Fun and games? The pragmatics of workplace humour

This paper presents research exploring the relationship between organisational culture and humour inside four New Zealand companies. A theme emerged from the data indicating that fun was a concept encouraged and valued in each of the companies. In the studied organisations fun was not only supported but also marketed as a key feature of the company both within the organisation itself, as well and externally in their own industries. The findings suggested that there were positive and negative impacts and outcomes arising from the seemingly positive strategy of promoting fun at work. This paper discusses these findings and their significance to the workplace participants and concludes with implications for research and practice in relation to fun, humour and workplace culture.