Reining in rumors

Abstract

x umors do not just fill up time around the water fountain. They can drain productivity, reduce profits, create stress in the workplace, or sully a company’s image. Some rumors tear at a company’s credibility, with both personnel and customers. Others have catapulted firms into financial disaster. It is imperative that managers know how to deal with the spread of questionable information, but even “experts” give a bewildering array of mixed signals. For instance, there is disagreement on whether a company should deny rumors. Sociologist Frederick Koenig, author of Rumor in the Marketplace (Auburn House, 1985), recommends that, “If a company is the target of a rumor, it should deny it immediately as forcefully and publicly as possible, showing the evidence that proves it is unfounded.” But many public relations experts consider denials counterproductive. Business writer Owen Edwards stated that “about the only way not to counter a rumor is to deny it, since any denial tends to give rumor added clout. The more vehement the denial, the more credible the story becomes.” There also is disagreement on something more basic: whether to comment at all. Thomas R. Horton, former president of the American Management Association, advised, “Above all, avoid having any company representative answer any media question with ‘no comment.“’ If it cannot be answered, then explain why it cannot be answered to the media, Horton advised. Some authorities, however, subscribe to the World War II dictum: “Keep mum!” Management consultant David Walke said he believes that “the safest thing to say is that our company policy is not to comment on rumors.” There also is little consensus on the treatment for rumor-plagued organizations. Managers often find themselves forced into a predicament similar to that of a tribal medicine man who has at his disposal a variety of mostly prescientific folk remedies, nostrums, and incantations. Often, the reason managers have so little to rely on is that savvy intuitions about how to combat rumors may not take into account recent findings on the way rumors get generated and transmitted. Thus, on the whole, efforts to create rumor