From Initiate to Insider: Renegotiating Workplace Roles and Relations Using Staged Humorous Events

Abstract

Like anthropologists entering the field as “outsiders,” initiates to organizations need to learn new cultures as they transition to “insiders” or veterans. Organizational research has identified the role that spontaneous humor plays in this transition. However, there has been little research into “staged” humorous events. At the same time, anthropological practice has identified various ethnographic research techniques designed to expedite entrée to a social group or organization. However, there has been no research on the implications of a colleague delivering an ethnography of a group back to itself. In this article, I detail a strategy that combined humor and the ethnography genre: the delivery of a workplace ethnography back to colleagues. Through a post hoc analysis, I explore the significance of this staged humorous event. In particular, I identify the impact of the ethnographic genre, inclusive narratives, and ambiguity as devices (in addition to the satirical tone). Through these devices, I was able to invite colleagues to engage with an alternative organizational vision in which I was an “insider.” I consider the effect of staged humorous events such as humorous workplace ethnographies on workplace identities and relations in general, and the initiation of new workers in particular. This auto-ethnographic article is based on 9 months of opportunistic participant-observation with an Australian research center.

Keywords:

• workplace ethnography
• staged humorous event
• satire
• inclusive narrative
• ambiguity
• sleep research
• humor
• time
• alcohol

Acknowledgments

First and foremost I am grateful to Professor Drew Dawson for offering me a job as an anthropologist in a sleep lab. This article greatly benefited from his insightful comments as well as those of Dr. Sally Riad and three anonymous reviewers. I also thank my colleagues for their support and our ongoing everyday humorous events.

Notes

1. See also Chandler Bingham and Hernandez (2009), who use the analysis of comedy as an important teaching tool in sociology classrooms. For a discussion of the comedian as anthropologist, see Koziski (1984) .

2. For further discussion on the application of ethnography and participant-observation to workplaces, see Thompson (2013).

3. http://www.ted.com

4. As noted by Heiss and Carmack (2012), “The entry of new members into an organization can be a time of uncertainty and creativity for both newcomers and veterans” (p. 106).

5. Similarly, Giulianotti (1995) identifies a risk of being seen as an undercover police officer during participant-observation research with football hooligans. I was accused of being an undercover policewoman in my own research on football fans (Palmer & Thompson, 2007, 2010; Thompson, Palmer, & Raven, 2011).

6. It was preceded by Charles de Secondat's (Baron de Montesquieu) “Persian Letters” (Secondat, 1721/2010), where two Persian characters travel to Paris and interpret French (Western and Christian) culture.

7. For example, Miner observes that Nacirema women put their heads in small ovens (salon hair dryers) while holy-mouth-men use tools to make holes in teeth for the purposes of inserting magical materials (dentists).

8. http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/54718526736

9. The omitted sections are: strategies for maintaining rapport, history of the corporate group, leadership, spatial organization.

10. Initials were used in the original report to invoke and problematize markers of scientific inquiry. However, they were deliberately transparent to those present. The colleagues whose initials have appeared in this article have agreed to the use of those initials.

11. Similarly, Peace (1991) uses the term “clan” to describe groups of race car drivers at the Adelaide Grand Prix.

12. People visiting my desk were often spiked by a 2-meter-high plant with pointed leaves. Jokes had already been made that the plant was providing me with cover.

13. In kinship terminology, a “corporate group” is understood as a “group of people who collectively share property, rights, privileges, and/or liabilities” (Parkin & Stone, 2004, p. 456).

14. In the year after the presentation was made, a more disastrous event occurred when the pipes in the machine became infected with a bacteria due to backflow in the milk frother. This resulted in a center-wide meeting where a professional barista was brought in to educate staff about using the machine.

15. Situation, background, assessment, and recommendations.

16. Unlike Hatch (1997), Adams (2007), and Greatbatch and Clark (2003), I did not record the precise moments when laughter occurred.