Grapevine News Handling Process

Dear All
How do we handle the grapevine news in the organization where all employees stars gossing about a topic which is irrerevant, ?
Espicially about the destrction of earth on May 21 , 2011 which also hampers outout of an employee and the company,
Suggest
Regards
ashish
HR & Hospitality

Grapevines are important to set the right office culture. Here are some strategies:
1. Nip it at its bud: Controlling grapevine is difficult, but you might want to trace it back to check its authenticity and the basis on which it is told.
2. Displace it: Put in information thats more 'entertaining' yet 'business relevant' and get the people to focus on it
3. Re-inforce it: Arrange a session for 1 hour and discuss it in so much detail that people are pissed about it and want to discuss everything else but that topic.
4. Come-down-on-it: Formally declare a 'war' through some 'policy' that will help prune the activity.
5. 'Brush it': Float out new pieces of information that completely shift people (say talk about increments for a change and see how it works :-))
6. Ignore it: Remember people gossip because they like it. Partner with them and enjoy them, learn to know them better and tell them that they can do whatever without affecting their output!

Btw, we did such modeling during a recent election campaign design for a renowned Indian politician and combined it with war strategies... Needless to say, he won with an overwhelming victory.

According to me stopping grapevine communication is difficult better we can try to manage it. We should have transparency in organization and all information regarding organization must be communicated to employees through proper channel and at right time. It will be better for organization to communicate employee before to avoid any rumors. It better you tell the employee before they get incomplete and distorted information from other sources.
There must be IT policy to restrict employee from sending chain mails which waste company valuable time and resources.
http://kuldeeprathore.blogspot.com/2...hoice-not.html

Kuldeep,
A simple test is:
How many times do you look beyond the page you are writing?
The answer is pretty simple: Many Times...
Grapevines work much the same way. They are an invariable add-on to any work environment. True, being transparent helps. However, Grapevines work even in the most transparent organizations because people love to gossip! In short, however formal a company, a grapevine always exists.
The authenticity of the content is a different issue.
Your policy is the 'war strategy' I mentioned. It is in use in several companies.