Don’t believe rumours without checking them; herd instinct is no good.
Beware of rumour-mongers. Double check any statement of your peers or subordinates that defies your logic. Keep you people informed about the happening in your organization. If they are not kept fully informed, they resort to grapevine, which is a potential source for rumour.
Successful rumour management may prevent this negative word of mouth propaganda (Liao, 2007). More disturbing for managers is that rumours will always be a part of a business environment and contrary to beliefs that rumours are only spread by word of mouth (as if that isn't difficult enough to handle), recent technological developments have expanded dramatically our ability to disseminate information. This is made obvious with the rise in frequency of rumours being spread by media outlets (Kimmel, 2004).
Unexpected and unexplained events can spark rumours among employees. If ignored by Human resources and the management team, rumours can take on a life of their own hurting productivity and morale (Mishra, 1990).
It's natural for employees to assume the worst. But there's an art to dealing with rumours and it involves timing: You must know when to act and when not to.
Four tips have been identified by The HR Specialist (2007) for managing rumours.
1. Take note of subtle changes in the atmosphere. When a usually bustling workplace becomes quiet and conversations halt when one walks into a room, beware. Dispel the mystery by asking employees directly "What's going on?" Listen and respond.
2. Announce upcoming changes, whenever possible. Unexplained surprises breed rumours. Whenever possible, keep employees informed of changes that could affect them. If employees cannot be told ahead of time, expect rumours to spread and preparations should be made to manage them.
Stay particularly alert in situations that breed uncertainty, but be equally candid about the type of information you can (and will) share. Refuse to indulge in the rumour.
3. Head off rumours at the pass. Establish a reputation for having an open and above-board style. If employees believe management will be straight with them, they will be more likely to come and ask for answers and less likely to indulge in speculation. Couple that with an open door that is truly open and 99 percent of the problems will be avoided.
If a big rumour brings work to a standstill, consider a meeting or a memo to bring everyone up to speed or to quash the rumour.
If there is a rumour about sale of the organization, bring employees together (maybe during an already-planned training event), so they all hear the same thing at the same time.
4. Tap into the grapevine. Managers should make sure they are never the last to know. They should fine tune their "radar" and question employees if they suspect that rumours might be developing. Rumours grow when information is scarce. If employees know they can trust you to keep them informed, they will have no need to invent answers themselves. This can be done by creating an internal company blog site where issues with the company are posted anonymously and other employees share their opinions.
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