Critically discuss the following statement with reference to relevant theory and practice: ‘Gender equality is not just good for women in organizations it is good for all organizational members’.
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essay__help_2.pptxThe Fun Organization
Lecture 9
Session aims
Think through the productive features of having fun at work.
Look at the ways that fun and humour are important for cultural maintenance.
Critique ‘fun cultures’.
Hard work: the importance of humour & ‘horse play’
Humour important for social relations in coalmines, hospitals, schools, department stores, shopfloors.
Strong link between humour and masculinity for developing social cohesion, coping, managing conflict, safety-valve, social glue, conformity, control, managing prejudice etc.
Collinson, D.L., 1988. 'Engineering humour': masculinity, joking and conflict in shop-floor relations. Organization Studies, 9(2), pp.181-199.
Jokes as establishing informal world
Jokes as developing personal autonomy (Linstead, 1984).
Collective solidarity.
Resist boredom.
Joking as building a counter-culture (Willis, 1979).
Your examples? When do you muck around at work?
The dark side of humour
Self-destruction?
Violence?
Aggression?
Reproducing class divisions?
Reproducing racial differences?
Reproducing gender difference?
Control – managing performance (Collinson, 1988)
Culture of fun: googleplex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmN0-UetU0U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Glzoslt1w
Fun as normative control
Blurring boundaries of work and non-work (Fleming, 1998) – ‘pleasurable atmosphere’.
Culture as normative control (see lecture on the cultural organization).
Fun cultures = identity regulation?
Developing ‘affective atmospheres (Michels and Steyaert, 2017) of fun – design, activities essential in internalising values of the company.
Work hard – play hard (Bolton and Houlihan, 2009)
Company picnics.
Family sports days.
Beer busts = low cost, high engagement.
Away nights, holidays.
Fun as performance driver.
Fun as morale boosting.
Fun as developmental/reward.
Containment – alleviation/safety valve (Rodrigues and Collinson, 1995).
Fun and surveillance (Kinnie et al, 2000).
Humour as resistance (Bolton, 2004) and subversion.
Masculine cultures
Discipline and toughness.
Risks and danger.
Hardship and calm and pressure.
Uncivilised behaviour (cf. Tailihook, 1991).
OTHERED?
Barrett, F.J., 1996. The organizational construction of hegemonic masculinity: The case of the US Navy. Gender, Work & Organization, 3(3), pp.129-142.
Women in male dominated organizations
Drunkenness, nudity, public sex, debauchery, ‘leg-shaving’, ‘zapping’, strippers, prostitutes.
Women officers served men.
‘Rhino spunk’.
‘Good natured and light-hearted assaults’.
‘Becoming a member/acquiring a member’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ74fUz8PQo
Höpfl, H.J., 2003. Becoming a (virile) member: Women and the military body. Body & Society, 9(4), pp.13-30.
Concluding questions
Fun for whom?
Do we romanticize joking culture?
Is fun oppressive?
References
Barrett, F.J., 1996. The organizational construction of hegemonic masculinity: The case of the US Navy. Gender, Work & Organization, 3(3), pp.129-142.
Bolton, S.C. and Houlihan, M., 2009. Are we having fun yet? A consideration of workplace fun and engagement. Employee Relations, 31(6), pp.556-568).
Bolton, S.C., 2004. A bit of a laugh: nurses' use of humour as a mode of resistance. Strathclyde papers.
Fleming, P., 2005. Workers’ playtime? Boundaries and cynicism in a “culture of fun” program. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 41(3), pp.285-303.
Kinnie, N., Hutchinson, S. and Purcell, J., 2000. 'Fun and surveillance': the paradox of high commitment management in call centres. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(5), pp.967-985.
Michels, C. and Steyaert, C., 2017. By accident and by design: Composing affective atmospheres in an urban art intervention. Organization, 24(1), pp.79-104.
Rodrigues, S.B. and Collinson, D.L., 1995. 'Having fun'?: Humour as resistance in Brazil. Organization studies, 16(5), pp.739-768.
