Send in the clowns: The role of the joker in three New Zealand IT companies

Humor

Volumn 21, Issue 3, 2008, Pages 253-281

  Plester, Barbara ^a   Orams, Mark ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

^b MASSEY UNIVERSITY   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

Clown; Culture; Humor; Joker; Management; Organization

Indexed keywords

EID: 50949108111     PISSN: 09331719     EISSN: 16133722     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1515/HUMOR.2008.013     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Ackroyd, Stephen, and Paul Thompson 1999 Organizational Misbehaviour. London: Sage.
2. Angrosino, Michael V., and K. A. Mays de Perez 2000 Rethinking observation: from method to context. In Denzin, N. K. and Y. S. Lincoln (eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 673-702.
3. Bakhtin, Michael 1965 Rabelais and His World. H. Iswolsky (trans.). Cambridge: MIT Press.
4. Barsoux, Jean-Louis 1993 Funny Business. Humor, Management and Business Culture. London: Cassell.
5. Boland, Richard J., and R. Hoffman 1983 Humor in a machine shop: an interpretation of symbolic action. In Pondy, L. R., P. J. Frost, G. Morgan, and T. C. Dandridge (eds.), Organizational Symbolism. Greenwich/London: JAI Press, 371-376.
6. Bradney, Pamela 1957 The joking relationship in industry. Human Relations 10, 179-187.
7. Brookers Limited 2003 Employment practice and procedure. Employment Relations Service Publications (electronic version). Available from Russell, McVeigh in-house intranet.
8. Buckley, Ronald M., Danielle S. Beu, Milorad M. Novicevic, and Thomas Sigerstad 2001 Managing generation next: Individual and organizational perspectives. Review of Business 22 (1/2), 81-86.
9. Burawoy, Michael 1979 Manufacturing Consent. Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalism. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press.
10. Charles, Lucile H. 1945 The clown's function. The Journal of American Folklore 58 (227), 25-34.
11. Collinson, David L. 2002 Managing humor. Journal of Management Studies 39 (3), 269-289.
12. Dandridge, Thomas C. 1986 Ceremony as an integration of work and play. Organization Studies 7 (2), 159-170.
13. Daniels, Arlene K., and Richard R. Daniels 1964 The social function of the career fool. Psychiatry 27, 219-230.
14. Danow, David K. 1995 The Spirit of Carnival: Magical Realism and the Grotesque. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
15. Davidson, C. 1996 Fools and Folly. Michigan: Western Michigan University.
16. Deal, Terrence E., and Allan A. Kennedy 1982 Corporate Cultures. The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. London: Penguin.
17. Douglas, Mary 1999 Implicit Meanings. Selected Essays in Anthropology, 2nd ed. London/New York: Routledge.
18. Duncan, W. Jack, and Philip J. Feisal 1990 No laughing matter: Patterns of humor in the workplace. Organizational Dynamics 17, 18-30.
19. Duncan, W. Jack, Larry R. Smeltzer, and Terry L. Leap 1990 Humor and work: Applications of joking behaviour to management. Journal of Management 16 (2), 255-279.
20. Eastman, Max 1936 Enjoyment of Laughter. New York: Simon and Schuster.
21. Evans, R. C. 1996 Forgotten fools: Alexander Barclay's Ship of Fools. In Davidson, C. (ed.), Fools and Folly. Michigan: Western Michigan University, 47-72.
22. Fine, Gary A. 1988 Letting off steam: Redefining a restaurant's work environment. In Jones, M. O., M. D. Moore, and R. C. Snyder (eds.), Inside Organizations: Understanding the Human Dimension. Newbury Park: Sage, 119-127.
23. Fine, Gary A., and Michaela De Soucey 2005 Joking cultures: Humor themes as social regulation in group life. Humor 18 (1), 1-22.
24. Fisher, S., and R. L. Fisher 1983 Personality and Psychopathology in the Comic. In McGhee, P. E. and J. H. Goldstein (eds.), Handbook of Humor Research. New York: Springer, 41-60.
25. Freud, Sigmund 1991 [1905] Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. A. Richards (trans.). London: Penguin.
26. Gabriel, Yannis 1999 Organizations in Depth. The Psychoanalysis of Organizations. London: Sage.
27. Grugulis, Irena 2002 Nothing serious? Candidates' use of humor in management training. Human Relations 55 (4), 387-405.
28. Gruner, C. R. 1997 The Game of Humor. A Comprehensive Theory of Why we Laugh. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
29. Gundry, L. K., and D. M. Rousseau 1994 Critical incidents in communicating culture to newcomers: The meaning is the message. Human Relations 47 (9), 1063-1088.
30. Happé, Peter 1996 Staging folly in the early sixteenth century: Heywood, Lindsay, and others. In Davidson, C. (ed.), Fools and Folly. Michigan: Western Michigan University, 73-111.
31. Hatch, Mary Jo, and Sanford B. Ehrlich 1993 Spontaneous humor as an indicator of paradox and ambiguity in organizations. Organization Studies 14 (4), 505-526.
32. Holmes, Janet, and Maria Stubbe 2003 Power and Politeness in the Workplace. A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Talk at Work. London: Longman.
33. Holmes, Janet, and Meredith Marra 2002a Having a laugh at work: How humor contributes to workplace culture. Journal of Pragmatics 34, 1683-1710.
34. 2002b Over the edge? Subversive humor between colleagues and friends. Humor 15 (1), 65-87.
35. Hudson, Katherine M. 2001 Transforming a conservative company - one laugh at a time. Harvard Business Review July-August, 45-53.
36. Kahn, William A. 1989 Toward a sense of organizational humor: Implications for organizational diagnosis and change. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 25 (1), 45-63.
37. Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R. 2001 Creating authentizotic organizations: Well-functioning individuals in vibrant companies. Human Relations 54 (1), 101-111.
38. 1990 The organizational fool: Balancing a leader's hubris. Human Relations 43 (8), 751-770.
39. La Fave, Lawrence, J. Haddad, and W. A. Maesen 1976 Superiority enhanced self-esteem and perceived incongruity humour theory. In Chapman, A. J. and H. C. Foot (eds.), Humour and Laughter: Theory, Research and Applications. London: John Wiley and Sons, 63-92.
40. Leinfuss, Emily 1999 Making the cut. Computerworld 33 (38), 95-96.
41. Lerum, Kari 2004 Sexuality, power, and camaraderie in service work. Gender and Society 18 (6), 756-776.
42. Linstead, Steve 1985 Jokers wild: The importance of humor in the maintenance of organizational culture. Sociological Review 13 (3), 741-767.
43. Morreall, John 1983 Taking Laughter Seriously. Albany: State University of New York.
44. Palmer, Jerry 1994 Taking Humor Seriously. London: Routledge.
45. Prager, Kenneth P. 1999 Organizational culture and the IT professional. Information Systems Management 16 (2), 12-18.
46. Quinn, B. A. 2000 The paradox of complaining: Law, humor, and harassment in the everyday work world. Law and Social Enquiry-Journal of the American Bar Foundation 25 (4), 1151-1185.
47. Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1940 On joking relationships. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 13 (3), 195-210.
48. Rodrigues, Suzana B., and David L. Collinson 1995 'Having fun'? Humor as resistance in Brazil. Organization Studies 16 (5), 739-768.
49. Roy, D. 1958 'Banana time': Job satisfaction and informal interaction. Human Organization Studies 18, 158-168.
50. Santovec, Mary Lou 2001 Yeeaa-haw! Workplace fun should not be an oxymoron. Credit Union Management. Available at: http//www.cumanagement. org.
51. Simon, J. L. 1969 Basic Research Methods in Social Science: The Art of Empirical Investigation. New York: Random House.
52. Taylor, Phil, and Peter Bain 2003 'Subterranean worksick blues': Humor as subversion in two call centers. Organization Studies 24 (9), 1487-1509.
53. Terrion, Jenepher L., and Blake E. Ashforth 2002 From 'I' to 'we': The role of putdown humor and identity in the development of a temporary group. Human Relations 55 (1), 55-87.
54. Weick, K. E., and F. Westley 1996 Organizational learning: Arming an oxymoron. In Clegg, S. R., C. Hardy, and W. R. Nord (eds.), Handbook of Organization Studies. London: Sage, 440-458.
55. Wenger, Etienne 1998 Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
56. Wenger, Etienne, R. McDermott, R., and R. C. Snyder 2002 Cultivating Communities of Practice. Boston: Harvard Business School.
57. Westwood, Robert 2004 Comic relief: Subversion and catharsis in organizational comic theatre. Organization Studies 25 (5), 775-795.
58. Zillman, Dolf, and S. H. Stocking 1976 Putdown humor. Journal of Communication 26 (3), 154-163.