Abstract
This manuscript provides an understanding of the complex process through which the social organization is (re)produced and transformed through its member's everyday humor. This study is based on a yearlong ethnography of a hotel kitchen that focuses on the in-group humor of chefs as they work. It reveals the chefs' humor as a communicative process that establishes the group's boundaries, the identity of the group members, and the processes through which the group makes sense of and performs its labor. Humor's role within this organizational group is demonstrated through situated episodes that not only (re)produce the status quo, but also provides a strategy for employees to subvert or challenge authoritative power and constraining organizing practices.
© 2010 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/New York
