“To laugh or not to laugh”: Understandings of the appropriateness of humour and joking in the workplace

Abstract

In order for joking to actually have a function in the workplace, it must have a forum. There are many pieces of empirical research on humour in the workplace, however the notion of the appropriateness of joking behaviour is often overlooked. The time, place, and circumstances of when joking does or does not occur is related to the situated and contextual nature of humour and issues linked to the private/public domain often will delineate when humour is acceptable or not. When, where, and, most importantly, the permission to joke is important to the understanding of the functional nature of humour. In order to gain an understating of how workers understand the notion of appropriateness, a qualitative study of a very unusual group of workers, crime scene investigators, was undertaken. Tacit personal and organisational belief systems related to culture and learned normative behaviours help determine when and where joking is allowed or forbidden.

Neural Correlates of Sex/Gender Differences in Humor Processing for Different Joke Types

“…Sex/gender differences in humor appreciation have also been explained in terms of sociocultural factors ( Zippin, 1966 ; Brodzinsky and Rubien, 1976 ; Weisfeld, 1993 ; Polimeni and Reiss, 2006 ; Vivona, 2014 ), situational context ( Kotthoff, 2006 ) and personality-related differences ( Zillmann and Cantor, 1976 ). Thus, throughout, we have used the term “sex/gender,” which emphasizes an intertwinement of biologically determined and socially acquired differences ( Kaiser et al, 2009 ; Kaiser, 2012 ).…”

Humor Na Academia E Pesquisas Sobre Humor

“…Reinforcing the positive role of this human trait for work, the articles by Romero and Cruthirds (2006), considering the international context, and Castro Silva and Brito (2014), considering the Brazilian context, show that humor has a positive impact on communication, group cohesion, and leadership. Humor is part of the organizational discourse (Koester, 2010) and workspace (Chefneux, 2015;Vivona, 2014). In summary, the role of humor in sociability at work seems to be fundamental for the proper functioning of organizations.…”

“…However, what type of organization does not allow humor in the 21st century? Total institutions, as Goffman (1974) has shown us in Manicômios, prisões e conventos (Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates) Humor may be appropriate or inappropriate (Huber & Brown, 2017;Vivona, 2014). Besides assessing humor, we may ask ourselves what the absence of humor means.…”

Pragmatics of Crisis-Motivated Humour in Computer Mediated Platforms in Nigeria

“…Although most scholars (such as Moalla, 2015;Chapman, 1983;Dynel, 2011;Nereus, 2012;Vivona, 2014) in humour studies are in unison regarding the fact that jokes are generated from incongruous social experiences, many studies on humour focus mainly on the first two of the three possible varieties of humour:,formal, non-formal, and informal humour. Humour is perceived as formal in a situation where the occasion is strictly formal and the primary purpose of the event is not just to merely evoke laughter.…”