COURSE 12- EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION AND RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY
1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of grapevine

communication
Introduction: -
Grapevine is an informal channel of business communication. It is called
so because it stretches throughout the organization in all directions
irrespective of the authority levels. Man as we know is a social animal.
Despite existence of formal channels in an organization, the informal
channels tend to develop when he interacts with other people in
organization. It exists more at lower levels of organization.
Grapevine generally develops due to various reasons. One of them is that
when an organization is facing recession, the employees sense
uncertainty. Also, at times employees do not have self-confidence due to
which they form unions. Sometimes the managers show preferential
treatment and favor some employees giving a segregated feeling to
other employees. Thus, when employees sense a need to exchange their
views, they go for grapevine network as they cannot use the formal
channel of communication in that case. Generally during breaks in
cafeteria, the subordinates talk about their superior’s attitude and
behaviour and exchange views with their peers. They discuss rumours
about promotion and transfer of other employees. Thus, grapevine
spreads like fire and it is not easy to trace the cause of such
communication at times.
Examples of Grapevine Network of Communication
1. Suppose the profit amount of a company is known. Rumours is

spread that this much profit is there and on that basis bonus is
declared.

1
 2. CEO may be in relation to the Production Manager. They may have
friendly relations with each other.

Advantages of Grapevine Communication

1. Grapevine communication creates a social bond where none

existed. People like to talk to one another; whether they talk about
work or family, or anything. Teams become more cohesive when
members talk to one another outside of the project or assignment
they may be working on.
2. The grapevine fills in a gap that is left when official information is

missing, the grapevine in many ways helps keep people honest

3. Grapevine channels carry information rapidly. As soon as an
employee gets to know some confidential information, he becomes
inquisitive and passes the details then to his closest friend who in
turn passes it to other. Thus, it spreads hastily.
4. The managers get to know the reactions of their subordinates on
their policies. Thus, the feedback obtained is quick compared to
formal channel of communication.
5. The grapevine creates a sense of unity among the employees who
share and discuss their views with each other. Thus, grapevine helps
in developing group cohesiveness.
6. The grapevine serves as an emotional supportive value.
7. The grapevine is a supplement in those cases where formal
communication does not work.
Disadvantages of Grapevine Communication
1. There are some intrinsic dangers in bypassing the organizational

channels to get to the facts of the matter. The main danger is that
much of the information that gets spread through the grapevine is

2
 not verified. Some of the information is likely false and difficult, if
not impossible, to verify.
2. We discount information when the source is a known gossiper. But

not completely... Even when the source is someone known to spread

rumors, we believe that where there's smoke... Since we don’t know
what part is fire and what is smoke , we take in the whole rumor. To
justify our participation in spreading the rumor, we tell ourselves
that part of it must be true. The main reason why we give
credence to a rumor is that it seems to match what we think
about the situation or person that the rumor is about. We also tend
to believe the person sharing the rumor with us.
3. Another main disadvantage of grapevine communication is that it's

often used to spread more than rumors; it's used to spread gossip.
The terms rumors and gossip are used sometimes interchangeably,
but rumors are not quite the same as gossip. Both are pieces of
information that can't be verified, but rumors tend to affect
organizations or groups of people, while gossip refers to more
personal matters. When gossip is being spread through the
grapevine, people's reputations, careers, and lives can get
destroyed very rapidly.
4. The grapevine carries partial information at times as it is more

based on rumours. Thus, it does not clearly depict the complete

state of affairs.
5. The grapevine is not trustworthy always as it does not follows official

path of communication and is spread more by gossips and

unconfirmed report.
6. The productivity of employees may be hampered as they spend

more time talking rather than working.

3
 7. The grapevine leads to making hostility against the executives.

8. The grapevine may hamper the goodwill of the organization as it

may carry false negative information about the high level people of
the organization.
Conclusions: -
A smart manager should take care of all the disadvantages of the
grapevine and try to minimize them. At the same time, he should make
best possible use of advantages of grapevine.