Office Chitchat as a Social Ritual: The Uplifting Yet Distracting Effects of Daily Small Talk at Work

Small talk-trivial communication not core to task completion-is normative and ubiquitous in organizations. Although small talk comprises up to one-third of adults' speech, its effects in the workplace have been largely discounted. Yet, research has suggested that small talk may have important c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAcademy of Management journal Vol. 64; no. 5; pp. 1445 - 1471
Main Authors Methot, Jessica R., Rosado-Solomon, Emily H., Downes, Patrick E., Gabriel, Allison S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Briarcliff Manor Academy of Management 01.10.2021
Subjects
Adults
Behavior
Citizenship
Ecological momentary assessment
Emotions
Employees
Individual differences
Organizational citizenship behaviour
Path analysis
Rituals
Selfmonitoring
Social interaction
Speech
Task completion
Work environment
Workplaces
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Summary:Small talk-trivial communication not core to task completion-is normative and ubiquitous in organizations. Although small talk comprises up to one-third of adults' speech, its effects in the workplace have been largely discounted. Yet, research has suggested that small talk may have important consequences for employees. Integrating theories of interaction rituals and microrole transitions, we explore how and why seemingly inconsequential workday conversations meaningfully impact employees' experiences. In a sample of employed adults, we used an experience sampling method to capture within-individual variation in small talk over a three-week period. Given that we are the first to examine small talk as an episodic phenomenon, we also conducted a validation of our daily small talk measure with master's students and two samples of employed adults. Using multilevel path analysis, results show that small talk enhanced employees' daily positive social emotions at work, which heightened organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and enhanced well-being at the end of the workday; furthermore, small talk disrupted employees' ability to cognitively engage in their work, which compromised their OCB. Additionally, higher levels of trait-level self-monitoring mitigated negative effects of small talk on work engagement. Combined, results suggest that the polite, ritualistic, and formulaic nature of small talk is uplifting yet also distracting.
ISSN:0001-4273
1948-0989
DOI:10.5465/amj.2018.1474