TY - JOUR
T1 - Cracking jokes and crafting selves
T2 - Sensemaking and identity management among human service workers
AU - Tracy, Sarah
AU - Myers, Karen K.
AU - Scott, Clifton W.
PY - 2006/9/1
Y1 - 2006/9/1
N2 - Using interview and participant-observation data gathered among correctional officers, 911 call-takers, and firefighters, this study explores how humor enables human service workers to manage identity and make sense of their work in relation to preferred notions of self. In the face of trying job duties, humor serves employee identity needs through differentiation, superiority, role distance, and relief. Moreover, humor serves as a sensemaking vehicle through which employees select, maintain, reproduce, and reify preferred interpretations of work. The analysis characterizes humor as an unfolding, collaborative, and interactional practice that can play a key part in socializing newcomers, building knowledge, and constituting the organizing process.
AB - Using interview and participant-observation data gathered among correctional officers, 911 call-takers, and firefighters, this study explores how humor enables human service workers to manage identity and make sense of their work in relation to preferred notions of self. In the face of trying job duties, humor serves employee identity needs through differentiation, superiority, role distance, and relief. Moreover, humor serves as a sensemaking vehicle through which employees select, maintain, reproduce, and reify preferred interpretations of work. The analysis characterizes humor as an unfolding, collaborative, and interactional practice that can play a key part in socializing newcomers, building knowledge, and constituting the organizing process.
KW - Humor
KW - Identity
KW - Organizational Sensemaking
KW - Qualitative Research
KW - Role Distance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33750043791&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33750043791&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/03637750600889500
DO - 10.1080/03637750600889500
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:33750043791
SN - 0363-7751
VL - 73
SP - 283
EP - 308
JO - Communication Monographs
JF - Communication Monographs
IS - 3
ER -