We are to use a combination of qualitative and quantitative information on gossip, reputation, and cooperation in organizations that are characterized by a task orientation and formal hierarchy. The comparison of different social contexts will allow us to draw conclusions about how social order emerges and how it is maintained in the absence and in the presence of formal hierarchies. Masked data is available for secondary analysis from a bank (online questionnaire), from an industrial company (online questionnaire), and from a large Budapest office (N=50) of a multinational company (deep interviews). New survey data will be gathered in an organizational unit on tablets. As it is in the main interest of the organization, repeated task interdependence creates a larger necessity of credible reputational signals. Existent formal hierarchies and institutionalized reputation systems (such as score boards), however, alter the role of gossip and informal reputation. The question we will investigate in this subproject is how this happens.
No Sword Bites So Fiercly as an Evil Tongue? Gossip Wrecks Reputation, but Enhances Cooperation (EVILTONGUE)
