THE ORGANIZATIONAL FOOL 117What makes a fool?
To understand what motivates clowns or jesters to want to capture the
audience ’ s attention, it is important to examine their own preoccupa-
tions. In a study of professional comedians and clowns, using projective
and other tests, Fisher and Fisher (1981) discovered a number of recur-
ring themes in their inner world. According to their study, true comics
‘ deny that things are as bad or threatening as they seem, ’ they are ‘ fas-
cinated by size ... particularly sensitive to smallness, ’ and they ‘ are
sensitive to the dimension of up - down ’ (p. 35). Comics associate these
patterns with a specifi c childhood situation where, from an early age,
they had to learn to take care of themselves, having come to the realiza-
tion that there was little emotional support to be expected from their
parents. Fisher and Fisher suggest that by being ridiculous, comics con-
veyed the message that they had been treated in a ridiculous way.
The main dilemma for many future clowns or jesters seems to be
that they were prematurely pushed into the adult roles while still
children. This lack of congruency between their own capacity and the
expectations of others may have led to preoccupations of feeling small,
powerless, and unworthy. These feelings are hard to accept, so come-
dians may be acting the way they do, due to a life strategy of denying
the unpleasant. Humor is a very effective all - purpose tool for this
strategy (Fry and Allen, 1975 ). It is a form of defense, a way of dealing
with anger about the absurdity of their situation. It is also a way of
blunting depressive feelings and, by attracting attention, of proving
that they are not as inadequate or bad as they may seem. Comics are
fundamentally preoccupied with equalization. And, when they are
through with their antics, all differences between good and bad, small
and big, adult and child, or up and down are blurred — everyone ends
up at the same level.
The organizational fool
In organizational life, there are many ways to create checks and balances
as a form of protection against the abuse of power. Aspects of the organi-
zational infrastructures and suprastructures can be used as levers. Certain
rules and regulations have a boundary function. In addition, given the
role of the organization ’ s many stakeholders, power can be distributed
among a number of constituents.
But, notwithstanding these safeguards, the bottom line is that most
organizations are not true democracies. Many important organizational