Massey Documents by Type
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item "Work hard-- play hard" : using humour at work : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Studies at Massey University(Massey University, 2003) Plester, Barbara AnneThis Masters thesis explored the topic of humour in the workplace and investigated the function of humour at work. The key research question asked if people use humour as a tool or strategy in their workplaces. The research objectives were to investigate the functions of humour and determine the different factors that affected this humour. Outcomes and contextual factors were explored as was the potential for humour to have negative outcomes. The research was undertaken inside three local Information Technology (IT) organisations and focussed on differences and similarities of humour uses in similar environments and organisational cultures. Data were collected using three methods; interviews, participant observation and a critical incident technique. It was intended that these three methods would give a multi-perspective of the observed phenomena and result in triangulation of results. The collected data were analysed using content analysis. The main finding of the research was that humour was consistently used as a tool or strategy by organisational members and therefore humour was functional in these workplaces. The results also highlighted that humour had multiple functions inside these companies and that many of these functions operated simultaneously depending on the context. The findings offered potential for future research explorations in several areas such as status, gender and ethnicity effects on workplace humour. The breadth and depth of the functions of humour at work have meant that this thesis may be a mere beginning in larger organisational investigations into this complex and ambiguous topic. Humour was an important workplace variable for these IT employees and a key component of their organisational culture. They adopted the slogan "work hard-play hard", in regards to using humour, to offset the intense business pressure under which they worked. This thesis reflects their stories and shares their everyday experiences in their pursuit of the "play hard" half of this workplace dichotomy.Item Humour styles and their relationships with wellbeing and social support, and an introduction to reappraisal theory : a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University(Massey University, 2013) McEwan, Jamie Kane,Humour can have both positive and negative effects on individuals, teams and organisations. Recent research has identified a humour styles model that separates humour usage into four psychological categories: self-enhancing humour, self-defeating humour, affiliative humour and aggressive humour. This study replicates previously established bivariate relationships between the humour styles, social support, and wellbeing. Building on existing research, a multivariate framework is also investigated with each of the humour styles, looking at how social support factors into their relationship with wellbeing. Using a survey of 174 participants, two of the four humour styles were confirmed and support was found for the majority of the bivariate hypotheses, particularly regarding self-enhancing humour. Most significantly, both of the self-oriented humour styles were found to relate to wellbeing independently of social support. Implication of these findings are discussed for the workplace, with an emphasis on humour styles as an indicator of emotional wellbeing. It is suggested that the findings of this study support the theory of humour as a coping mechanism. Finally, as the existing theories of humour are argued to be insufficient, a contribution to the theoretical discussion of humour, introduced as reappraisal theory, is presented and discussed.