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Humor at work: using humor to study organizations as a social process

Humor is usually associated with trivial or non-serious banter; it is however a significant factor in the construction of organizational culture. This work provides an experience based organizational account of how organizations are produced and reproduced, as well as how organizational interaction is coupled with structure. This dissertation is based on two ethnographic studies: the first, a year-long study of a hotel kitchen, and the second, a three-year study of a private boarding school. This long term examination of an organization??s interaction is used to illustrate how organizational interaction produces the duality of organizational structuration overtime. An ethnographic communication-focused approach provides methods for recognizing multiple sites and levels of the Structuration process. As a result, this approach provides a major contribution to understanding the process of Structuration through agents?? actions in the context of their organizational culture.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TEXASAandM/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/2390
Date29 August 2005
CreatorsLynch, Owen Hanley
ContributorsPoole, Marshall Scott, Conrad, Charles, Lincoln, Yvonna, Putnam, Linda
PublisherTexas A&M University
Source SetsTexas A and M University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Dissertation, text
Format1741979 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital

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