Exploratory Factor Analysis: Gossiping as a Medium of Organisational Communication

Abstract

Communicating thoughts and information through the mean of gossiping has long been recognised as one of the threats to organisational safety due to its nature of not having reliable sources, which can spark argument and doubt. Even though the sources are still questionable, the disposition of gossip to be employed as an informal communication in the workplace setting indicates that it is still highly regarded as one of the strategies in distributing information. The study aims to classify the significant factors, which will support the fitness of a group of modified items, specifically the Workplace Gossip Scale (WGS). This study has involved 187 school teachers in Kelantan. The response gathered were then analysed in the exploratory factor analysis procedure. Positive Job-related Gossip, Negative Non-job-related Gossip, Negative-job-related Gossip and Positive Non-job-related Gossip are the factors generated from the procedure. The study has come to the conclusion that the four-factors derived could assist in measuring the engagement of gossip amongst teachers in the local setting. The study also proposes that other local and Asian respondents could utilise the Workplace Gossip Scale (WGS) as an antecedent towards other variables.