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Humour across cultures: joking in the multicultural workplace 157

cific features which help to instantiate the CofP: “sustained mutual relation-
ships – harmonious or conflictual”; “shared ways of engaging in doing things
together”; “local lore, shared stories, inside jokes, knowing laughter”; and “cer-
tain styles recognized as displaying membership” (1998: 125–126). The way a
team makes use of humour as a discourse strategy clearly contributes to the con-
struction of the shared repertoire of the CofP.
The two workplaces described below engage in rather different interactions
in the course of their work, reflecting their distinctive daily tasks and workplace
objectives. They also conduct their business in different kinds of settings: the
Ma ¯ori organization typically holds meetings and discussions around tables and
desks, while the factory team conduct their daily briefing meetings and talk on
the factory floor. These two CofPs thus provide interesting case studies for
examining the different ways in which humour is used in New Zealand work-
place interactions involving minority ethnic groups. In the analysis which fol-
lows, we focus especially on types of humour which seem to distinguish the two
workplaces.

4.1. Case study 1: A Ma ¯ori company in a Pa ¯keha ¯ industry
The Ma ¯ori organization competes in a predominately Pa ¯keha ¯ industry and busi-
ness world, but their corporate values mean that ethnicity is always salient in
this workplace. The organization’s mission is to contribute towards the promo-
tion of Ma ¯ori people, knowledge and ideas as they carry out their business. For
this team, appropriate communicative behaviour incorporates Ma ¯ori ways of
behaving and interacting, as well as the use of te reo Ma ¯ori (the Ma ¯ori language)
to varying degrees, reflecting proficiency and appropriateness. However, as a
corporate organization in New Zealand, Pa ¯keha ¯ ways of doing business inevi-
tably constitute the unmarked way of behaving. Consequently, the specific form
of intercultural communication which characterizes this workplace integrates
the pressures of conforming to Pa ¯keha ¯ business norms with a strong commit-
ment to incorporating Ma ¯ori values into workplace talk. Patterns of humour in
the workplace reflect this complex mix.
Example 1 is an extract from a long section of workplace talk in which
Rangi uses humour to soften his complaint about people who do not clean up
after themselves in the communal kitchen. To make his point, he has brought a
cardboard box as a visual aid to represent the microwave to which he refers, and,
adopting a stance more in line with Ma ¯ori than Pa ¯keha ¯ protocol, he stands to de-
liver his speech.