Politeness, Power and Provocation: How Humour Functions in the Workplace

By Janet Holmes. 2000

568 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/994d89eeff8eafb0be7b4fa245b17f3274fea87b

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Citations in the corpus

Cracking Jokes and Crafting Selves: Sensemaking and Identity Management Among Human Service Workers (2006, background): “Humor may reduce the appearance of power inequalities yet be employed to challenge or exert control over others (Holmes, 2000).”
Analyzing conversational data in GTVH terms: A new approach to the issue of identity construction via humor (2005, methodology): “Conversationalists who share an intimate relationship commonly use humor in their attempt to correct or modify each other’s behavior without jeopardizing the already existing close relationship (see also Norrick 1993: 56–57; Boxer and Cortés-Conde 1997: 280; Holmes 2000: 174).”
The Wheel Model of humor: Humor events and affect in organizations (2012, background): “Freud, 1928, 1960), bonding and cohesiveness (Vinton, 1989), ingratiation (Cooper, 2005), power, control, or aggression (e.g. Coser, 1960; Davies, 1990; Holmes, 2000), and the subversion of power (Collinson, 1988; Holmes and Marra, 2002; Linstead, 1985).”
Humor in the Classroom: A Guide for Language Teachers and Educational Researchers (2015, background): “Thus, when nonhierarchical relationships are valued, humor can be an important resource for “doing power” indirectly (Holmes, 2000; Lynch, 2010; Pullin, 2011).”
A meta‐analysis of positive humor in the workplace (2012, background): “It also affects team cohesion by generating positive affect among group members (Byrne and Neuman, 1992), emphasizing shared values (Meyer, 1997; Robert and Yan, 2007), masking the unpleasant content of messages (Holmes, 2000), and limiting friction in interactions (Fine and DeSoucey, 2005).”
On Being Positive: Concerns and Counterpoints (2006, background): “It is where self- and group-authored humor, wit and comedy, code grievances, insults, fondness, sexuality, and the like reinforce personal identities and work meanings (Ackroyd & Thompson, 1999; Bremmer & Roodenburg, 1997; Davies, 1990; Gabriel, 1995; Holmes, 2000; Linstead, 1988; Mulkay, 1988).”
Joking cultures: Humor themes as social regulation in group life (2005, background): “A novice can easily miss the ‘‘invitation’’ to laughter (Sacks 1974); a boundary of understanding exists that must be crossed for group membership (Holmes and Fillary 2000).”
Exploring L2 language play as an aid to SLL : A case study of humour in NS-NNS interaction (2005, background): “needs (Holmes 2000; Norrick 1993; Zajdman 1995) and of course, to entertain (Eisenberg 1986; Holmes 2000).”
Humor and leadership style (2006, background): “See Holmes (2000a) and LWP website: www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/lwp.”
Workplace humor and organizational creativity (2010, background): “…exert control over the unfortunate and powerless (Boxer and Cortés-Conde 1997); as a socially appropriate means to express aggressive feelings or negative emotions (Holmes 2000); or, as a window into how work groups handle stress, exert control, and deal with uneasy contradictions (Hatch 1997).”