Grapevine Communication: A Business Accelerator

Grapevine communication or informal communication or water-cooler talks helps in building up of the congenial and harmonious working environment that is may prove mutually beneficial for employers and employees if used in positive spirit.

How does the interaction between employees and employers and employees among employees happen in the organization?

There are two channels of communication that are constantly at work in the organizational structure of the company. One way of communicating is the formal way of communication that is based on rules based system.

Formal mode of communication involves sending files, sending emails, keeping them posted on messages, etc to the employees to keep themselves updated upon the requirements, specification, targets and goals that the employers expects from employees to achieve. In this method, it’s more of a boss and employee relationship. Whereas the other mode of communication is informal network.

It is also called the grapevine communication. In the grapevine communication, the established code of conduct or rules based system is not followed. It is the normal way of communication that happens between people in the absence of formal obligations.

In this article, firstly we are going to talk about grapevine communication definition and we will talk about what is grapevine communication advantages and what is grapevine business is different from the company that works by complying to formal established rules.

Grapevine communication definition

Grapevine communication refers to the informal method of communication that happens within the organization between superiors and employees or employers and employee while carrying out the business operations. As I mentioned above that formal communication networks are more like boss and employee relationship.

In this informal channel, the boss is detached from the environmental conditions in which employees operate. He remains at certain distance from employees and this gives rise to the widening of the gulf between him and his employees. It created a situation where there is only one way communication. Employees are order to perform a task or act accordingly. It is just one person speaking and others listening.

This condition created an environment where employees no longer feels motivated to work better and harder towards accomplishments of specified goals. Where as in the grapevine communication, it is more like a leader and team relationship. Leader is the head that hold the rein and the team respect the requirements and demands of the leader and work enthusiastically through achievements of those goals and targets. Leader commands and hear what the employees have to suggest, if the suggestions and advices are worth considering then the ways of achieving those objective get altered and improved. It is a two way communication.

Leader understands employees and same goes for employees. They employees their collective efforts toward achieving the organizational targets while being mutually beneficial lots. The grapevine communication is informal dialogue or water cooler talk which can happen anywhere in corridors, after the conference meet, in canteen, while having coffee, or wrapping up the work while departing from office.

Both useful and trivial ideas originates during those conversations. These grapevine communication has proved beneficial in producing some life changing ideas. It has been reported by the surveys that significant percentage of employees displayed liking towards the grapevine communication that helps enhances their performance.

What is grapevine communication objective?

It is not difficult to get as to what is grapevine communication objective. Goals are clearly embedded in the grapevine communication definition. Let me make things clearer to you.

• Man is a social animal. Humans just can’t live in isolation. It is true for everyone and everywhere be it school, hostel, home and office.  It is the natural tendency of humans where they feel an urge to communicate to other fellow employees to make the office environment, a congenial and livable place to spend a significant hours of their day daily.
• Once a loyal and trust worthy grapevine business is established then It can bring miracles in enhancing and improving the working of employees. It is helpful in advancing the aspiration of the supervisors as the result of mutual understanding and loyalty.
• In Grapevine business, there will not emerge a situation where you have to take unnecessary tension about motivating the employees. When everyone remains in know of things, when the supervisor is willing and understanding enough to solve employees’ grievance then the employees wouldn’t mind going an extra mile in advancing organization’s goals.

The grapevine business can be highly beneficial if it is employees in its true sense.  The application of grapevine business should be done in positive spirit. Otherwise this advantageous looking tool might turn into a double- edged sword.

It is possible that in the name of grapevine communication, the employees might end up making things worse and undesirable for the organization. It may happen then one employee is in know of things about some policy change or changes in the salary of employees or change in working hours, which he or she is not sure of but tells it to fellow employees leading to spread of false news like fire within the organization making the situation worse of the supervisor or employer to deal with.

When grapevine business begin to take the negative shape, the employees are likely to be influenced by rumors than placing credence in their employers. What worse can happen in an organization due to the negative application of grapevine communication is that it may lead to the leaking of confidential information that may end up creating terrible circumstances.