Laugh out Loud: A User’s Guide to Workplace Humor - Softcover

Plester, Barbara; Inkson, Kerr

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9811302820 ISBN 13: 9789811302824

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Synopsis

This book is the first-ever authoritative work on the use and management of humor in the workplace. It is a practical guide for everyone involved: the humorists (‘jokers’), the targets (sometimes ‘victims’), the observers (‘audience’) and most of all the managers who have to ‘set the tone’ and encourage, control and manage humor.

 

Humor is part and parcel of every workplace. However, while it usually demonstrates and fosters a united, happy workforce, it can at times be deeply damaging and divisive.

 

The authors – academics with vast organizational experience and a research-based understanding of humor at work – bring together state-of-the art knowledge of the topic, making it fun, accessible and readable for all humor participants. The topics include how humor works, humor cultures in organizations, the many forms of workplace humor and their pros and cons, humor rituals at work, digital humor, workplace jokers, the 21st centuryissue of ‘political correctness’,  and both the ‘bright side’ of humor (assisting positive cultures, making work ‘fun’), and its ‘dark side’ (where humor offends and humiliates). 

 

With over 60  ‘real life’ illustrative stories of workplace humor, a self-completion questionnaire to measure the Humor Climate in your organization, end-of-chapter ‘takeaways’ and an end-of-book summary advocating ‘best practice’, the book is a ‘fun’, how-to-do-it guide that will both inform and entertain. 

About this title

About the Author

Barbara Plester has needed to hone her own sense of humor to cope with her noisy, zany family, friends and pets. Born and bred in New Zealand (a ’kiwi’) she has researched humor and fun for the last 14 years. Such a research focus has elicited disbelief, ridicule but also intense interest at times. Based at the University of Auckland Business School for the past eleven years, Barbara has published academic papers in both humor and management journals, book chapters in edited volumes, and a complete book of her humor research in 2016 - The Complexity of Workplace Humour. She uses her humor research experiences in her teaching, highlighting the implications for workplace issues and organizational behavior. She has received two awards for excellence in teaching and was awarded ‘Senior Fellowship’ of the UK-based Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2018. Chairing the Equity Committee for her Faculty, Barbara has a keen interest in promoting tolerance and equityfor all groups of people. Retaining her own sense of humor and fun at work and home she tries hard to constantly maintain her mantra of ‘laugh out loud!’

Kerr Inkson is a Scottish academic who emigrated to New Zealand when young. His field is organizational behavior, including research on work motivation and careers. In a 55-year career he has served seven universities, five of them in New Zealand, including 25 years at The University of Auckland, where he is now an Emeritus Professor. Recently he has focused on book writing, always with co-authors who know more about the topic than he does, the most recent of his 20 books being Managing Expatriates, with Yvonne McNulty; Understanding Careers, with Nicky Dries and John Arnold; and Cultural Intelligence (3rd edition), with David C Thomas. Kerr’s retirement hobbies are amateur dramatics, writing (including plays) and golf. His favorite radio and TV humor tends to British anarchic (The Goon Show, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers), improvisational (Whose Line is It Anyway?, Qi) and American-satirical (Stephen Colbert, John Oliver). He dislikes stand-up comedy, except for that of his compatriot, the incomparable Billy Connolly.

From the Back Cover

“Laugh Out Loud should be of enormous value to any leader who accepts the challenge of building and maintaining a superb work place that is a joy to be part of and that delivers superlative results."

―Tom Peters, international consultant and author of In Search of Excellence (1982), The Excellence Dividend (2018), and many other management best-sellers.

Humor is part and parcel of every workplace. However, while humor usually demonstrates and fosters a united, happy workforce, it can at times be damaging and divisive. This book is the first-ever authoritative work on the use and management of humor at work -  a practical guide for humorists, jokers, ‘butts’ and victims of humor, fans, observers, and most of all the managers who have to ‘set the tone’ and encourage, control and manage humor.

The authors bring together long experience and state-of-the art research on the topic. The book covers  how humor works, humor cultures, forms of workplace humor, humor rituals, digital humor, workplace jokers, ‘political correctness’ about humor, and both the ‘bright’ and ‘dark’  sides of humor .

With over 60 ‘real life’ illustrative stories, a self-completion humor questionnaire and end-of-chapter ‘takeaways’ advocating ‘best practice’, the book is a fun, how-to-do-it guide that will both inform and entertain.

Barbara Plester, Senior Lecturer in the University of Auckland Business School, is a New Zealander who has researched workplace humor and fun for the last 14 years, publishing her research in many journal articles and in her academic book, The Complexity of Workplace Humour (2016). Barbara says that humor is endemic to both her zany family life and her award-winning teaching. 

Kerr Inkson, Emeritus Professor in the University of Auckland Business School, is a Scottish-born New Zealander whose 50+-year research career included work on motivation, careers and cross-cultural management. Now retired, his main pursuits are writing, amateur drama and golf. Among his favourite humor is that of his compatriot, the incomparable Billy Connolly. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edition details

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9811302820
• ISBN 13: 9789811302824
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 196