Executive Summary

The primary goal of this interdisciplinary project is to yield a conceptual contribution integrating the literature on court jesters and HR professionals in organizations and outlining a research agenda for the future research. Literature review conducted thus far confirms that although scholars have raised the importance of establishing a court jester function in organizations, there is little guidance as to how the role of court jesters could actually be implemented. Therefore, this pilot project can serve as a springboard to future research shaping the scholarly discourse regarding the role of HR professionals. Additionally, we aim to inspire future research on the role of comedian performances in organizations. If the pilot project delivers promising results, the multidisciplinary project team will be motivated to engage in further research to explore further research questions which may arise.

The project is funded by a Spark grant (No. CRSK-1_190248 / 1) from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). SNSF Spark grants support original and unconventional research ideas so that they can be tested, further developed and implemented.

Anna Sender (PhD), Hannah Mormann (PhD) and Prof. Boris Previsic form the project team at University of Lucerne.

Publication Sender, A. & Mormann, H. (2024). „It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane: How and When HR Executives Use Jesting Techniques to Trickle Up Paradoxical Tensions”. 

 

Contact
Project leader: Anna Sender, PhD (Dr. oec.)
Phone: +41 41 229 58 62
anna.senderremove-this.@remove-this.unilu.ch