What Is "the Grapevine" And How Does It Come Into Play In The Business Environment?

It has been my experience that "the grapevine" is bad news in any organization whether it is a professional or academic environment. Such lines of communication flourish when there is poor communication or employees do not receive the whole story with regard to meaningful situations.

There are too many instances to list where this has taken place in my life; however, the overall outcome is generally similar. Those that stand out in my mind relate to members of management leaving or who have left and employees speculate as to why and what happened or when a chance for promotion is up for grabs. A person can really be disappointed when they take what is being said through the grapevine as fact. This is especially true in the promotion situation when the favored candidate is you and someone else gets the position after a great deal of hearsay has circulated. Rather than running by policy or truth, in most cases, it seems that the grapevine is headed by opinion.

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