Catálogo de Investigaciones | 2014-2015

CATÁLOGO DE INVESTIGACIONES | AÑO ACADÉMICO 2014-2015 63 A Comparison Study of Organizational Rumors, Existence of Rumors, Veracity of Rumors, Workplace Gossip, Employee Engagement and Generations with Some of the Sociodemographic Variables in a Sample of Workers in Puerto Rico The aim of this investigation was to study the correlation and differences of organizational rumors and gossip in the workplace on employee engagement and different generations in the work forces of Puerto Rico. The theoretical framework for the investigation is based on the rumor transmission theory of Buckner (1965). In, addition, a valid Likert scale was used to measure gossip in the work place, which is the Office Gossip Scale of Schmidt (2010). However, the Office Gossip Scale Spanish version was validated using the Brislin back–translation method for use in this study. The UWES-9 Utrecht Work Engagement Scale by Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova (2006) Spanish version was used to measure employee engagement. The research constructed an instrument a 7-point Likert scale to measure organizational Rumor Scale in Spanish, and a Socio-Demographic Questionnaire which contained the study’s independent variables, and were used to determine if there were statistically significant correlations or statistical differences in sex, generations, and used diverse statistical methods to test the hypotheses, like: MANOVA, ANOVA, t -test, and Pearson Correlations. The sample consisted of 150 participants, men (35.3%) and women (64.7%), who were 21 years old or older. Their mean age was 36.55 years and 41.3% worked in the public sector and 58.7% in the private sector. A non-probabilistic “snowball sampling method” was used to research the participants. Result showed that there was a significant difference in Baby Boomers (19.3%) from the Generations Y (48.7%) in Existence of Rumors (.849). The result may indicate that there are rumors in the organizations and gossip at the workplace in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, each generation differ from each other on rumors and on gossip, as well as rumors have a relationship on employee engagement. abner vélez vega maestría en ciencias en psicología con especialidad en psicología industrial / organizacional mentor: dr. roberto o. gonzález vallés rumors existence of rumors veracity of rumors gossip employee engagement