• What is the grapvine?
• How does it work?
• Can it be influnced or used by management to improve internal communication?

Three questions ~ here are some of my thoughts ~ what are yours?

The informal network of employees that form across an organisation is often called the grapevine. Each employee can be a member of multiple grapevine networks simultaneously. Some grapevines follow the organisational structure as defined by organisational charts, but most are informal networks of peers with no permanent structure and no apparent means of managing them. Employees join and disband as a function of particular issue or situation in an emergent structure.

The type of communication is mainly 1 to 1 or 1 to a small group with each person then acting freely as a message or virus carrier into the next part of the network or grapevine. Because this type of grapevine works without management control or oversight it is more than possible for messages to arise and spread that are damaging the messages carried through the formal channels of communication

People tend to take specific roles in the grapevine;

• A Liaison or Link between two or more network groups without belonging to either of them.
• A Bridge, usually a member of one network who connects to another by forming a peer to peer relationship with someone from another group. 
• A Gatekeeper, someone who acts to filter information, in or out, usually to someone of authority within the formal Organisational Structure.

Within a grapevine members tend to have relative autonomy but those who are highly connected and appear at the crossroads for most communication can take on a dominance unrelated to Organisational Hierarchy.

A major issue in Grapevine communication is reachability; or the number of intermediaries through whom a message has to travel to get to its destination.

Another is the perception of the other member as a reliable or knowledgeable source of information and the level of friendship and trust between one another

Importance of grapevine

Employees will fill in the gaps left from official communication, where the organisation does not facilitate the exchange of meaning amongst the various peer groups; the grapevine will fulfil that function. It may not be the meaning originally designed but exchange of meaning will happen.

Until any message is internalised by employees are less likely to feel ownership of information and so the Grapevine can fulfill a major role in the embedded and hard wiring of any initiative.

Grapevine helps humanise organisations; within them employees can vent their emotions, feel sense of belonging and discuss concerns off the record and away from the prying ears of management or customers.

Management can learn what employees are thinking in non-formal ways they could not learn through formal networks, provided they access the Grapevine networks through active and willing participants, this in not the time or the place for a survey. The Gatekeepers, especially secretaries can have a strong two way role play.

All Organisations have grapevines and unless they are feed effectively then unsubstantiated rumors can create havoc in any organisation. If formal communication is incomplete the grapevine will produce rumors that make employees second-guess the missing information. Grapevines are a major source of Information Leaks and news spread before the Leadership is ready can cause major problems

There are some notable factors that affect rumor dispersion in a grapevine network;

• Importance of message
• Ambiguity of message
• Withholding of information by management
• Credibility of the transmitters
• Who the rumor involves
• Timeliness of rumor
• Anxiety based rumors
• Wedge-driving rumors (us versus them)
• Social rumors

How can management control the grapevine?

• Be sensitive to employee anxiety
• Provide important information to employees openly, honestly, and quickly
• Workout who the credible Gatekeepers and Liaison People are ahead of time
• Use these as key communicators to disseminate information into the Grapevine quickly
• Generate news for the Grapevine to make sure employees get the information they need
• Be concise but complete as the Grapevine distorts complex and incomplete messages

Let me know your thoughts..?