מפגשים עם הומור - דבי ינקו-חדד, Humor in scool management

"WE KNOW IT WILL BE A GOOD DAY"... SCHOOL PRINCIPALS' USE OF HUMOR IN MANAGEMENT.

Abstract Text: This paper presents the preliminary findings of my doctoral thesis. Semi structured interviews were conducted with 35 Israeli education workers - 15

veteran principals, 10 new principals, and 10 teachers. The purpose of this study was to discover if principals used humor as part of their daily interactions with their staff, what form these uses took, how it influenced the principal and teachers and what benefits or harm came from using humor.

Qualitative analysis was used to draw themes from the interviews. Findings show that while most principals have positive attitudes towards the use of humor most are not consciously aware of using it in their everyday interactions, although they feel it does exist. Those principals who use humor report positive results such as improving school atmosphere, better relations with their staff, diffusing conflict situations and the release of personal tension. One interesting finding is that principal's use of humor is influenced by their career stage, with veteran principals using more humor than novice principals.

Various researchers indicate humor is the seventh sense necessary for effective school leadership (Adelsward & Oberg,1989 ; Avolio, Howell & Sosik, 1999; Consalvo,;1998 Decker, 1987 ; Decker & Rotondo, 2001; Holmes & Marra, 2006; Morreall, 1991; Malone, 1980 ;Meyer, 2000;).

Results of a study examining elementary school principals' use of humor in their daily interactions with teachers found that humor seemed to enhance principals' messages to teachers and was used primarily to create and improve school climate, to communicate principals' understanding of teaching demands, to break down the rigidity of bureaucratic structures, and to convey sanctions and other necessary unpleasantries (Pierson and Bredeson 1993). Principals who share humor in the workplace have teachers with higher job satisfaction than those principals who share very little or no humor in the workplace (Hurren, 2006). However using humor as a management tool to detect and effect emotions in the staff room (Francis, 1994) is an ability that few principals seem to posses and is seldom sought out while choosing educational administrators.

This study endeavors to bring to light what influences these select principals who use humor successfully in their schools, how the use of humor affects their experiences and those of their staff and patterns of humor use in school management culture in Israel.

Semi structured interviews were conducted with 35 Israeli education workers – 15 veteran principals, 10 new principals, and 10 teachers. A qualitative narrative analysis was used to uncover the themes and subcategories emerging from the text. The primary texts (interview transcripts) are thus produced where reliability of method (of sampling, interviewing and analysis) and the generalizability of analyses follow through from the validity of data. The resulting texts were then coded according to the four-step analytic process recommended by Marshal and Rossman (1995, p.111): (1) comparing units of meaning across categories for inductive category coding; (2) refining categories; (3) "delimiting the theory" by exploring relationships and patterns across categories; and (4) integrating data to write theory.

In the next stage of the research observations will be carried out in several schools. These case studies of principals who use humor in their work will provide on site examples of how humor is incorporated into the daily interactions of school life.

This thesis is a groundbreaking study on the occurrence of humor in work relations in the Israeli school system. Although several studies have related to the uses of humor in teaching in Israeli schools (Ziv, 1981, 1985, 1995) there are to our knowledge no studies focusing on the occurrence of humor in educational administration and the work relations between principal and staff or indeed on any aspect of humor at work in Israel.

Previous studies have noted the paucity of research regarding the importance of cultural constructs on use of humor. This study contributes new perspectives on use of humor in a culturally diverse workplace in Israeli society. Israel is an immigrant society and most school staffs are composed from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

As a majority of Israeli education workers are now female, this study will relate to the influence of gender when using humor as an interactional technique by male and female principals working with a predominantly female staff.

l Ground breaking study on humor in work relations in the Israeli school system.

l Humor was defined as any expression that led to laughter or amusement reported by a participant.

l Semi structured interviews were conducted with 35 Israeli education workers – 15 veteran principals, 10 new principals, and 10 teachers.

l Qualitative analysis & Grounded theory were used to uncover themes and subcategories emerging from the text.

l convey sanctions and other necessary unpleasantries (Pierson and Bredeson 1993).

l Principals who share humor in the workplace have teachers with higher job satisfaction (Hurren, 2006).

l Tenure and seniority – veteran principals described how as their confidence in their managerial skills grew, so did their use of humor.

l Principals who had held previous leadership positions (assistant principal) felt more confident using humor in their first years of principalship.

l Most teachers have tenure and cannot be fired, principals have few resources and can rarely reward a teacer financially.

l Principals are usually teachers who have advanced through the system, often from inside the school they manage – having to negotiate the move from being "one of the gang" to becoming a superior.

l During the past two decades principals have become more academized, requiring a graduate degree, while principal age drops.

l Enabling humor in the workplace enables teachers to communicate messages to the principal in a non- threatening way.

l Informal work relations are common in Israeli culture. Lack of distance and few behaviors displaying formal hierarchy (informal dress codes, first name basis).

l Culturally diverse workplace - Israel is an immigrant society (russian, ethiopian, mizrachi and ashkenazi).

l Gender - The majority of Israeli teachers are female. Male and female principals work with a predominantly female staff.

l A principal described how she used humor to control her staff under extreme circumstances when they were forced to run to a bomb shelter during the missile attacks on the south:

l "One teacher was lagging behind so to speed her up I called out to her; three, two, one – Boom, You're dead. What would you like us to write on your tombstone?'.

l In ambivalent situations there is a thin line between superior and fellow human being.

l Shared meaning and relation to context are the most important ways for a principal to generate effective managerial humor.

l Participants had trouble recalling examples of humorous behavior in an interview situation, even though they believed these examples existed.

l The next stage of this study will include field study observing the use of humor in everyday managerial situations, in order to uncover actual behavior patterns and themes in the uses of humor.

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