“It only hurts when I laugh”: Tolerating bullying humour in order to belong at work

Our study examines the impacts on workers when organisational humour is repeated, sustained, dominating, and potentially harmful, and thus can be considered to be bullying. In an ethnographic study of an idiosyncratic New Zealand IT company, we observed humour that was sexualised, dominating, and perpetrated by the most powerful organizational members. We argue that the compelling need for belonging in this extreme organizational culture influenced workers to accept bullying humour as just a joke and therefore acceptable and harmless even when it contravened societal workplace norms. Our contribution is in identifying and extending the significant theoretical relationship between workplace humour and bullying that, to date, is not well-explored in organizational researc

Harmony and Distress: Humor, Culture, and Psychological Well-Being in South Korean Organizations

Humor is a contextual phenomenon that exists in all societies, although the impact of humor may differ across different cultures. The data for this research was collected using an ethnographic-based approach, incorporating participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Based in three different South Korean organizations, this research offered the opportunity to interact in depth with workers of varying ages, genders, hierarchical levels, and organizational roles. Humor styles incorporate both light and dark forms of humor that may be affiliative and self-enhancing or aggressive and detrimental or may contain elements from both styles simultaneously Observations were complimented by 46 in-depth interviews and ad hoc follow-up discussions. This paper adopts a Confucian perspective to understand the perception and use of workplace humor in these South Korean organizations. Confucian philosophy emphasizes the value of formality within society in order to maintain respectful relationships between individuals. We suggest that humor is used in these South Korean workplaces to support traditional Confucian values of harmony and hierarchy, and the changing cultural values in these workplaces influence humor perceptions in complex ways. The Confucian value of harmony maintained through the idea of hierarchy creates pressure for organizational members, to accept and cope with contentious humor in the workplace. In particular, the clash between the need to maintain harmonious relationships in the workplace (through obedience toward superiors) and the desire to reject some types of humor highlights issues for younger organizational members. Internal conflict creates distress for younger employees who may hold more Westernized values and this affects their emotional, psychological well-being. This study presents a cross-cultural perspective to organizational humor, and suggests that humor may not always be a positive experience for organizational members, but instead may create psychological distress in some employees

Fun and games? The pragmatics of workplace humour

This paper presents research exploring the relationship between organisational culture and humour inside four New Zealand companies. A theme emerged from the data indicating that fun was a concept encouraged and valued in each of the companies. In the studied organisations fun was not only supported but also marketed as a key feature of the company both within the organisation itself, as well and externally in their own industries. The findings suggested that there were positive and negative impacts and outcomes arising from the seemingly positive strategy of promoting fun at work. This paper discusses these findings and their significance to the workplace participants and concludes with implications for research and practice in relation to fun, humour and workplace culture

Laugh out loud : how organisational culture influences workplace humour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Ph. D. in Management at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Workplace humour is an important component of organisational culture and social behaviour, yet this topic is under-researched and neglected within the field of organisational studies. This thesis explores the influence of organisational culture on workplace humour enactment. Key research objectives are to contribute empirical data regarding the influence of organisational culture on humour and to create a model that explains and connects significant aspects of humour and organisational culture. A further aim is to explore the element of formality within organisational culture and its impacts on humour enactment. Research was undertaken in four New Zealand companies from different industries. A mixed-method approach is used and methods include: interviews; participant observation and document collection. An assessment tool was created to compare levels of formality and/or informality in the studied organisations. Findings show that the organisational culture and levels of formality and/or informality within the culture influence humour practices through the creation of boundaries that constrain or enable humour activities. A model was created to depict the influence of organisational culture upon humour enactment. The model shows that levels of formality or informality are key cultural elements and that formality/informality levels influence the boundaries that are created for humour enactment. Specific individuals (identified as either jokers or gatekeepers) assume dichotomous roles and within these roles either challenge or constrain the humour boundaries. Organisational members perceive that humour and organisational culture have both positive and negative impacts upon workplace outcomes such as: retention; satisfaction; performance and recruitment. Humour at work is widespread and a significant component of modern working life. Humour manifests itself within workplace culture and understanding the influence of organisational culture on humour enactment is an important facet of organisational studies

"Work hard-- play hard" : using humour at work : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies at Massey University

This Masters thesis explored the topic of humour in the workplace and investigated the function of humour at work. The key research question asked if people use humour as a tool or strategy in their workplaces. The research objectives were to investigate the functions of humour and determine the different factors that affected this humour. Outcomes and contextual factors were explored as was the potential for humour to have negative outcomes. The research was undertaken inside three local Information Technology (IT) organisations and focussed on differences and similarities of humour uses in similar environments and organisational cultures. Data were collected using three methods; interviews, participant observation and a critical incident technique. It was intended that these three methods would give a multi-perspective of the observed phenomena and result in triangulation of results. The collected data were analysed using content analysis. The main finding of the research was that humour was consistently used as a tool or strategy by organisational members and therefore humour was functional in these workplaces. The results also highlighted that humour had multiple functions inside these companies and that many of these functions operated simultaneously depending on the context. The findings offered potential for future research explorations in several areas such as status, gender and ethnicity effects on workplace humour. The breadth and depth of the functions of humour at work have meant that this thesis may be a mere beginning in larger organisational investigations into this complex and ambiguous topic. Humour was an important workplace variable for these IT employees and a key component of their organisational culture. They adopted the slogan "work hard-play hard", in regards to using humour, to offset the intense business pressure under which they worked. This thesis reflects their stories and shares their everyday experiences in their pursuit of the "play hard" half of this workplace dichotomy