Table 1 Dimensions of leaders' gossip... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1

Dimensions of leaders' gossip and their theoretical roots

Dimension	Anchoring literature	Prior focus in gossip/Leadership studies	Extension: Leaders' gossip
Normative Gossip	Noon and Delbridge (1993), Wu et al. (2016), Ajay and Mudiyanselage (2025)	Gossip as informal mechanism of norm enforcement in groups	Leaders' gossip amplifies these evaluative signals to reinforce organizational norms and cultural boundaries
Strategic Gossip	Weick (1995), Maitlis and Christianson (2014), Cornelissen et al. (2014)	Leadership communication studied mainly via formal sensegiving	Leaders' gossip acts as informal sensegiving and soft intelligence gathering, signaling priorities and alliances
Ethical Gossip	Brown and Treviño (2006), Westacott (2000), Cheng et al. (2022), Zhang et al. (2023)	Gossip conveys reputational judgments; ethical leadership emphasizes role modeling	Leaders' gossip transmits implicit moral evaluations, reinforcing or undermining trust depending on ethical framing

Dimension	Anchoring literature	Prior focus in gossip/Leadership studies	Extension: Leaders' gossip
Normative Gossip	Noon and Delbridge (1993), Wu et al. (2016), Ajay and Mudiyanselage (2025)	Gossip as informal mechanism of norm enforcement in groups	Leaders' gossip amplifies these evaluative signals to reinforce organizational norms and cultural boundaries
Strategic Gossip	Weick (1995), Maitlis and Christianson (2014), Cornelissen et al. (2014)	Leadership communication studied mainly via formal sensegiving	Leaders' gossip acts as informal sensegiving and soft intelligence gathering, signaling priorities and alliances
Ethical Gossip	Brown and Treviño (2006), Westacott (2000), Cheng et al. (2022), Zhang et al. (2023)	Gossip conveys reputational judgments; ethical leadership emphasizes role modeling	Leaders' gossip transmits implicit moral evaluations, reinforcing or undermining trust depending on ethical framing