subject: Making The Most From Grapevine Communication [print this page] Grapevine communication is the informal network of networks that staff use to pass information on to every other. The grapevine goes up, down, sideways and diagonally, it spreads separately from the formal communication channels.
An informal network carries rumors, gossip and official information. While eighty% of the rumors are work connected, 20% are of a more personal nature (gossip). The grapevine could be a network of networks. An employee is doubtless to belong to multiple networks, a number of that could never interact with each different, except through the employee.
A Day in the Life of Your Grapevine Networks
As an instance you belong to three main informal networks at work: one is your co-workers in the department, another could be a project team that you are working with, and another is that the basketball team that you simply play with on weekends.
You'll hear a rumor from one amongst your co-staff about potential layoffs, and you would like to search out out if it's true. You attend a project meeting and bring the topic up with the team to test if they need heard the rumor. Two of the folks in the team have, therefore you begin to relinquish credence to the rumor, since you've got two different sources that have heard about it.
At this time, you think about checking the rumor with your third network, some of your basketball buddies. Instead you chose to check if the rumor is true together with your boss: your formal communication network.
Your boss confirms the rumor and lets you know that he hasn't been given the go ahead to announce that management is considering potential layoffs to close the budget deficit. Thus he asks you not to pass the knowledge on anymore.
What this example tells us regarding grapevine communication:
?Folks are seemingly to be active in multiple informal communication networks.- People use their multiple informal networks to verify the truthfulness of rumors.
?Data (particularly negative data) usually travels faster through the grapevine than through official channels.
?In times of stress or changes, the grapevine will be busier than ever.
Reaping the advantages of the grapevine, and avoiding its drawbacks
In times of amendment, managers would like to step up their communication efforts. They need to confirm that the official message goes out before the unofficial version starts creating its rounds through the informal networks of communication.
Employees need to periodically plug in to the formal communication structure to confirm or deny a lot of serious rumors. These actions will facilitate scale back anxiety, releasing up the grapevine for use to hold a lot of benign messages, like "Did you hear Bob is getting married?" "No approach" "Yes way"
