Speeches

ps： 这是一篇关于管理学的演讲稿~

Good Morning/ Afternoon/Evening, everyone. This is my partner, xxx and I am xxxx. The article that we have reviewed is Utilities of Gossip across Organizational Levels written by Kevin M. Kniffin and David Sloan Wilson. Today we are going to share what we got from this article and our opinions on this article. Our presentation will be divided into 3 parts. First we will briefly introduce this article to you including its hypotheses, methodology and results. Then we will discuss its strengths and weaknesses and the communicative concepts that it relates to. Finally, we will come to Q & A part.

This study focuses on the usage of gossip in organizational level. Researcher thought it worthy to do this research because few systematic studies on gossip have been conducted in the organizational levels and gossip itself has several distinct meanings. In this study, researcher defines gossip as interpersonal talks in an organization which are characterized by informality and appraisal. Then they introduce the theoretical framework of the study; that is multilevel selection theory put forward by Sober and Wilson, whose core is that “interests can overlap across levels”. The experimental method researcher used in this study is observations both quantitative and qualitative in the period of more than 18-month. The observation sample is a 50-member rowing team in a university. Researcher found that negative personal talk occurred more frequently in the first semester than in the last two semesters and enormous parts of negative talks which occurred in the investigation concentrated mainly on the slacker, talking about whether he was absent or present. Second, positive personal talk, especially in the first semester, concentrated mainly on a group of hardest teammates, rather than one single person. But whatever personal talks are about in this study, those personal talks served for the supporting group-beneficial rules. In addition, violations against group-beneficial norms will be mocked but the behavior that contributes to the achievement or success will be admired. Moreover, the function of gossip will definitely changed as the conflicts either appear or disappear in the team. The results of this study are convincing for me. First, the study methodology and the investigation methods are scientific and reliable. Second, the units and catalogs classified are reasonable: they include all situations and all sorts of talks in the daily routines of the rowing teams.
Gossip is a process of interpersonal communication which means use symbols to send messages among people. In gossip, people express their opinions with sounds, words, tones, facial expressions and body languages to others in groups. Hence, almost all concepts of communication are suitable in studying gossip. The first one is the perception. Perception refers to worldview and value that influence people how to interpret information and messages. In the article, the authors define gossip to interpersonal talks in an organization which are characterized by informality and appraisal. The next one is that gossip is a continuous process as well as dynamic process which are two of the characteristics of IPC (Interpersonal Communication). Continuous process means that messages are constantly exchanged in different channels or mediums. Dynamic process refers that message meanings change over time and space. When setting the statement, the authors recognized that the gossip can change alongside with the alternative of time and space and that the model of gossip is multilevel. And that is why the authors chose the evolutionary framework of multilevel selection theory which addresses that benefits can overlap within all organizational levels. Stereotype occurs when people presume that certain group of people has certain qualities based on cultural background or social cycles. In the team, members had bad impressions on the slacker and thus his potential reproductive fitness among familiars reduced. This investigation actually measures the subjective opinions of teammates and how these opinions influence the team.