Can Organizational Grapevine be Beneficial? An Exploratory Study in Indian Context

Abstract

While exploring the existence of grapevine in organizations, the present work proposes specific recommendations for using the grapevine for the good of the organization. The proposed recommendations are based on the review of existing literature about the very premise of grapevine, and a survey conducted to explore the perception of managers regarding grapevine communication and its effectiveness. The findings of the paper implicitly point out towards the flexibility of grapevine and indicate that it is personal and can spread information more rapidly than the formal communication channels, which are highly documented. The study also provides recommendations to managers on the effective use of grapevine for organizational benefit.