COMMUNICATING WITH HUMOR: IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONAL SUBGROUPS AND THEIR PERSPECTIVES ON HUMOR IN THE WORK ENVIRONMENT

Organizations work to socialize members, while members strive to adapt. There is necessarily a blending that occurs so that an individual, with personal goals and ambitions, can be enfolded in the organization, while simultaneously the organization achieves its goals. Informal communication is an important and all-encompassing way to achieve both socialization and adaptation. A large portion of informal communication is composed of humorous interaction, hence many researchers point to its significance as a research area. This study focused on identifying subgroups who were united by a shared perspective on the use of humor in their organization. Fifteen organizational members from the Heartland Chapter of the American Red Cross, Omaha, Nebraska were interviewed about their perspectives on humor at the Red Cross. Interviews were transcribed and through extensive analysis of the interview data, a 60 statement Q-deck was constructed. Thirty-three organizational members sorted the Q-deck. Analysis of the rotated Q-factors revealed three distinct subgroups. These were labeled, the traditionalists, the balancers, and the enthusiasts. The traditionalists strictly limit their use of humor. They believe in the conservative, traditional image of the Red Cross and do not want to use humor in any way that diminishes their idealistic image of the organization or their own professional status. The balancers support the use of humor in the organization when they deem it appropriate. They are open to various functions for humor, and various topics as well. They balanced their responses to all six categories of statements. They also balanced the usefulness of using humor against its impact in the relationship. They value witty, topical, intellectual humor. The enthusiasts are extremely enthusiastic about the use of humor in the organization. They wholeheartedly embrace its use with just about anybody at anytime. They are not connected to organizational relationships as closely as the balancers and prefer to use formula jokes rather than spontaneous humor