YARWOOD, Dean L <br/><br/>
Humorous stories and the identification of social norms :  the Senate Club 

 - Thousand Oaks :  SAGE,  March 2003 
<br/><br/> The literature of formal organizations holds that stories handed down by word of mouth are important for understanding prescribed behavior and attitudes in organizations. In this study, the autor analyzes humorous stories told and retold in the U.S. Senate as a source for the inculcation of senate norms. The autor asks, "Is it possible that by drawing on the oral tradition of telling humorous stories in the Senate, we can identify the same norms that Matthews identified in his pioneering study of senate folkways?" "Might these data point to the existence of still other norms?" This study suggests that stories passed along by the oral tradition are a source of useful data for understanding the informal processes in political institutions