Re: Gossip LO399

Dr. Ivan Blanco (BLANCO@BU4090.BARRY.EDU)
Mon, 13 Mar 1995 8:31:05 -0500 (EST)

> Date: Wed, 8 Mar 1995 10:25:02 -0500 (EST) LO361
> From: Michael B Elmes <mbelmes@WPI.EDU>
>
> Replying to LO350 --
>
> I would contend that it is impossible to talk about organizational
> learning without starting with gossip. Small talk in everyday encounters
> is how people and groups of people make sense of organizational issues and
> activities. That to me is learning. To suggest that organizations would
> learn better if gossip could somehow be exorcised is like saying that your
> car would run more quietly if you could just remove the engine. Besides,
> what is do bad about resistance? Isn't there a lot of wisdom in
> resistance?
>
> Mike Elmes
> mbelmes@wpi.edu
>

Gossip, if we assume and accept that it is dysfunctional, would
then be inversely related to the amount of organizational learning that is
taking place. In a learning organization there is not a great need for
gossip among its members, because of the openness, trust, everybody learns
and benefits, etc. I don't think that gossip should crushed, but it
should be channeled into the main stream of information flow so that its
contente get "cleaned up" without affecting the messangers!

Ivan,

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