It only hurts when I laugh

Tolerating Bullying Humour in Order to Belong at Work

Bibliographic Data

ID13079367
AuthorsBarbara Plester (0000-0003-2341-0304, University of Auckland, corresponding author), Tim Bentley (0000-0003-4721-8405, Edith Cowan University), E Cobham Brewer (University of Auckland)
Year2022
Volume10
Issue2
Pages116-134
Publication date2022-08-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Humour Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2307-700X • E-ISSN: 2307-700X
PublisherCracow Tertium Society for the Promotion of Language Studies (PUBLISHER • PL)
DOI10.7592/ejhr.2022.10.2.645
OpenAlexW4291016707
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited64

Our study examines the impacts on workers when organisational humour is repeated, sustained, dominating, and potentially harmful, and thus can be considered to be bullying. In an ethnographic study of an idiosyncratic New Zealand IT company, we observed humour that was sexualised, dominating, and perpetrated by the most powerful organizational members. We argue that the compelling need for belonging in this extreme organizational culture influenced workers to accept bullying humour as just a joke and therefore acceptable and harmless even when it contravened societal workplace norms. Our contribution is in identifying and extending the significant theoretical relationship between workplace humour and bullying that, to date, is not well-explored in organizational research

Art · Ethnography · Joke · Literature · Organizational culture · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Workplace bullying · Anthropology · Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression · Humor Studies and Applications · Psychology · Social Psychology · Workplace Violence and Bullying

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