very, very important for managers," Ms. Ogasawara says. "When these office ladies gossip, it spreads -- and I mean it spreads fast." She recalls watching when one executive drank a worker's juice from a communal refrigerator -- within an hour the entire office was buzzing about the incident. Unlike in the U.S., where studies show bad relationships with secretaries rarely affect executive promotions, in Japan it can be a career killer. "If a man is very unpopular among (office ladies), he probably can't look for a bright future at the company," Ms. Ogasawara says.
All managers are, to one degree or another, affected by the gossip swirling around them, and they would do well to know what their subordinates are really thinking, says Sara Branch, a researcher at the Griffith University Workplace Bullying and Violence Research Team in Australia. "(Staff) has access to information and expertise," she notes. "They know how the place works, they have staff networks...and the gossip that goes around really has an impact. As the saying goes, mud sticks."
In Asia and elsewhere, one way more executives are trying to find out formally what their colleagues think of them informally is use of the so-called 360-degree evaluation, where workers are not only assessed by superiors, but also by their colleagues and subordinates. (It was this kind of evaluation that angered the South Korean executive who punched Mr. Barkus.) The evaluation has exploded in popularity, says Perry Lam, an independent human-resources consultant based in Hong Kong.
Without a formal 360-degree evaluation process, Mr. Barkus suggests, the next best way to tap the grapevine is to discreetly ask trusted employees. But how honest an answer you'll get, he adds, is anyone's guess. Even formal 360-degree evaluations are problematic in Asian cultures, he says, because there's a fear the evaluated will "lose face" and perhaps seek revenge. It's difficult, says Mr. Barkus, to make colleagues "believe an evaluation is anonymous, and for them to be as honest and open as possible."
Leverage Technology
Informal communication is not going away anytime soon, and technology -- e-mail, instant messaging, Web sites -- only creates more venues for it. A November 2004 survey of 300 companies world-wide by Meta Group Inc. found that 57% of users of instant messaging -- popular software that allows for real-time text communications via the Internet -- employ it in the office for personal chatter and gossip rather than work-related issues.
Blue Coat Systems Inc., an Internet security firm, surveyed 300 workers in the U.S. and the U.K. in 2003 and found that 80% of instant messaging users gossiped online on company time -- and 64% of them used it to complain to colleagues about managers.
A company's gut reaction to such technology uses might be to see them as a threat, or a time-waster. Some companies, for example, specifically block access to a Web site called Icered.com, which has become a popular and often controversial force in many offices in Hong Kong and Singapore. Categorized by industry, such as accounting, banking and finance, the site hosts rancorous postings ranging from "which investment banker is more likely to be seen in a bar than the office" to sometimes brutal evaluations of managers.
Tim Lam, who started the site in 1999, says he gets requests almost daily from companies to take postings from the Web site "and try to find out who made the posting." Icered.com has been sued twice by companies for allegedly libelous postings. "The most active industries are journalism, the medical community, accounting and investment banking," says Mr. Lam, who plans to expand the Web service to Shanghai next year.
Not everyone feels threatened by the site, however. One 35-year-old investment banker from Singapore, who asked that his name not be used, checks the site nearly every day and sees it as "a one-stop shop to find out what's going on between your own four walls as well as at the competitors."
As for other companies restricting access to the site, "I think that's ridiculous," he says. "Like the old saying goes, 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.'"
Some executives regularly use Icered.com as a business tool. David Coates, managing director of York Executive Search Ltd. in Hong Kong, says the site helps him evaluate the culture of investment banks, which in turn helps him select and prepare job candidates for interviews with his clients.
For example, in May last year, he learned from chatter on Icered.com that a bank manager had a reputation as "being someone who chewed up and spat out his juniors." This knowledge helped him prepare candidates for interviews with the manager. "It's easy to find (job candidates) who have the technical aspects right, but Icered helped in finding someone who has the psychological fit -- in this case, being tough-minded," Mr. Coates says. "We filled the position, and it's worked out well," he says.
Create Community
Technology, however, can only go so far in taking advantage of informal communications. The real key, says Mr. Nicholson, the industrial psychologist, is to get people "face-to-face rather than (using) e-mail, and try to get people talking together."
A two-year study released in 1993 by the European Commission-funded group Sustainable Teleworking found that remote workers crave the water cooler. "They miss the office gossip, and companies are working on ways to find communal spaces (where) people can meet up once, twice or three times a week," says Simon Hills, a program manager with telecommuting research organization SustainIT who took part in the study.
Keeping up with colleagues is so important to companies where executives are often on the go -- particularly high-tech firms -- that several have established café-like communal centers where teleworkers and frequent business travelers can meet up.
Since CEO Cameron Ong took over in August 2004 at Singapore's Ascott Group, the largest owner and operator of serviced apartments in Asia, he has asked staff to cut down on e-mail, and established a community room at the home office that doubles as a cafeteria and informal meeting space. "We wanted to create a place where inter-relations between departments could occur...where there is no rank and everyone could just talk together," he says. The space has been nicknamed the "fair play" room by employees.
Mr. Ong walks around the office three times a day with a goal "to make people sick of seeing my face," he jokes. Mr. Ong has asked all employees at the Singapore office to learn each other's names. "We have 90 staff here," says the 47-year-old. "It's surprising with so many of us on the same floor that we don't know or talk to each other."
Mr. Ong says his own efforts to listen to the grapevine have already paid off for the company. After casual chats with employees revealed frustrations with the office's antiquated telephone handsets, which had no functions such as forwarding and caller ID, he had all the phones in the office replaced. "I didn't realize it had become such a big morale issue," he says of the old phones.
Vicious Rumors
There are, of course, serious downsides to informal communications. In the Hudson Global Resources survey, half of the 3,500 respondents in Australia said they were victims of false rumors. Top players in companies were often singled out for scorn. How did they combat it? Half of the women and two-thirds of the men battled it by spreading false rumors of their own.
Shyle Gautama, senior director of Hong Kong headhunting firm Top Executive Ltd., says that "end-game gossip" -- denigrating colleagues or competitors to achieve a self-serving objective -- affects business prospects as well as office morale.
About 10 years ago, he says, a competing firm spread rumors that his company regularly poached employees from previous clients. Top Executive sent private investigators to confirm that the rival was making the claim -- and got an episode on tape. "They apologized, and we agreed not to sue them," Mr. Gautama says.
Despite its uglier sides, says Ms. Fox, the anthropologist, gossip makes up more than two-thirds of all human communications. "Trying to ban gossip is like trying to ban breathing," she says. "It just isn't going to happen."
Given this, researchers say, the best approach for most companies is to harness the grapevine, as did Mr. Ong, of the Ascott Group, and Mr. Coates, of York Executive Search.
As for the South Korean executive who slugged Mr. Barkus on the shoulder after hearing what his colleagues thought of him, his outlook has changed substantially.
By the time Mr. Barkus got back to the office after giving the review, "I had four e-mails from him apologizing...recognizing he had some issues to work on," he says. Mr. Barkus coached the executive for five months, and while the end result probably wasn't what his company had in mind -- the executive left for another firm -- "from a personal point of view, he was a lot happier," Mr. Barkus says.
The executive started his new job with a fresh perspective on his people skills, gained by learning what people said about him behind his back. By tapping the grapevine, notes Mr. Barkus, "he had a better understanding of how his actions affect others."
办公室流言面面观
对某些经理而言，知道同事对他的真实评价可能是一件难以接受的事情。香港管理人士评估和培训公司Effective Dialogue Group Ltd.的董事总经理格拉汉姆?巴克斯(Graham Barkus)在2003年好不容易才了解到这一点，当时他将一份下属的意见反馈报告交到一位韩国经理手中，“他先是拍桌子”，巴克斯说道，“然后打了我一拳。”
对于“非正式交流”，即流言蜚语或小道消息，不是每个人都能坦然回应的。巴克斯向那位经理提供的反馈报告正是这种信息。这个经理是一家高科技公司的产品开发团队的负责人，他自认擅与人沟通，具有高超的团队建设技能。但是13个匿名接受调查的员工对他的一致评价却是“疑迷于权力、对下属极其苛刻的上司。”
这位经理用几分钟时间读完这份报告，得知了长期以来关于他的流言蜚语，最后在愤怒中爆发了。他不是第一个感到公司流言威胁的人，许多人认为流言－－不管来自饮水机旁、浴室里或是网上－－不仅仅浪费员工时间，而且直接打击了员工士气。Hudson Highland Group Inc.旗下的Hudson Global Resources在2002年对澳大利亚和新西兰的白领进行了一项调查，结果发现在各个行业有超过三分之一的员工认为办公室流言已经“失控”。
但是越来越多的研究人员和行业心理学家称，管理人员不应将小道消息视为威胁，而应视为一个机会。他们说，小道消息是在组织内传递信息的强大力量，管理层应该加入或者引导小道消息的传播，而不是竭力阻止。在实现这一点上，存在著正确的和错误的方法。
伦敦商学院(London Business School)的行业心理学家尼吉尔?尼克尔森(Nigel Nicholson)说，“让自己融入流言蜚语的网络将会让你了解所在公司的基层文化。”他补充说，这些流言蜚语正确与否并不重要。
新西兰Victoria University of Wellington的“工作场所的语言项目”的负责人珍妮?荷尔默斯(Janet Holmes)说，在工作场所发牢骚能起到治疗作用，并且与传统观点相反的是，这是团结员工的强大力量。该所大学去年公布的一份报告显示，员工发牢骚出气能够从工作压力中解脱出来，获得“精神上的放松”，由此建立起和睦关系。
如果你觉得流言蜚语纯粹只是在工作之余挠痒痒，那么你距离真理已经很近了：社会人类学家、英国牛津Social Issues Research Centre的董事凯特?福克斯(Kate Fox)去年领导进行的一项研究认为，人类在办公室里、互联网上或者电话中传播流言蜚语就像黑猩猩和大猩猩相互梳理毛发一样正常。
“它具有相同的效果...它刺激内啡呔的分泌，让我们感到放松，心跳频率减缓。”她说道。“流言蜚语在工作场所发挥著重要作用，它展现了一幅工作环境的社会生态图，并帮你得以生存其中。”一言以蔽之，流言蜚语如果应用得当，可以发挥积极作用。以下是一些公司和个人如何学会从流言蜚语中受益的方法：
雇员和同事在你背后说些什么呢？
根据对办公室谣言进行的调查来看，他们嘀咕的东西还真的很多。日本大学的社会学教授Yuko Ogasawara假扮成一家日本银行的白领女性，进行了6个月的秘密调查。日本的白领女性类似于西方的秘书，但同时还承担许多其他的职责。
“威望对经理们来说非常、非常重要”，Ogasawara说道。“当这些白领女性闲聊时，流言蜚语飞快的传播。”她记得有一次一个经理喝了员工存放在公共冰箱里的果汁，不到一个小时整个办公室都在对此事窃窃私语。研究显示，尽管在美国与秘书关系不佳对管理人员的仕途不会有什么影响，但在日本却可能毁掉一个人的前程。“如果一个人在白领女性中很不受欢迎，他在公司可能就不要期望有光明前景了。”Ogasawara说。
所有的经理都或多或少的受到身边流言的影响，他们将会竭力了解下属的真正想法，澳大利亚Griffith University“工作场所专横和暴力行为研究小组”的研究员莎拉?布朗契(Sara Branch)说道。“员工拥有信息和专业知识，”她指出。“他们知道这个场所是如何运作的，他们拥有员工网络...流言四处传播的确会产生影响。正如俗话所说，众口铄金。”
在亚洲以及其他地方，管理人员更多的使用360度评估这样一种正式方法去了解同事在私下里对自己做何评价，在这种全面评估中，不仅上司做出评价，而且同事和下属也进行评价（那位怒火中烧、挥拳打巴克斯的韩国经理看到的就是这样一份评估报告）。香港独立的人力资源顾问Perry Lam说，这种评估已经迅速的普及。
巴克斯说，如果没有这种360度评估报告，利用流言的最好方法是小心询问可以信赖的职员。但他补充说，你是否会得到诚实的答案可就难说了。他说，即使正式的360度评估报告也会因亚洲文化而产生问题，因为人们担心评估对象将因此“丢脸”并可能秋后算帐。巴克斯说，很难让员工相信评估是匿名的，他们难以敞开心扉。
流言短时间内还不会消失，科技－－电子邮件、网络寻呼、网站－－让其如虎添翼。Meta Group Inc.在2004年11月对全球300家公司进行的调查发现，57%的网络寻呼用户在办公室并没有用这种工具处理与工作相关的事情，而是聊私人事务并散布传言。
互联网安全公司Blue Coat Systems Inc.在2003年对美国和英国的300名员工进行了调查，结果发现80%的网络寻呼使用者上班时间在网上闲聊，其中有64%的人使用这种工具向同事发老板的牢骚。
对此，公司的本能反应可能是将其视为威胁，而不是首先想到时间的浪费。比如，某些公司封锁了一个名为Icered.com的网站，这个网站在香港和新加坡的办公室中日益受到欢迎但是各种争议不断。这个网站按照会计、银行和金融等行业分类张贴了各种刻薄的贴子，诸如“哪个投资银行家在酒吧出现的几率比办公室里高”以及各种关于上司的粗野评价。
这家网站由Tim Lam在1999年创建，Tim Lam称几乎每天都有公司要求将一些贴子从网站上删掉，并试图找出幕后作者。Icered.com已经遭到两次起诉，被指控张贴诽谤信息。“网站上最活跃的是新闻行业、医疗团体、会计和投资银行业”，Lam说，他计划明年将该网站服务拓展到上海。
但不是所有人都感觉这个网站是一个威胁。新加坡一位要求不要透露姓名的、现年35岁的投资银行家几乎每天都浏览这个网站，并将其视为“了解自身及竞争对手最新状况的一站式商店。”
至于那些限制员工访问该网站的公司，“我认为这很荒谬”，他说道，“俗话说－接近你的朋友，更要接近你的敌人。”
一些管理人士经常浏览Icered. com，将之作为了一个商业工具。香港York Executive Search Ltd.的董事总经理戴维?库特斯(David Coates)说，这个网站帮助他对投资银行的文化进行评估，这反过来又帮助他为客户挑选候选人，并为候选人准备面试。
比如在去年5月份，他从Icered.com的论坛上得知一位银行经理以“对下属残酷无情”闻名。这一信息帮助他为候选人准备了与这位经理的面试。“发现具有合适技术才能的人选不难，但是Icered帮助找到了心理上合适的人选，即意志坚强的人。”库特斯说，“我们为其找到了合适人选，并且进展良好。”
但是科技对非正式交流的利用只能达到这种程度。行业心理学家尼克尔森说，真正的关键在于让人们当面而不是使用电子邮件交流，并且尽量让人们在一起畅所欲言。
欧盟资助的团体Sustainable Teleworking在进行了两年调研后于1993年公布了一份报告，该报告发现位置偏僻的员工渴望走到饮水机边。“他们怀念办公室的流言蜚语，有的公司竭力为员工创造一个共同空间，好让他们每周相聚一次、两次或三次，”参与此次调研的研究组织 SustainIT的项目经理西蒙?希尔斯(Simon Hills)表示。
与同事保持联络对那些其管理层常常在外面忙碌的公司非常重要，尤其是高科技公司－－一些公司设立了类似于咖啡厅的公共中心，在这里技术人员和频繁出差的人员可以小聚。
自从王安伦(Cameron Ong)在2004年8月就任新加坡Ascott Group首席执行长以来，他就要求员工减少电子邮件发送数量，并在总公司设立一处公共场所，既作为自助厅又作为非正式会议室。“我们希望创造一个让各个部门建立联系的空间...在这里没有职务高低之分，每个人都可以畅所欲言，”他说道。员工为这个空间起了一个匿称：“公平活动”场所。Ascott是亚洲最大的服务公寓所有人和运营商。
王安伦每天在办公室走三个来回，其目的是“让员工厌恶看到我的脸，”他开玩笑的说道。王安伦要求新加坡办公室所有员工都知道彼此的姓名。“这里有90名员工，”47岁的王安伦说。“令人意外的是，同一楼层中有许多人不知道对方姓名或者互不说话。”
王安伦说，他自创的这种聆听闲言的方式已经令公司获益。在与员工闲聊时他发现员工对公司过时的手持电话感到不满，这种手持电话没有转接或呼入号码显示等功能，于是他更换了公司全部的电话。他说，“我以前没有意识到这已经成为一个影响员工士气的大问题。”
当然，非正式交流存在严重的缺陷。在Hudson Global Resources的调查中，澳大利亚3，500名对调查作出回应的受访者中有一半表示，他们是谣言的受害者。公司的高层人士常常成为奚落的对象。那么他们任何应付呢？一半的女性和三分之二的男性以散布他们自编的流言来应对。
香港猎头公司Top Executive Ltd.的高级董事沙莱?高特玛(Shyle Gautama)称，“终极流言”－－诋毁同事或竞争对手以达到自私目的－－影响了商业前景以及办公室士气。
他说，大约10年前，一个竞争对手散布谣言，称他的公司常常偷挖以前客户的墙角。Top Executive派人秘密调查，确认谣言来自这个竞争对手，并录下了一段谈话。“他们后来向我们道歉，我们同意不起诉他们。”高特玛说道。
人类学家福克斯说，尽管流言有时令人生厌，但是人类所有的交流中超过三分之二是流言。她说，“扼制流言就像禁止呼吸。这是不可能的。”
研究人员说，有鉴于此，多数公司最好的方法就是利用这些流言，就像王安伦和库特斯所做的那样。
至于那位在听到同事对他的评价后挥拳打巴克斯的韩国经理，他的态度从那以后发生了巨大的改变。
在巴克斯回到办公室后，“我收到了他的四封道歉信...他认识到自己存在一些需要解决的问题，”他说道。巴克斯给这位经理培训了5个月，但是最终结果可能是他的公司始料未及的－－他跳槽到了另外一家公司，“我个人认为，他比以前要快乐多了。”巴克斯说。
这位经理用全新的人际沟通技能展开了新的职业旅程，这个人际沟通技能正是他从同事背后对他的评价中学到的。巴克斯说，通过流言，“他对自己的行为如何影响他人有了更好的理解。”
