Kerr Inkson

This book is the first-ever authoritative work on the use and management of humor in the workplace. It is a practical guide for everyone involved: the humorists (‘jokers’), the targets (sometimes ‘victims’), the observers (‘audience’) and most of all the managers who have to ‘set the tone’ and encourage, control and manage humor. Humor is part and parcel of every workplace. However, while it usually demonstrates and fosters a united, happy workforce, it can at times be deeply damaging and divisive. The authors – academics with vast organizational experience and a research-based understanding of humor at work – bring together state-of-the art knowledge of the topic, making it fun, accessible and readable for all humor participants. The topics include how humor works, humor cultures in organizations, the many forms of workplace humor and their pros and cons, humor rituals at work, digital humor, workplace jokers, the 21st centuryissue of ‘political correctness’, and both the ‘bright side’ of humor (assisting positive cultures, making work ‘fun’), and its ‘dark side’ (where humor offends and humiliates). With over 60 ‘real life’ illustrative stories of workplace humor, a self-completion questionnaire to measure the Humor Climate in your organization, end-of-chapter ‘takeaways’ and an end-of-book summary advocating ‘best practice’, the book is a ‘fun’, how-to-do-it guide that will both inform and entertain.

Expatriation is a big topic, and getting bigger. Over 200 million people worldwide now live and work in a country other than their country of origin. Tens of billions of dollars are spent annually by organizations that move expatriates around the world. Yet, despite the substantial costs involved, expatriation frequently results in an unsatisfactory return on investment (ROI), with little or no knowledge as to how to improve it. Why is this so? The problem overwhelmingly lies in the poor delivery of effective expatriate management which is frequently handicapped by a lack of understanding of international careers and the forces that drive competition in the 'global war for talent', an increasingly short-term profit-driven focus, and a failure to adopt the rational strategic approach that organizations automatically apply to other areas of their business. Drawing on more than a decade of expertise, research, and publications in top journals, we contend that the key to getting a satisfactory ROI from expatriates is in understanding expatriates themselves, about whose experiences we have extensive information. We provide a practical 'insider's' guide which reveals why expatriates seek and accept international assignments, how they feel impacted by new forms of remuneration and other working conditions, how international assignments fit in with their longer-term career aspirations, and what complications arise in terms of their families. These are considered in a context that includes the understanding of the drivers for mobility in organizations, emerging trends in global staffing, the global war for talent, and alternative strategies to expatriation. We outline for managers and consultants what modern-day global mobility is like (based on our decade-long study with nearly four hundred expatriates and their managers, over a hundred of whom we interviewed personally), how it is changing, and why now, more than ever, a hard-nosed ROI approach is necessary. By drawing on our extensive experience and research, observations of key trends, and 'crystal ball' predictions, we define new practices for managing global mobility and consider forecasted trends in expatriation over the next decade.