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Cameron Johnson

Malaka Friedman

ENG 101

27 February 2019

Rhetorical Analysis

How employees adapt to their work environments and their relationships with their superiors

have been the focus of countless studies throughout the years, as it is a hot topic among many

scholars and a concern among people. Psychologists studying organizational behavior like

Elizabeth M. Doherty, writer of “Joking Aside, Insights to Employee Dignity in “Dilbert”

Cartoons: The Value of Comic Art in Understanding the Employer—Employee Relationship”

have investigated the mental state of employees and employers extensively and have determined

that both sides face several challenges in the workplace. These psychologists have found that an

important issue that employees are undergoing currently is the test of their dignity. As human

beings, employees are entitled to respect and to be treated equally in the workplace, yet that right

is being threatened by several employers across the country. History has proven that dignity is

invaluable to people (Maslow), yet it has not been a focus of scholarly attention when analyzing

the workplace relationship. Elizabeth M. Doherty’s “Joking Aside” effectively explains why it is

the case for employers to tarnish the work relationship using a different perspective from other

similar studies in the field.

Doherty examines the employer-employee relationship from new perspectives in this article.

In order to receive notability for this article to be heard in the scientific community, she

establishes ethos or credibility in the article. Doherty persuades people within the organizational

studies community to take her opinion into consideration and listen to the point that she is
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making in the article. She establishes ethos for herself as the author of the article by including a

bio in the references section of “Joking Aside”. Doherty has a Ph.D. in organizational behavior,

the subject matter of the article, from Washington State University (Doherty, Joking Aside).

With the inclusion of this bio section, not only does she show that she has the highest degree

obtainable in the field, she also boasts her experience with the subject as she exhibits her

previous works in the field. Of her previous works in the field or organizational behavior, one of

the most relevant to the article is another article, published in the Journal of Management &

Organizational History, is “Management and art views of Depression era workers: The need for

an organizational-arts perspective.” In this article Doherty ponders the “vexing question” of why

the artists of the Great Depression understood so much about the economic and domestic

situation, while business leaders did not (Doherty, Management and art views). It explains in

depth on the conditions of the workplace during the Great Depression using an aesthetic

perspective and pushes the agenda that in order to understand more about the work environment,

looking at art is necessary. This effectively strengthens her credibility because it proves that she

is well versed in the specific issues and perspectives discussed in “Joking Aside”.

The main, upfront targeted audience for this article are scholars who are in the organizational

studies field. This is because the article was published in a peer-reviewed academic journal that

is made by and for behavioral scholars in the field of management, The Journal of Management

Inquiry. The main people who subscribe to such journals are scholars in the organizational

studies and business fields, as that is what the subject of their articles are. Doherty establishes

pathos in her argument by appealing to the knowledgeable journal reader’s curiosity. This appeal

is done by having done research that is non-traditional of organizational studies articles. Doherty

looks at employee dignity, which was already underestimated by most researchers in the
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community, from two different perspectives that many people have not associated with the issue.

To the average reader of the journal, who is experienced in this field, “Joking aside” may seem

to be a breath of fresh air and might resolve a question they have been wondering themselves.

The article also has another appeal that is more underlying than the scholar’s curiosity, and that

is appealing to the employee or subordinate side to people. Almost everyone in this nation is or

has been an employee or subordinate to someone. As the topic is about dignity for employees, or

at a simpler summary, about respect for someone lower on the totem pole, this topic will resonate

with people no matter where on the managerial ladder they currently are, because they’ve been in

the situation in the past. Even in the unbelievably rare case where someone hasn’t been

employed or been subordinate to anyone in the past will understand how important dignity is and

being respected by someone is and empathize with them. This fact also deepens to the mystery of

why many of the employers across the nation are cold-heartedly treating their employees as

“commodities” and sets up Doherty’s logos, or reasoning, for her argument.

Many psychologists and scholars have thoroughly explored the employer-employee

relationship yet, as Doherty points out, not many have successfully explained why dignity for

employees is currently being threatened. Doherty claims that the reason for the lack of

conclusiveness among scholars for the reasoning for why employers are threatening their

employees’ dignity is that the perspectives that scholars have studied in the past when they have

looked at employee dignity are not sufficient in answering (Doherty, Joking Aside). In order to

solve this, in “Joking Aside” she looks at the employer-employee relationship through two non-

traditional perspectives in the field. The two non-traditional perspectives that she examines are

the religious perspective Catholic Social Teaching and investigating from an aesthetic

perspective using the comic strip Dilbert. The most notable example of one of the few studies
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conducted on the aesthetic perspective was by John Deeks. Deeks analyzes the portrayal of the

business industry and takes note that he could also not find any published research on the topic

(Deeks). Her reasoning behind looking into these new views is to create the “Wilber Big Three”

in order to analyze the issue. The Big Three are cultural spheres that include religion, science,

and art, that Wilber, a philosopher with over 20 published books, claims are the key to realizing

value (Wilber). Using this, Doherty sets up logos, or reason, within “Jokes Aside” as her

argument is based around the need to use comical art to create a new and viable understanding

for why employers do not treat employees the way that employees expect.

The focus of Doherty’s “Joking Aside” is to analyze the employee-employer relationship

using an aesthetic perspective. To do this, Doherty decides to concentrate on the comic strip

Dilbert in order to thoroughly examine the relationship. The choice of Dilbert to be the

representative of the aesthetic perspective in the argument is a strategy that brings strong ethos to

the article. Dilbert was created by Scott Adams who graduated with an MBA in economics and

management from the University of California at Berkeley (Adams). Since Dilbert first printed

in 1989 it’s had many achievements, including being featured in “over 2000 newspapers in 57

countries” and winning the Reuben award, “cartooning’s highest honor” (Adams). Dilbert’s

comedy is satirical and depicts the temperament of modern business corporation employees.

“Joking Aside” is not the first time Dilbert has been used in psychological studies, and it most

certainly won’t be the last. Doherty choosing a notable comic strip within the field such as

Dilbert to represent the aesthetics perspective effectively establishes credibility for her point.

Instead of using any other form of art to represent the point, Dilbert which has gained so much

traction with consumers and has been used in psychological studies in the past brings a level of

prestige to the article and develops ethos even more. The name of the award-winning best-selling
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business-related comic strip Dilbert is certainly attractive to the many scholars that are browsing

the Journal of Management Inquiry.

Doherty’s choice of Dilbert to sample in this article indirectly creates some additional pathos

for the audience. Since the audience of this article are in the business or organizational studies

field, the comic strip Dilbert may be familiar to them. If they enjoy reading Dilbert or at the very

least recall reading a strip and thought that it wasn’t half bad it will lighten their attitude towards

the article. Since Dilbert is something that they know and like, it may improve their

receptiveness to the point discussed in the article. The audience will be able to relate more to the

topic since they are aware of how accurate Dilbert’s portrayal of the workplace environment is.

This relation to Dilbert strengthens the appeal of the article and helps persuade the audience

towards Doherty’s argument and reasoning within “Joking Aside”.

Despite the years of research of employee dignity undertaken within the organizational

studies field, the reason why employee dignity is being threatened is still unknown. To solve this,

in “Joking Aside, Insights to Employee Dignity in “Dilbert” Cartoons: The Value of Comic Art

in Understanding the Employer—Employee Relationship” Doherty explores the charted territory

of the aesthetics perspective and how it can contribute to unraveling this mystery. In this article,

Doherty successfully expresses her point by including effective use of ethos, logos, and pathos to

strengthen her argument. Doherty demonstrates ethos in “Joking Aside” by bolstering her

credibility as an author in the references section of the paper. She lists her education and

previous works in the field within it, which establishes her authority in the subject. Another

example of ethos in the document is the use of the Dilbert comic strips as the focus of the

argument. As an award winning and renowned comic strip, Dilbert creates a sort of prestige to

the article. It has been in psychological studies in the past which allows the article to appear
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more legitimate. Doherty includes pathos in a sort of subliminal way in “Joking Aside”. The

topic of the argument, which is employee dignity in the workplace, appeals to almost everyone.

As there aren’t many people out there who have never worked under somebody, most people will

relate to the feeling of wanting to be respected and valued by their superiors. This makes “Joking

Aside” more relatable to the audience, which strengthens the argument. Doherty shows logos

throughout the article by explaining her reasoning for the argument early. She refers to several

well-known psychological studies about dignity such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and claims

that even though the importance of dignity is a fact within the field, not many have studied the

reason why it’s being threatened. This provides a purpose for the article, which strengthens the

argument, because if a point is being argued without any dissent, then there’s no meaning to have

it. Doherty uses these three modes of persuasion as the foundation for her argument, which

allows it to be effective.
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References

Adams, Scott. About Scott Adams. 6 January 2015. Blog. 20 February 2019.

<https://blog.dilbert.com/about/>.

Deeks, John. "Business and the Culture of the Enterprise Society." Westport: Quorum Books,

1993. Book.

Doherty, Elizabeth M. "Joking Aside, Insights to Employee Dignity in “Dilbert” Cartoons: The

Value of Comic Art in Understanding the Employer—Employee Relationship." Journal

of Management Inquiry 20.3 (2011): 286-301. Journal Article. 20 February 2019.

<http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1056492610386114>.

—. "Management and art views of Depression era workers: The need for an organizational-arts

perspective." Management & Organizational History 4.1 (2009): 5-36. Journal Article.

21 February 2019. <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1744935908098857>.

Maslow, Abraham Harold. "A Theory of Human Motivation." Psychological Review 50.4

(1943): 370-396. Journal Article.

Wilber, Ken. The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion. New York:

Broadway Books, 1998. Book.