It Takes a Fool to Remain Sane: How and When HR Executives Use Jesting Techniques to Trickle Up Paradoxical Tensions

Abstract

Human resource (HR) experts are continuously confronted with paradoxical tensions, which they need to navigate to benefit the HR function and the organization. Because the members of the top management team (TMT) are important stakeholders for the HR function, the HR executives’ effective navigation involves visibilizing paradoxes and trickling them up during interactions with the TMT. However, how HR executives (as low-powered organizational actors compared to their peers) visibilize tensions for TMT members is less understood from either the paradox literature or the HR scholarship perspectives. In this interview study, we use a court jester prompt as a narrative generator to explore HR executives’ reflections on using techniques to visibilize tensions within the overarching paradox of social and business interests. Our findings enrich the literature on paradox salience and provide examples of what we term jesting techniques on cognitive (e.g., exaggerating,), emotional (e.g., expressing feelings), and behavioral (e.g, reordering) levels.