Mirth and Murder: Crime Scene Investigation as a Work Context for Examining Humor Applications

Abstract

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.

Determinants of personal resilience in the workplace: nurse prescribing in an African work context

“…Although HRD researchers acknowledge the importance of developing personal resilience in the work place (Luthans, Vogelgesang and Lester 2006;Russell and Russell 2006;CIPD 2011) there is a dearth of in-depth research to understand personal resilience in specific work contexts (Roth and Vivona 2010). Based on our findings we contribute to HRD research by developing a framework depicting the determinants of personal resilience (Figure 1 perspective, by-passing or ignoring procedures/protocols is unethical and does not provide appropriate basis for developing resilient employees (Alkire and Avey, 2013).…”

“…Our findings reveal that nurse prescribing is a suitable work context, not only for understanding the personal resilience of employees but also for uncovering the implications for HRD practice (Roth and Vivona 2010). Nurse prescribing has long been identified in government policies as a complementary solution to the challenges caused by the high incidence of disease burden and severe shortage of well-trained doctors (Miles, Seitio, and McGilvery 2006).…”

“…This makes nurse prescribing a suitable work context for analysing how nurses respond to such work context challenges and how their responses can be aligned with HRD practice (e.g. Roth and Vivona 2010). This is the context in which we provide in-depth research into the risks and vulnerabilities associated with nurse prescribing and the coping strategies adopted by nurses to deal with them.…”

“…This article also contributes to HRD research on work contexts as useful settings for studying personal resilience (Roth and Vivona 2010) by uncovering the important determinants of resilience in a hospital work context. Previous research on the determinants of personal resilience in developing countries has focused on the aftermath of disasters, such as the Asian tsunami (Rajkumar, Premkumar, and Tharyan 2008) and Rwanda genocide (Zraly and Nyirazinyoye 2010).…”

“…Previous research on the determinants of personal resilience in developing countries has focused on the aftermath of disasters, such as the Asian tsunami (Rajkumar, Premkumar, and Tharyan 2008) and Rwanda genocide (Zraly and Nyirazinyoye 2010). Roth and Vivona (2010) call for research that is context specific and focuses on actual problems that employees face as well as aligning these with HRD practice. Although resilience has been widely applied to improve nurse prescribing in developed countries (Gillespie, Chaboyer, and Wallis 2007), there is a dearth of research on Africa where nurse prescribing is very widespread (Groves 2012).…”