Humorous Organizing

This book encourages us to take humor at work seriously. Although humor isusually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is a significant factor inthe construction of organizational culture. This book provides an experiencebased organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproducedas well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure(organizational rules and resources). It is based on two ethnographic studies:the first a year-long study of a hotel kitchen and the second a three-yearstudy of a private boarding school. This long term examination of anorganization's interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interactionproduces the duality of organizational structuration over time. An ethnographiccommunication-focused approach provides methods for recognizingmultiple sites and levels of the structuration process. As a result thisapproach provides a major contribution to understanding the process ofstructuration through agents' actions in the context of their organizationalculture. This book will appeal to those interested in the nuance and complexityof workplace interaction; specifically it is addressed to students and researchersin management sociology organizational and communicationstudies.