Within work settings, humor is used by workers for a wide variety of purposes. This study examines humor applications of a specific type of worker in a unique work context: crime scene investigation. Crime scene investigators examine death and its details. Members of crime scene units observe death much more frequently than other police officers and they encounter extremely graphic and violent sensory and mental images. Within this unique work context, humor resides. This study helps human resource development practitioners understand the purposeful application of humor in a specific work context. This increased understanding can help them to interpret humor applications and to use humor in their workplaces to achieve individual and organizational goals.

The problem and the solution. Establishing relationships between concepts is an important component of systematic inquiry. However, determining those relationships can be extremely difficult when definitions of concepts are murky and the proximity of their boundaries is nebulous. Uncertainties reside in the literature regarding the alignment, overlap, and/or distancing of human resource development, continuing professional education, and workforce development. This article serves as a discussion point for the journal by stressing a need for coalescence among these areas of inquiry for mutual gains within theory and practice.

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Knowledge management is an on‐going process that involves varied activities: diagnosis, design, and implementation of knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, and knowledge sharing. The primary goal of knowledge management, like other management theories or models, is to identify and leverage organizational and individual knowledge for the organization and its members to perform better and, consequently, sustain competitive advantage. This literature synthesis provides a conceptual framework for examining knowledge management in USA higher education contexts.