How top PR professionals handle hearsay: Corporate rumors, their effects, and strategies to manage them

Seventy-four experienced public relations professionals serving top global corporations were surveyed to investigate types of organizational rumors, t heir prevalence and effects, effectiveness of rumor management strategies, and associated Psychological and situational variables. Results showed that harmful rumors are commonplace, especially during organizational change. T he majority of rumors were internal in nature and were most likely to be ab out personnel changes, job security, or job satisfaction. External rumors w ere most likely to consist of hearsay of concern to the general public, suc h as those rumors affecting the organization's reputation and those about p roduct/service quality. Rumors incited a variety of effects, most of which were rated as somewhat severe. Three distinct dimensions of rumor effects e merged: external ramifications (e.g., bad press), internal attitudes (e.g., lowered morale), and internal behaviors (e.g., increased absenteeism). Numerous strategies were rated as highly effective in pre venting and neutr alizing harmful rumors. Two broad ap proaches, composed of strategies that structured (i.e., gave boundaries to) uncertainty and strategies that focus ed on enhancing the efficacy of official comments, emerged. Implications fo r PR professionals are discussed and include anticipating tumors as the nor m, monitoring effects in three different dimensions, and proactively creati ng two-pronged tumor prevention and management action plans that structure uncertainty and enhance formal communications. Nicholas DiFonzo, Ph.D., is assistant professor of Pyschology at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY (nxdgss@rit.edu); Prashant Bordia, Ph.D., is lecturer at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.