Karen L. Vinton

Humor in the Workplace It Is More Than Telling Jokes

This article focuses on the function of humor in a small, family-owned business and presents the taxonomy of humor that was found. The various types of humor help maintain low status differentials and help alleviate workplace tension. Humor also has implications for socialization of employees and appears to help create bonds among the employees.

Do Family-Owned Businesses Have a Strategic Advantage in International Joint Ventures?

In an increasingly turbulent global economic environment, companies are searching for winning ways of doing business internationally. One frequently discussed type of business is the joint venture. In this article, we argue that the likelihood of success for an international joint venture increases when both partners are family-owned businesses. These firms have shared values and goals that enable them to bridge cultural barriers more effectively than publicly held corporations.

Nepotism: An Interdisciplinary Model

This article presents an interdisciplinary approach to the study of nepotism. Nepotism is one of the least-studied and most poorly understood human resource practices, yet its impact on family-owned businesses, which frequently hire family members, is immense. To be effective consultants to family businesses we must have more than an anecdotal appreciation of nepotism. We also must look at nepotism from an interdisciplinary perspective to truly understand the impact that such policies and practices might have on family firms.

Research Note: Family Business Consultants—Who We Are, What We Do, and How We Do It

This research note compares data from two surveys of members of the Family Firm Institute conducted during 1990 and 1991 and relates these data to the issues confronting family business as an emerging field. One survey, sent to all Family Firm Institute members, requested demographic data and information pertinent to the Family Firm Institute strategic planning committee. The second survey, sent to those members of Family Firm Institute who self-identified as service professionals, was designed to investigate practice methodology. Prospects for the development of the field are discussed.

Developing a Freshman Seminar: Challenges and Opportunities

The development and implementation of an award-winning freshman course, Management 101, Freshman Seminar: The Ecology of Business, presented the College of Business at Montana State University with many challenges and opportunities. Design of the course, development of course and institutional objectives, selection of readings and activities, and impact of the course on both student and faculty development are discussed.

Beyond the Story: How To Use a Literary Critic in the Organizational Behavior Class

us, sparks flew, questions were raised, and pedagogical methodologies were scrutinized. We each learned something about ourselves, our fields of study, and our biases toward other disciplines. More importantly, the courses which emerged (an honors seminar called &dquo;A Novel Approach to Organizations&dquo; and a short segment of a senior seminar on leadership) had some new twists and interesting outcomes. Using literature as case study or illustration is by no means new in OB classes, but using the particular expertise of a literary critic and theory is. By asking students to be aware of themselves as readers and critics, we were able to make some crucial points about OB theories and managers. The purpose of this article is to discuss how to effectively use a literary critic in an OB class.

The Ethics Packet Assignment

Recently, we taught an interdisciplinary course in the University Honors Program called &dquo;A Novel Approach to Organizations.&dquo; Since the section on ethics was the capstone of the course, a major emphasis was how organizational membership has an impact on individuals and how individuals might have an impact on an organization. In class we viewed the movie &dquo;Breaker Morant&dquo; which raised our central question: what happens when decision makers are also members of an organization, or even several overlapping, and sometimes conflicting, organizations? Under normal circumstances the soldiers in &dquo;Breaker Morant&dquo; probably would not have killed either prisoners or a missionary, but their membership in an organization (the army) plus the job they had to do in that organization gave them &dquo;permission&dquo; to kill without having to constantly weight the moral issues. While war is a special circumstance, we face much less traumatic, but nevertheless as important ethical dilemmas in our everyday lives. For example, one knows that it is not right to steal, however, office pens magically &dquo;appear&dquo; in briefcases, pockets, home offices. Why does this occur? While it would be considered unethical to take university supplies and resell them, as members of the university we understand that supplies are purchased for our use. We know, through enactment, what the difference is between &dquo;borrowing&dquo; and &dquo;stealing&dquo; office supplies. People who are not members of our organization may not be able