No laughing matter: Patterns of humor in the workplace

Duncan, W. Jack; Feisal, J. Philip

doi:10.1016/s0090-2616(89)80024-5

Cited by 87 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Humour mitigates the authoritarian tone of directives from managers to subordinates, which lessens perceived threats to the subordinate's self-esteem and dignity (Duncan 1982). Managers can also appear more human and "real" by using self-deprecating humour judiciously (Duncan & Feisal 1990). Cooper (2008) suggests that humour is also employed by individuals to ingratiate themselves with peers, subordinates, or managers.…”

Section: Humour At Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthy humour: Using humour to cope at work

Plester¹

2009

Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online

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Humour offers relief from boredom in the workplace and is an important facet of working life. Sharing humour at work can build relationships, create positive affect, and improve camaraderie between colleagues. Workplace humour is an under-researched topic and there is little empirical research that has explored humour in real workplace settings. This paper presents new qualitative empirical data from a 3 year study investigating the influence of humour within organisational culture. Analyses are drawn from observations that recorded verbatim humour exchanges as well as from interviews with managers and subordinates from four New Zealand companies. The paper explores the idea that enacting and enjoying humour at work may contribute to workplace well-being. Using humour at work may constitute a positive coping strategy that helps people to manage stress and strain experienced at work. Data suggest that humour is used specifically to offer relief from tension, to help deal with adversity and difficult situations, and to soften directives and requests made to colleagues and subordinates.

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Section: Humour At Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healthy humour: Using humour to cope at work

Plester¹

2009

Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online

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“…Popular business magazines and books (Duncan & Feisal, 1989;Kushner, 1990) promote humour at working place. Certain authors claim (Gibson, 1994) that humour at work increases the feeling of self-control and improves the control of the employees by the manager in the terms of motivation and productivity improvement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

10.5937/sjm9-5440 = Differences between employees and managers regarding socio-emotional competences

Nikić¹,

Travica²,

Mitrović³

2014

Serb J Management

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“…Dentro dessa perspectiva, o uso do humor em empresas tem sido associado ao aumento da moral entre os trabalhadores (Grunner, 1997), à criação de uma cultura organizacional mais positiva (Clouse e Spurgeon, 1995), à melhoria da coesão de grupos (Duncan, 1982), à redução de conflitos nas empresas (Duncan et al, 1990;Abramis, 1992;Rothwell, 1996;Smith et al, 2000), à facilitação da expressão de emoções negativas (Martineau, 1972;Pollio, 1995), à canalização da hostilidade (Wilson, 1979), à manutenção da ordem social (Dwyer, 1991), ao estímulo da criatividade individual e grupal (Csikszentmihaly, 1996;Murdock e Ganim,1993), ao aumento da motivação (Crawford, 1994;Dienstbier, 1995;Lippitt, 1982), ao incremento da produtividade (Clouse e Spurgeon, 1995;Duncan e Feisal, 1989;Avolio et al, 1999), ao aumento da eficácia de processos de mudanças nas empresas (Bovey, 2001;Kahn, 1989), ao estímulo de novas perspectivas (Dixon, 1980), ao estímulo ao comprometimento no grupo (Duncan, 1982;Martin e Lefcourt, 1983;Ziv e Gadish, 1990), e ao estímulo do aprendizado e do desenvolvimento (Boverie et al, 1994).…”

Section: Thomaz Wood Jr and Miguel P Caldasunclassified

Rindo do que? Como consultores reagem ao humor crítico e à ironia sobre sua profissão

Wood¹,

Caldas²

2005

Organ. Soc.

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RESUMOurante a última década, seguindo o rápido crescimento de seu setor, os consultores e as firmas de consultoria passaram a sofrer diversas críticas. Este artigo procura sumarizar as críticas vindas de acadêmicos, jornalistas e, especialmente, aquelas presentes em textos humorísticos e irônicos. Por meio de uma investigação colaborativa, na qual utilizaram-se técnicas de projeção e de análise de conteúdo, foram analisadas as reações a anedotas de uma amostra de consultores de quatro organizações. Os resultados sugerem que esse grupo de profissionais é sensível às críticas, embora apresente uma tendência a racionalizar, de maneira defensiva, as críticas encontradas, no lugar de utilizar as mensagens e os sentidos implícitos para reflexão e auto-desenvolvimento. ABSTRACTuring the last decade, following the rapid growth of its industry, consultants and consulting firms have been exposed to several critiques. This paper summarizes the critiques coming from scholars, journalists and, specially, those coming from comic and ironic texts. Through a collaborative investigation, in which a mixed methodology of projective techniques and content analysis was used, the reactions to jokes about consultants from a sample of consultants from four professional services organizations were analyzed. The results suggest that this group of professionals is sensitive to critiques, but tends to rationalize, in a defensive manner, the critiques, instead of using the messages and meanings for reflection and self development.

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No laughing matter: Patterns of humor in the workplace

Cited by 87 publications

References 4 publications

Healthy humour: Using humour to cope at work

Healthy humour: Using humour to cope at work

10.5937/sjm9-5440 = Differences between employees and managers regarding socio-emotional competences

Rindo do que? Como consultores reagem ao humor crítico e à ironia sobre sua profissão

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