I'm only joking!(?) the role of disparaging humor in the communicative constitution of inclusion/exclusion in organizations

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-08-2022-0223
• Published date: 28 February 2023
• Date: 28 February 2023
• Pages: 35-55
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Daniel Wolfgruber

I’m only joking!(?) the role

of disparaging humor in the

communicative constitution

of inclusion/exclusion

in organizations

Daniel Wolfgruber

Department of Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna,

Vienna, Austria

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this article is to investigate the communicative constitution of organizational

inclusion and/or exclusion through humorous acts at the expense of members of minorities and/or historically

disadvantaged groups.

Design/methodology/approach –Semistructured interviews with 84 employees in Austria and Germany

dealing with their experiences regarding diversity and inclusion (D&I) at work were conducted and analyzed in

two steps. First, a thematic text analysis was performed to structure the content and identify relevant themes

and anecdotes for further analysis. Second, a ventriloquial analysis sought to identify the physically absent yet

present voices in these anecdotes.

Findings –The interviews revealed that jokes and quips mostly target colleagues of observable foreign origin.

The analysis further identified three themes that show that disparaging humor can simultaneously reinforce

inclusion/exclusionacross hierarchies and createboundaries within teams–but in different ways. The findings

also indicate that above all prejudices “participate”in such events and that in most cases the collective is

invoked to increase the joke’s“authority”.

Originality/value –This research is the first one that investigates humor in the context of D&I through a

communicative constitution of organization (CCO) lens, which facilitates studying the constitutive character

of humorous communication in terms of inclusion and exclusion. Moreover, this is one of the first empirical

humor studies to draw on established theory-driven concepts of inclusion-exclusion in its analysis.

Keywords Diversity and inclusion (D&I), Inclusion-exclusion, Humor, Communicative constitution of

organization (CCO), Ventriloquism

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Various social facts such as rampant globalization, mass migration, medical advancements

and progressive legislation particularly in western countries regarding gay rights or gender

Inclusion and/

or exclusion

through humor

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© Daniel Wolfgruber. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and

create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full

attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://

creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

The author wants to thank Alexandra Vetter and especially Lina Stuermer for their assistance with

the initial step of the data analysis. Also, the author wants to express the gratitude to the students who

conducted the interviews in the course of a research seminar.

Funding: This paper is based on results from the research project “Let’s talk about diversity and

inclusion”which was financially supported by the Academic Society for Management and

Communication in Leipzig, Germany.

Conflict of interest: The author states that there is no conflict of interest.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 16 August 2022

Revised 14 January 2023

Accepted 9 February 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 9, 2023

pp. 35-55

Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-08-2022-0223

equality, have put diversity and inclusion (hereafter, D&I) initiatives on the political agenda.

Governments and organizations have been trying to successfully deal with and also harness

the increasing societal heterogeneity in terms of people’s gender (identity), age, ethnic

background, sexual orientation, physical and mental state, or educational biography

(Mor Barak, 1999;Roberson, 2006). Yet, xenophobia, racism, sexism, ageism and homophobia

are still common phenomena in large parts of our society, whether in a subtle or rather overt

(systemic) way.

Although numerous institutions and organizations have already established

D&I initiatives with the ostensible aim to counter those maldevelopments, a myriad of

companies have set their hopes on a diverse workforce first and foremost to gain access to

different markets, which Ely and Thomas (2001) label the “access-and-legitimacy

perspective”on diversity management. However, the authors identified two other avenues

that highlight either the joint learning potential of a diverse workforce (i.e. integration-and-

learning perspective) or the moral obligation of organizations to support members of

“historically disadvantaged”(Carter et al., 2017, p. 214) groups and facilitate equal

opportunities (i.e. discrimination-and-fairness perspective). What the latter two perspectives

have in common, even though to a variable extent, is their focus on inclusion in that

employees should have equal access to relevant resources and are encouraged to speak up

and participate in decision-making processes. However, according to Minow (2021), equality

is a somewhat ambiguous concept since the definition of what is considered equal or fair

oftentimes depends on arbitrar y points of reference. Accordingly, she argues that

organizations as well as (public) institutions should place importance on the concept of

equity as a means to “leveling the playing field”(p. 178) through promoting justice, fairness,

inclusion and individual dignity since equity “offers ways to achieve equality by either

meeting individual needs or producing alterations of entrenched patterns impairing equality”

(p. 189). As discussed below, meeting an individual’s wants and needs is a basic prerequisite

of engendering inclusion.

Essentially, the fostering of an inclusive and fair work environment is a highly

communicative task, for example, (written) policies, in order to exert agency, have to be

further materialized in and through communication and interaction (Cooren, 2018). Moreover,

the development and upkeep of a rather inclusive organizational culture depend on an open

communication climate in which every individual can speak and is listened to (Pless and

Maak, 2004). Accordingly, a study conducted by Wolfgruber et al. (2022) shows that the

perceived degree of inclusion also depends on the way how and the context in which D&I

issues are addressed at work. Since humor is one of the various features of an organization’s

culture (Martin, 2002), which serves as “a central means through which organizational

members make sense of and perform their organizational role”(Lynch, 2009, p. 461), it makes

sense to address this particular form of communication in the realm of D&I in the workplace.

Against this backdrop and because humor can either unite or divide people or groups of

people (Lynch, 2002;Meyer, 1997,2000) and thus creates in- and out-groups (Charman, 2013;

Lennox Terrion and Ashforth, 2002), the paper at hand focuses on the communicative

constitution of inclusion and exclusion in a diverse workplace through the use of humor.

Previous humor research in the context of D&I in organizations has mostly investigated

(1) the psychological effects of telling and listening to disparaging jokes about women, gay

people, Muslims (e.g. Ford et al., 2013,2019) and Jews, respectively (Siegman, 2020);

(2) gender-specific workplace humor (e.g. Evans et al., 2019;Holmes and Schnurr, 2005); and

(3) humor as a conflict resolution mechanism in a diverse workforce (e.g. Smith et al., 2000).

Yet there is a lack of research on the role of humor in the co-construction of inclusion-

exclusion in organizations that draws on established concepts developed by D&I scholars.

One exception is Tremblay’s (2017) research which indicates that employees feel less included

if their superiors use offensive humor. However, since that finding is based on a survey study

EDI

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