Banter and beyond : the role of humor in addressing gendered organizational tensions and belonging within the UK Fire and Rescue Service
Abstract
This article explores the role of humour, specifically banter, in addressing gendered organizational tensions within the UK Fire and Rescue Service during a period of modernizing change. Such tensions reflect who holds authority and who is deemed to belong, and we explore how banter is used to both contest and confirm authority associated with the formal rank system and the informal, masculinist ideal-typical worker in this context. We discuss banter’s various roles as a cohering mode of humorous workplace communication, one that can reduce tension and consolidate authority and belonging, as well as its boundary setting, testing, and crossing capacities. In terms of the latter, we ask whether banter can genuinely trouble masculinist organizational norms. We conclude that specific humorous episodes that go ‘beyond banter’ create particular ambivalence, but their impact is significantly limited by widespread discursive acceptance of banter as a central and permissible communication mode in Service culture.
Citation
Brown , A M & Woodfield , R 2024 , ' Banter and beyond : the role of humor in addressing gendered organizational tensions and belonging within the UK Fire and Rescue Service ' , Gender Work and Organisation , vol. Early View . https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.13110
Publication
Gender Work and Organisation
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0968-6673Type
Journal article
Description
The authors would like to thank the British Academy [grant number SG102686] for funding the project Embedding Gender Equality in the Fire and Rescue Service, which formed part of the evidence for this article.Collections
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