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Humor and group effectiveness
Abstract
Despite the importance of groups in the workplace and the demand from workers for a fun work environment, there is no model that explains how successful organizational humor can impact work groups. The purpose of this article is to present a model, based on Hackman's framework of group effectiveness, that can be used to understand the relationship between successful organizational humor and group effectiveness. We explore the ability of successful organizational humor to influence groups through its positive impact on group productivity, viability and learning. Based on the literature from several disciplines, we propose that successful organizational humor can have a positive impact on a variety of group processes (e.g. effective communication, development of group goals, management of emotion, etc.) and outcomes (e.g. group productivity, group viability, and development of group members), which contribute to overall group effectiveness. The model has the potential to both advance theory on organizational humor and to offer value to practicing managers by providing an understanding of how two seemingly unrelated factors (humor and group effectiveness) are in fact related in a meaningful fashion.
... As teams have more humorous interactions, a climate for humor begins to emerge and norms begin to form around the appropriate types of humor [86,91]. Affiliative styles of humor help team members come to agreement and connect more deeply, whereas aggressive humor styles have shown to drive hostility and conflict, driving a wedge between the team [92,93]. This suggests humor does not just result in humorous consequences, it plays a vital role in influencing interpersonal relationships across the team [86]. ...
... High-stress is a fundamental challenge of extreme environments, affecting team members physical health as well as general well-being, role performance, teamwork processes, and cognition [73]. Successful utilization of humorous content has been linked to the promotion of desirable teamwork processes such as cohesion, psychological safety, communication, leadership, coordination, and positive affect [92,115]. Together, these teamwork processes collectively enhance overall team well-being, or the outcome of the interplay between both the teams' traits and the attributes of their working environment [116]. ...
... Additionally, affiliative humor can account for enhanced quality in decision-making through heightening psychological safety (e.g., Potipiroon & Ford, 2021;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008). This construct embodies a team member's capacity for taking chances, feeling safe in a demanding situation, and feeling assured when a member questions a popular belief. ...
... Furthermore, groups that cultivate a psychologically safe environment exhibit decreased defensiveness, an increased capacity to make decisions based on facts rather than politics, and an increased willingness to try out novel behaviors to improve outcomes (Tjosvold et al., 2004;Turner & Harder, 2018). The connection between humor and psychological safety stems from humor's capacity to foster trust, open communication, and personal rapport at the individual level, which, in turn, significantly affects psychological safety at the group level (Romero & Pescosolido, 2008). ...
This study explores the relationship between humor, creativity, rationality, intuitiveness, and decision-making quality, all of which are vital in organizational management and success. Despite the importance attached to decision-making, prior research has not fully addressed how humor and creativity interact with rationality. Drawing from psychology, cognitive science, and management studies, we investigate how humor and creativity jointly influence cognitive reflection and decision quality. Using a sample of 998 participants and employing a mediating-moderation PROCESS model, our findings indicate that rational individuals tend to make higher-quality decisions, with affiliative humor mediating this relationship. Furthermore, we observed that employees’ creativity levels moderated this relationship, especially among rational employees with high creativity, who made higher-quality decisions. These findings highlight the interconnectedness of humor, creativity, and rationality in decision-making processes, offering practical implications for organizational behavior and management practices. Understanding this interplay can provide a nuanced approach to enhancing decision-making processes in management, emphasizing the value of humor in organizational contexts.
... In this theme, researchers investigate research topics such as humor and games to find their associations with fun work. Two prominent examples are Romero and Pescosolido (2008) and ...
... In addition, other research underscores the role of humor (Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Plester, 2009) and gamification (Dale, 2014) in promoting a fun environment in the workplace. Humor, broadly defined as any expression eliciting a positive cognitive or emotional reaction, serves as a collaborative tool, stress buffer, and social interaction enhancer (Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). ...
The attention and interest in fun work have exponentially increased among practitioners and academic communities. This phenomenon replaced the old-fashioned view that created a rigid climate in the office. Many employees have adopted a fun work culture to improve employer branding and employee experiences and retain their talents. Using bibliometric techniques, this study aimed to capture the trend of research in fun work and identify research streams in fun work derived from the critical topic distributions of the fun work academic literature. We performed word co-occurrence analysis, author network analysis, and publication analysis. This study identified four streams in the science of fun work: activities to make work fun, a fun work environment system, positive effects of fun work, and support for fun work. The research trend and research streams in Fun Work provided insight for researchers to find potential issues to address in future research. They revealed the interactions as well as connections among researchers in fun work.
... Although the topic of humor in the workplace has received little attention in the past, recently the trend to make work more humorous has spread among practitioners (Wisse & Rietzschel, 2014). The Red Cross, Google, Southwest Airlines, and many other organizations of all types and sizes around the world are using humor in job advertisements, employee communications, recruiting, engagement, and other human resource management (HRM) practices (Cooper, 2008;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Tarvin, 2019). ...
... Therefore, building on the leader-member exchange theory and the attraction-selectionattrition model, this study investigates how similarities or differences in the humor styles of supervisors and employees affect the leader-member relationship. Effective and shared humor helps individuals overcome attitude dissimilarity (Romero, & Pescosolido, 2008) and increases the cohesiveness of diverse groups (Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). Accordingly, a shared and similar sense of humor should contribute to positive organizational outcomes. ...
... Group humor reflects emergent communication patterns in groups that are shaped by individual as well as group-level factors (Curs , eu and Fodor, 2016;Romero and Pescosolido, 2008;Romero and Arendt, 2011); therefore, humor in groups warrants more complex multilevel studies (Gheorghe and Curs , eu, 2024). With few exceptions Nguyen et al., 2022), literature to date did not extensively explore the multilevel interplay between humor in groups and different team outcomes. ...
... Psychological safety represents "a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking" (Edmondson, 1999, p. 355). In their model of humor and group effectiveness, Romero and Pescosolido (2008) argue that humor can contribute to the development of psychological safety by fostering open communication inside the team, improving personal rapport and lowering stress levels. This does not mean, however, that all types of humor can induce similar effects. ...
Purpose-This study aims to explore the role of team personality and leader's humor style on the use of humor in group communication and the extent to which group humor mediates the association between team personality on the one hand, psychological safety, collective emotional intelligence and group satisfaction on the other hand.
Design/methodology/approach-The authors used a survey to collect data from 304 employees nested in 83 groups working in organizations from various sectors in Romania.
Findings-The study results show that extraversion is positively associated with group affiliative humor, while neuroticism has a positive association with group aggressive humor. The leader's affiliative humor style had a significant positive effect on group affiliative humor, while the effect of leader's aggressive humor style on the use of aggressive humor in groups was not significant. Furthermore, the authors examined the mediation role of group humor in the relationship between team personality and team emergent states and satisfaction. The authors found that group aggressive humor mediates the association between neuroticism and group emotional intelligence, psychological safety and satisfaction, while affiliative humor mediates the association between extraversion and emotional intelligence and team satisfaction.
Originality/value-The study reports one of the first attempts to explore the multilevel interplay of team personality and humor in groups as they relate to emergent states.
... J. Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). Leaders can effectively utilize humor as a motivational tool to encourage employee commitment and engagement in their work (Romero & Pescosolido, 2008). Leader humor relates to leader intentional behavior that aims to entertain employees with humorous communication (Li, Dai, Chin, & Rafiq, 2019) .The use of leader humor has positive implications for both employees and teams, including improvements in job satisfaction and employee engagement and increased team performance (Neves & Karagonlar, 2020). ...
... Another study also extended the literature by emphasizing that leader humor significantly predicts retention intention, job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and job performance through LMX and positive emotions (Robert, Dunne, & Iun, 2015). Leaders positive humor can effectively reduce the psychological distance between superiors and subordinates, helping to create a good communication atmosphere between leaders and subordinates (Romero & Pescosolido, 2008). Management scholars propose the "leader humor strategy" (Wang, 2022), which is used to guide business leaders to rationally implement humorous behaviors in the workplace, stimulate the feelings, attitudes and positive working behavior of subordinates. ...
From a global and historical perspective, creativity is essential for human progress and profound global change. It is increasingly emerging as a valuable quality, especially in the hospitality industry where the creativity of frontline employees is essential to maintain high-trust organizations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual model to understand the influence of happiness at workplace and leader humor on employee creativity in the hospitality context. This study employs an integrative review method to comprehensively analyse, evaluate, and synthesize existing literature on the research topic, resulting in the creation of a new theoretical framework. It also provides valuable guidance for future researchers to empirically test the model. All variables in this study are considered state-like constructs, which implies that they can be further developed and refined. Individuals can undergo training in these aspects, and practitioners have the opportunity to train employees in fostering creativity within the workplace.
... We showed that a project leader's sense of humor may be a viable way to improve creativity, particularly in the construction context where projects involve multiple stakeholders, often with competing interests and require novel solutions to work problems. While humor is common when people work in teams (Romero and Pescosolido, 2008), research on the impact of the leader's humor on creativity is still lacking in the literature on construction management. This paper thus addresses this deficiency in the literature by providing empirical evidence of the benefits associated with leader humor (e.g. ...
... First, project managers should consider using humor as a strategic tool for effective communication as it strengthens the persuasiveness of their messages and induces positive affect (Pundt, 2015), which in turn has beneficial effects on creative outcomes. Since managers are responsible for conveying the project goals to the team members in an effective manner (Romero and Pescosolido, 2008), they can make their messages more interesting through the use of humor. Moreover, organizations operating in the construction industry face challenges such as bullying, labor shortages and environmental concerns (Zutshi and Creed, 2015). ...
Purpose
The present study aims to advance a new framework to spur creativity at individual and team levels in the construction industry by studying a leader's sense of humor. The authors develop and test a multi-level model to investigate the direct and indirect effects of leader's humor on creativity within teams working on construction projects. The authors draw on the benign violation theory to hypothesize that a leader's sense of humor influences the acceptability of norm violations in teams, which helps to improve their creativity. The authors also integrate the benign violation theory with the social information processing theory to examine the indirect effects of project leader's sense of humor on individual- and team-level creativity via team psychological safety.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data from 165 members nested in 45 teams working on construction projects in China. The construct's factor structure and discriminant validity were established through confirmatory factor analysis. The authors used multi-level modeling via Mplus to test team-level to the individual-level direct and indirect hypotheses, while team-level direct and indirect hypotheses were tested using ordinary least squares regression.
Findings
The results show that the leader's humor has a dual positive direct effect on individual and team creativity. Furthermore, these effects are partially mediated by team psychological safety. The implications of these findings to improve the construction management theory and practice are discussed in the manuscript.
Originality/value
The current study contributes to the literature by understanding the significance of leader humor in predicting individual-level and team-level creativity within the construction sector. It expands the literature by examining team psychological safety as the underlying mechanism in the relationship between leader humor and creativity.
... In other words, and central to this study, humour contributes to social in-group cohesion (e.g. Hester, 2010, Holmes, 2000, Holmes & Marra, 2002a, Gockel & Kerr, 2015, Ponton, et al., 2020, Romero & Pescosolido, 2008. In this light, Holmes and Marra (2002a) Humour as a "key strategy in interpersonal encounters" (Schnurr, 2010, p. 319) thus presents a valuable way into spoken data when the objective is to better understand how cohesion is actually constructed and negotiated in interaction. ...
... Humour scholars appear more or less in agreement with the finding that humour not only constructs but fosters cohesion and in-group solidarity among group members (e.g. Dynel, 2008, Hester, 2010, Holmes & Marra, 2002a, Lennox Terrion & Ashfort, 2002, Romero & Pescosolido, 2008, Ponton, et al., 2020, Snyder, 1991. Lennox ...
... Indeed, the interpersonal implications of workplace humour are well established. Humour at work can serve as a tool for enhancing group status and individual power (Taylor et al., 2022) as well as social cohesion, interpersonal liking, and social visibility (Cooper, 2008;Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2012;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008). Therefore, humour is an important facilitator for team processes such as collaboration and co-worker evaluations. ...
(Workplace) humour can have positive effects on interpersonal (workplace) relationships. However, sexist humour – a form of subtle discrimination that communicates disparagement or degradation at the expense of (mainly) women in a humorous manner – might be highly detrimental in various ways. Despite sexist humour being pervasive in the workplace, little is known about when, how, and why sexist humour impacts the recipients and their work relationship with the initiator. With two pre-registered studies, theoretically based on affective events theory and social identity theory, this research advances knowledge on the interpersonal effects and gender dynamics of sexist humour at work. In the experimental Study 1, 255 participants rated an actor telling a (non-)sexist joke. In the field Study 2, 170 participants recalled a (non-)sexist humour event they encountered at work. Both studies produced converging results: Recipients of sexist humour were less willing to collaborate with the humour initiator and perceived them as less competent; this was psychologically explained by elevated negative affect. These detrimental effects particularly emerged when a man (vs. woman) initiated sexist humour toward a woman (vs. man).
... A large body of evidence suggests that leadership humour contributes to positive employee emotions. At the theoretical level, the use of humour within a team can lead to positive team emotions (Romero & Pescosolido, 2008). Robert When employees interact with a leader with a sense of humour, the humourous response of the leader and the wonderful resolution of con ict or embarrassment will continue to stimulate employees to have positive emotional experiences, including fun, happiness, and gratitude, which will make the employees willing to repeat such interactions. ...
This study analysed the influence of leadership humour on employees' advice and its mechanism of action. For this purpose, we constructed a model with leadership humour as the independent variable, employees' positive emotions as the mediator, superior-subordinate relationship as the moderator, and employees' advice as the dependent variable. We conducted a questionnaire survey using a random sampling methodand conducted empirical analyses on the valid data. The results showed that leadership humour, positive emotions, and superior and subordinate relations were all significantly and positively related to employee advice; positive emotions played a mediating role in the effect of leadership humour on employee advice; and superior and subordinate relations played a moderating role in the relationship between leadership humour and employee advice.
... Humor is also found to produce valuable physical, social, and organizational effects. Examples of such positive impacts are related to, for instance, blood pressure [37], stress [38], effectiveness [39,40], innovation [41,42], trust [43], burnout, work withdrawal [44], persistent behavior [45], job satisfaction, organizational pride, affective commitment [46], engagement [47], social cohesion [41], creativity communication, enthusiasm, and brightened and more enduring workplace [48]. Humor too seems to be helpful for employees and organizations during the COVID-19 setbacks and aftermaths [49][50][51]. ...
This study delves into the dynamics of relational energy (RE) within an organizational context, examining some of its antecedents and decedents. Specifically, it investigates the influence of psychological capital (PsyCap) and humor on RE, and, subsequently, the latter’s impact on job performance (JB) mediated by job engagement (JE). A research model based on structural equation modeling carried out with 481 employees in private service industries demonstrates several key relationships. It reveals that both PsyCap and affiliative humor positively affect RE, while aggressive humor exerts a negative influence. Furthermore, RE shows a positive association with JE and JP, with JE serving as a mediator. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to present an integrated model encompassing this exact combination of influencers and consequences of RE, as well as the first to be investigated within the Western Balkans cultural context. Therefore, it represents a novel approach. Additionally, the research addresses crucial questions regarding the existence and strategic significance of RE within organizational interactions. The findings offer valuable insights for organizations seeking to enhance employee engagement, performance, and wellbeing—even during health crises such as COVID-19—by fostering RE. This study advances the understanding of RE in organizational settings and provides a foundation for future research in this domain.
... Humor is also found to produce valuable physical, social, and organizational effects. Examples of such positive impacts are related to, for instance, blood pressure [28], stress [29], effectiveness [30,31], innovation [32,33], trust [34], burnout, work withdrawal [35], persistent behavior [36], job satisfaction, organizational pride, affective commitment [37], engagement [38], social cohesion [32], creativity communication, enthusiasm, and brightened and more enduring workplace [39]. Humor too seems to be helpful for employees and organizations during the COVID-19 setbacks and aftermaths [40][41][42]. ...
This study delves into the dynamics of relational energy (RE) within organizational context, examining some of its antecedents and decedents. Specifically, it investigates the influence of psychological capital (PsyCap) and humor on RE, and subsequently, the latter’s impact on job performance (JB) mediated by job engagement (JE). A research model based on structural equation modelling carried out with 481 employees in private service industries demonstrates several key relationships. It reveals that both PsyCap and affiliative humor positively affect RE, while aggressive humor exerts a negative influence. Furthermore, RE shows positive association with JE and JP, with JE serving as a mediator. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to present an integrated model encompassing this exact combination of influencers and consequences of RE as well as to be investigated within Western Balkans cultural context. Therefore, it represents a novel approach. Additionally, the research addresses crucial questions regarding the existence and strategic significance of RE within organizational interactions. The findings offer valuable insights for organizations seeking to enhance employee engagement, performance, and wellbeing – even during health crises such as COVID-19 – by fostering RE. The study advances the understanding of RE in organizational settings and provides a foundation for future research in this domain.
... Ayrıca şimdiye kadar yapılmış olan birçok araştırma da bizlere mizahın kişilerin sağlığı, birbirleri ile olan ilişkileri, yaşamdan doyum elde etmeleri, iyi olma hali ve birbirleri ile iletişim şekilleri açısından olumlu bir etkiye sahip olduğunu göstermektedir (Clouse, Spurgeon, 1995). Bunun yanı sıra eğitim liderleri de görev yaptıkları kurumlarda mizahı diğer örgüt bireylerini teşvik etme, problemlerini çözme, memnuniyet sağlama amacı ile kullanarak daha etkili bir liderlik becerisine sahip olmayı amaçlamaktadır (Romero, Pescosolido, 2008); çünkü bu tür ortamlarda stres ve gerginlik seviyesinin yükselmesi ancak mizah tarzında bir iletişim yolu ile giderilebilir. Bu bakımdan mizah eğitim liderleri için oldukça önemli bir etmen olarak görülmektedir (Özdemir, 2002). ...
... Drawing on the role-congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002), it would be interesting to see how women military officers use Humour as compared to men. Lastly, since very few studies have been conducted on workplace humour at an organizational level, studies can investigate to see how organizational humour can be linked to group effectiveness using Romero & Pescosolido's (2008) Group Humour Effectiveness Model (GHEM). ...
Humour in military organizations can be antithetical given the rigid hierarchy, high degrees of work formalization, and obedience to hierarchy. This paper explores how humour is initiated, propagated and maintained in the Indian Army. We conducted twelve in-depth interviews with retired army professionals and used Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis to capture the study's main findings. Three major themes emerged – organizational humour, leader humour, and team humour. We found humour is essential in combating stress, increasing social cohesion, facilitating newcomer assimilation, and promoting a positive work environment. We also found evidence of subversive humour used in forms of resistance to challenge the hierarchical structure subtly. We have provided a three-part schema of workplace humour which sheds interesting insights on workplace humour. Our findings will contribute to understanding how military humour helps to maneuver challenges of a stressful work situation.
... Individuals with a 'good sense of humour' are generally more socially desirable (Cann and Calhoun, 2001); this may be because they decrease social gaps while interacting with people (Graham, 1995). Research conducted by Romero and Pescosolido (2008) finds that whenever humour is used in groups, the individuals within the group experience positive affects which create efficient and effective social processes that require less energy and effort to establish a social bond. These theories provide a feasible explanation for the spreading of humour on different social media platforms in various situations. ...
... The link to the book is: https://bit.ly/lead-humor-1 , which contribute to overall group effectiveness [9]. People perceive leaders to be more approachable and supportive if they use humour. ...
Debating the role of humour and leadership in institutions
Laughing at adversity
How to encourage humour and leadership in institutions
... Censoring outsiders involves creating norms and values to support humorous judgments about others' inferior behaviours. Doing so, can help excluding outsiders, and strengthening insider group identities and own value systems (Cooper, 2008;Greatbatch & Clark, 2003;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Sturdy et al., 2010). By setting insider norms and excluding those that do not meet these norms, superiority jokes have great potential to express ethical criticism, and to correct behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable (Bergson, 2008, p. 17). ...
... Censoring outsiders involves creating norms and values to support humorous judgments about others' inferior behaviours. Doing so, can help excluding outsiders, and strengthening insider group identities and own value systems (Cooper, 2008;Greatbatch & Clark, 2003;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Sturdy et al., 2010). By setting insider norms and excluding those that do not meet these norms, superiority jokes have great potential to express ethical criticism, and to correct behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable (Bergson, 2008, p. 17). ...
This chapter introduces a new jokes-based interview method that uses jokes to reflect on experiences with pressuring leadership in the context of consulting. It finds that the new interview method triggers junior consultants’ memories of experiences with pressuring managers, and managers’ memories on how their juniors deal with overly high leadership demands in consultancies. Some jokes introduce the topic better than others, which makes the selection of jokes an important part of the method. Especially cartoons invite open conversation on ethical transgressions. When doing jokes-based interviews, follow-up questioning is important. The interviewee also needs to get room to freely interpret, associate and elaborate. The method is very well able to create rapport, as the jokes not only introduce the topic, but also serve as an icebreaker. The jokes-based interview method helps to overcome social desirability bias by introducing the topic of a specific moral transgression in a humorous way.
... Censoring outsiders involves creating norms and values to support humorous judgments about others' inferior behaviours. Doing so, can help excluding outsiders, and strengthening insider group identities and own value systems (Cooper, 2008;Greatbatch & Clark, 2003;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Sturdy et al., 2010). By setting insider norms and excluding those that do not meet these norms, superiority jokes have great potential to express ethical criticism, and to correct behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable (Bergson, 2008, p. 17). ...
This chapter summarizes the benefits and limitations of four jokes-based research methods used to explore different ethical challenges and cases. They can be used in different business fields, but are illustrated for common transgressions in management consulting. The four methods are jokes-based illustration, jokes-based interviewing, jokes-based survey design and jokes-based content analysis. This summarizing chapter indicates how jokes-based methods give valid results. The jokes-based methods can be used to study professional ethics, business ethics, and transgressions in other domains where norms are commonly violated, such as with old versus new traditions, new fashions, the use of new technologies etc. The jokes-based methods are developed to support research, but they can also be used in educational programs with research assignments. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the normative and critical value of jokes, next to their descriptive qualities that are useful in research.
... Censoring outsiders involves creating norms and values to support humorous judgments about others' inferior behaviours. Doing so, can help excluding outsiders, and strengthening insider group identities and own value systems (Cooper, 2008;Greatbatch & Clark, 2003;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Sturdy et al., 2010). By setting insider norms and excluding those that do not meet these norms, superiority jokes have great potential to express ethical criticism, and to correct behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable (Bergson, 2008, p. 17). ...
This chapter explores a new jokes-based illustration method targeting ethical transgressions in the business context. The method question is how well public business jokes published on the Internet can illustrate common ethical business transgressions. The result is that ten common unethical business practices mentioned in interviews with over 100 consultants, can all be illustrated with public business jokes. That shows that jokes are a good source for illustrating common unethical business behaviour. As jokes activate normative standards, they also point at what the ethical issue is. This gives them illustrative value for answering both descriptive and evaluative research questions. Still, the jokes-based illustration method has its limitations. First, it takes time for jokes to be published on the Internet and to get shared. Second, jokes can only be experienced as funny when they illustrate mild norm violation. When behaviour gets very unethical our emotional response turns into anger, and fun gets lost. Third, ethical transgressions need to be somewhat common and recognizable to be good joking material. Fourth, not everyone “gets” a joke. That means, the audience needs to be sufficiently able to interpret well. Finally, for illustration purpose, a topical match between the joke and the ethical issue is important, which puts high demands on searching and selection.
... Censoring outsiders involves creating norms and values to support humorous judgments about others' inferior behaviours. Doing so, can help excluding outsiders, and strengthening insider group identities and own value systems (Cooper, 2008;Greatbatch & Clark, 2003;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Sturdy et al., 2010). By setting insider norms and excluding those that do not meet these norms, superiority jokes have great potential to express ethical criticism, and to correct behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable (Bergson, 2008, p. 17). ...
This chapter introduces a new jokes-based survey method that uses rating questions to assess statements expressed in cartoons, next to the rating of traditional statements on the same topic. This mixed-method approach studying flawed consultant expertise and its ethical repercussions finds consistent results for the two methods when comparing stakeholder opinions of five different groups: clients, client employees, consultants, academics studying consultants and outsiders. Clients and consultants are most positive about consultant expertise, client employees are most negative while academics and outsiders hold the middle ground. Advantages of the method are motivational (good response and completion rates) and greater clarity of statements due to the use of visuals. Cartoon-based questions in this mixed-method approach also increase validity by adding a new type of control questions. Limitations of the method are that the statements to be rated are dependent on available cartoon content. Rating questions linked to cartoons are also limited to critical statements.
... Censoring outsiders involves creating norms and values to support humorous judgments about others' inferior behaviours. Doing so, can help excluding outsiders, and strengthening insider group identities and own value systems (Cooper, 2008;Greatbatch & Clark, 2003;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Sturdy et al., 2010). By setting insider norms and excluding those that do not meet these norms, superiority jokes have great potential to express ethical criticism, and to correct behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable (Bergson, 2008, p. 17). ...
This chapter introduces a new jokes-based method of content analysis applied to a larger sample of critical business jokes. Analysing jokes puts higher demands on interpretation than usual for content analysis. The analysis of jokes on the topic of uncertainties in the consultant–client relation indicates that both clients and consultants are active players, with their own tactics to create, use and reduce uncertainty. These results are in line with earlier studies on consultants and uncertainty, but add nuance and detail to earlier findings by illustrating new consultant and client tactics. Benefits of content analysis of a sample of jokes are the rich insights they provide together. The jokes tell about what we can call the grey zone of ethical transgression: common problematic and mostly concealed practices that most insiders are somewhat ashamed of. Limitations of jokes-based content analysis relate to the type of data used, which can be considered biased much like metaphors. There is representation bias related to irony, exaggeration, distortion, stereotyping, exclusion, abstraction and fictional elements. There is also bias related to what topics are funny or not (humour bias). These limitations can all be mitigated by careful interpretation and data triangulation.
... Censoring outsiders involves creating norms and values to support humorous judgments about others' inferior behaviours. Doing so, can help excluding outsiders, and strengthening insider group identities and own value systems (Cooper, 2008;Greatbatch & Clark, 2003;Romero & Pescosolido, 2008;Sturdy et al., 2010). By setting insider norms and excluding those that do not meet these norms, superiority jokes have great potential to express ethical criticism, and to correct behaviour that is seen as socially unacceptable (Bergson, 2008, p. 17). ...
Ethics scholars know about ethical transgressions in business mainly from journalists. Journalists report extreme transgressions leading to scandals, court cases and social or environmental disasters. The more moderate examples of unethical business behaviour are known by insiders, but less by outsiders. Business ethicists have rarely explored such more common transgressions empirically, and they lack own methods to do so. This chapter introduces four research methods that use business jokes on ethical transgressions. The chapter first explains how critical insider jokes can illustrate common unethical practices in business, second how they can stimulate conversation about them in open in-depth interviews, third how they can be used as statements to be rated in a survey and fourth how they can be used as a source for content analysis. This introductory chapter concludes with an outline of the entire book and its four methods, showing their contributions to research methods in business ethics. The book aims at scholars in business ethics and the social sciences including their Ph.D. and M.Sc. students. Second, the book may also be relevant to practitioners like consultants, managers and researchers who want to better explore business ethics cases in their specific fields.
Despite the importance of leader humor in sustaining organizational effectiveness, little is known about how and when leader humor affects employee thriving, an important indicator of employee personal growth and organizational sustainable human capital. Drawing on and extending the socially embedded model of thriving at work, this study takes a balanced view and investigates the positive and negative impacts of leader humor on employee thriving. On the one hand, we propose that leader humor is related to information inadequacy, which hinders employee thriving. On the other hand, we argue that leader humor enables employees' positive affect, which enhances their level of thriving. Three‐wave data collected from 268 employees working in various industries support our hypotheses. The findings show that high‐quality information and affect resources exchange relationships with teammates (i.e., team–member exchange) alleviate the detrimental effect of leader humor on information adequacy but do not affect its beneficial effect on positive affect, which facilitates employee thriving as a whole. This study has practical implications on how practitioners can capitalize on leader humor and build a thriving workforce.
Purpose
The objective of this study is to determine the research areas with the largest numbers of publications, the most influential researchers, and research trends in Peruvian Universities. Methodology: A bibliometric analysis was conducted from the Scopus database by retrieving a total of 29,935 documents between 2008 and 2021. Findings: The study analyzed the scientific production of 93 accredited universities in Peru between 2008 and 2021, retrieved 29,935 documents, and observed an annual growth rate of 15% before Law 30,220, and 28% after. Medicine, social sciences, and engineering are the subject areas with the most publications. The study also found that Peruvian universities have contributed to 27 research areas. Peru, the United States, and Brazil were the top countries in collaboration. The study also illustrated the intellectual and conceptual structure of scientific production, with the greatest relevance in medicine and health.
Purpose
By integrating insights from cognitive style literature and person-environment fit theory, our study aims to explore which type of entrepreneurs are more inclined to initiate humor behaviors, the circumstances under which such behaviors are more likely to be employed within entrepreneurial teams and the specific benefits of humor behaviors for initiators.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes humor behaviors in entrepreneurial teams through a three-wave time-lagged field survey of 227 entrepreneurs in China.
Findings
We find that entrepreneurs with higher creating style are more likely to exhibit humor, making them more popular within entrepreneurial teams. Additionally, the positive relationship is amplified in the presence of high levels of conflict.
Originality/value
Previous studies provide substantial evidence of the positive effects of humor behaviors on their recipients in the workplace; however, there has been limited focus on the antecedents of humor behaviors and the benefits for the humor initiators. Our study addresses the gaps by providing empirical evidence that creating style of entrepreneurs may promote humor behaviors, particularly in the context of conflicts within entrepreneurial teams, and such behaviors could elevate entrepreneurs’ social acceptance within teams.
The main reason for writing this book is my belief that in the face of unprecedented global challenges, leaders who exhibit the characteristics of humility, hope, and humor are better equipped to navigate complexity, foster resilience, and inspire trust. The modern landscape of leadership is characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—often referred to as VUCA conditions.
In the evolving landscape of leadership, traditional theories have often focused on traits such as decisiveness, authority, and strategic thinking. However, contemporary leadership increasingly recognizes the importance of integrating personal qualities like humility, hope, and humor with the previous characteristics.
In a world that at many times does not seem to have much humor, it is good to be reminded that the Bible tells us that it is not only acceptable to laugh, it is encouraged. While the Bible is clear in 1 Peter and in other places that we are to be “sober of mind,” it is just as clear in other places of the Bible that we are to be cheerful and ready to laugh. Now that I have covered the firsts of the “Three H’s,” humility and hope, it is time to move on to a characteristic that is not thought of very much when we look at leadership.
So far in this book I have discussed the characteristics of humility, hope, and humor as discrete, unique tools for leaders to use. I will also look at these qualities individually in a later chapter, where I will discuss how they fit into leadership theory. In this chapter, I will argue that all three of these roles can be used by a leader together and that they can become the central part of a leader’s style. In making this argument, I will explain the relationship between all three, and I will provide examples of leaders who displayed these characteristics.
In this chapter, leadership interventions are described in the context of the Task-centered framework and Strengths perspective. The importance of Worker/Leader qualities, such as warmth, empathy, and genuineness, are explained. How a Worker/Leader discloses personal information, confronts a group member for incongruent behavior, uses humor, and explores group members’ lives all have implications for how groups function. In addition, Workers/Leaders must consider other interventions, including summarizing, managing time, supporting, role-playing, programming, clarifying, and modeling strategies to help the group work towards their goals.
Tilt, characterized by heightened frustration, is a prevalent issue in esports, significantly impacting team dynamics and player well-being. Traditional Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) solutions often focus on individual strategies, overlooking the team-based nature of esports. This study introduces 'TILTED', a tabletop game co-designed with youth esports players, aimed at fostering open communication and empathy to collectively manage tilt. Findings from four user testing sessions with collegiate esports teams reveal that team-based interventions like 'TILTED' can enhance team cohesion and provide effective strategies for emotional regulation. The game facilitates understanding and empathy among teammates for managing emotions and maintaining a positive team atmosphere. Our research underscores the importance of resetting strategies and shared mental models in helping to mitigate tilt and offers design implications for future team-based interventions to enhance team dynamics and tilt management strategies as a team.
Humor is a fundamental managerial tool that can help managers communicate, build trust, and promote cooperation. Humor, however, is complex, and humor scholarship has identified both benefits and risks of using humor for leaders, employees, and organizations. Although humor is both pervasive and impactful in organizations, humor scholarship is vastly under-represented relative to its managerial relevance and impact in leading management journals. In this review, we build on scholarship in the psychology, communication, and management literatures to define humor, introduce a framework and nomenclature for studying humor, and distinguish organizational humor from social humor. We identify open questions worthy of scholarly attention and barriers that have likely limited the publication of humor scholarship in management journals. We conclude with a call to action to guide future research in organizational humor.
Through the lens of corporate psychopathy theory, this chapter integrates theoretical perspectives on abusive supervision, workplace civility, dark humor, employee autonomy, and managerial psychopathy to examine the processes through which these variables influence employee mental health and illness. Findings from quantitative studies of the effects of working under psychopathic managers are integrated with qualitative research on the same phenomena, to gain a robust understanding of the ways managerial psychopathy contributes to employee mental health and illness. This chapter presents information regarding how psychopathic employees use incivility, bullying, aggressive humor, and close employee control to manage their environment via creating a climate of fear and disengagement and that this results in deteriorating employee mental health.
Cet article examine les conditions d’un engagement des apprenants dans un projet commun ainsi que les conditions de développement de compétences spécifiques pour collaborer. Pour mieux comprendre l’engagement dans la collaboration et les compétences qui y sont associées, nous nous appuyons sur les résultats d’une expérimentation mobilisant des tables et tableaux multitouches et multiutilisateurs. Nous avons cherché à mesurer les effets sur l’engagement des apprenants d’un tel dispositif sociotechnique de formation en comparant trois formes différentes d’instrumentation de l’activité collaborative : une table et un tableau tactiles ; un tableau tactile seul ; des tablettes numériques avec un tableau tactile. Cela nous permet de comparer comment la conception de ces espaces influence l’implication des individus dans la collaboration et les compétences collaboratives développées.
While most of the literature has focused on the individual-level effects of humor, the number of studies addressing and analyzing humor in its social context as a group-level phenomenon has also started to increase. Yet there is still increased heterogeneity of results, as well as problems regarding conceptualization and measurement of humor in groups. To further our understanding of humor as an emergent multilevel construct, we conducted a systematic literature review on the antecedents and consequences of humor in groups. The findings indicate that factors such as group composition, interpersonal familiarity, task structure, trust, cohesion, positive team environment, communication norms, communication channels, and timing dynamics play important roles in the emergence and type of humor expressed within groups. The consequences of humor in groups include the emergence of cohesion, the delineation of group boundaries and identity formation, influence on group atmosphere and affective dynamics, facilitation of collective coping and team engagement, and potential effects on team performance. We discuss research progress and gaps, and conclude by outlining future research directions.
Humour is an integral part of human interactions, but it is not clear how it contributes to creativity in innovation. This paper provides new insights into the emerging literature about the impact of humour on creativity in innovation by conceptualizing humour as a situation‐specific state and using a mixed methods research design to investigate the use and impact of humour in two specific innovation contexts: idea generation by customers and collaboration in innovation teams. Our research makes four important contributions. (1) It suggests and demonstrates the relevance of a situation‐specific humorous mood. (2) It distinguishes between natural and instrumental humour and emphasizes that a purposely induced humorous mood can enhance creativity. (3) It shows that the impact of humour is not limited to a firm's individual employees but can also include external actors, such as customers and interactions between members of innovation teams. (4) It identifies the key drivers and effects of humorous mood in innovation. The findings from two empirical studies are integrated into a framework that captures the key concepts and relationships and that is also used to derive several directions for further research to better understand the effects of humour on creativity in the context of innovation.
Sexual humour has been observed in organisations where it is actively encouraged and in organisations where it is officially proscribed. In this paper, we use Interactional Sociolinguistics to analyse fifteen 'live' recordings of walkie-talkie radio conversations in a Finnish restaurant where sexual behaviour was officially proscribed. Our findings illustrate how sexual humour can function as a means of 'bonding' or 'biting' in a mixed-gender work community, with each exchange carrying distinct power implications. Theoretically, we build on Butler's notion of 'linguistic injury' by proposing that the nature and extent of the 'injury' associated with sexual humour varies depending on the function, target, initiator and response. We develop a conceptual framework that positions sexual humour within its interactional, organisational and societal context and which illuminates the distinct power relations enacted by sexual humour involving resistance, subjugation and exclusion.
شوخ طبعی سازمانی پدیده ای رایج و جهانی است. شوخ طبعی سازمانی پیامدهایی برای روابط بین فردی در سازمان ها دارد. شوخطبعی می تواند بین مدیران و زیردستان پیوند ایجاد کند. از این رو، شوخ طبعی سازمانی علاقه فزاینده ای را از مطالعات سازمانی بهخود جلب می کند و به یکی از آخرین موضوعات مدیریت تبدیل شده است. یافته های تجربی معمولا فراگیر بودن شوخ طبعی سازمانیدر کار و توانایی تاثیرگذاری بر فرآیندهای کاری از روابط، سلامت کارکنان و پویایی گروه را نشان میدهد. با این حال، محققان دردرک شوخ طبعی سازمانی عقب مانده اند زیرا هنوز بررسی جامعی از شوخ طبعی سازمانی وجود ندارد. علاوه بر این، ادبیات موجود درزمینه های مختلف مطالعاتی پراکنده شده است و دسترسی و درک شوخ طبعی سازمانی را دشوار می کند. بدین ترتیب، هدف اینمقاله بررسی ادبیات شوخ طبعی سازمانی است. این مقاله با تعریف طنز آغاز می شود. سپس ابعاد طنز، نقش طنز مثبت در محیط کارو نظریه های طنز و شوخ طبعی مربیان بررسی می شود. امید است که این بررسی به محقق کمک کند تا درک بهتری در مورد شوخطبعی سازمانی پیدا کند.
Purpose
The idea of using positive humor as a managerial tool is gaining traction in both academia and organizations. The purpose of this paper is to test whether supervisors' use of positive humor in organizations in different perceived cultures (hierarchical, clan, market and adhocracy) influences employees' in-role and extra role performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample includes 317 clinical and non-clinical employees in public hospitals in Palermo, Italy. Hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings
Results indicate that supervisor positive humor has a direct relationship with employee in-role and extra-role performance. Also, supervisor positive humor has a moderating impact on the relationship between organizational culture and in-role and extra-role performance. Moderating effect of supervisor humor have a greater impact on extra-role performance towards individuals or organizational citizenship behavior toward individuals (OCBI).
Research limitations/implications
The first limitation is that this study examines only positive or adaptive kinds of leader humor; negative or maladaptive humor is not included. A further limitation is the role of social (national) organizational culture in our construct. It is claimed that, specific components of national organizational culture are more significant compared with others and that some national organizational cultures are more vital to performance in one part of the organization compared to others (Nazarian et al ., 2017). Hofstede's original four dimensions of national culture: power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance and masculinity/femininity could be analyzed separately to investigate the role of each variable on the study’s construct.
Practical implications
As Romero and Cruthirds (2006) mentioned, organizations can establish “humor-training seminars” to make the supervisor and team members aware of the benefits of humor in the workplace. For instance, subjects such as appropriate types of humor, gender and ethical differences in appreciating the humor, and matching the humor style with the specific organizational outcome can be discussed. To understand and apply appropriate organizational culture in public organizations, it is beneficial to know which types of culture encourage employee in-role/extra-role performance. This study compared the consequences of the specific dominant culture in relation to the objective of the organization. However, one solution does not fit all. Sometimes managers inevitably follow trends in their industries without noticing other variables (Mason, 2007).
Social implications
As Romero and Cruthirds (2006) mentioned, organizations can establish “humor-training seminars” to make the supervisor and team members aware of the benefits of humor in the workplace. For instance, subjects such as appropriate types of humor, gender and ethical differences in appreciating the humor, and matching the humor style with the specific organizational outcome can be discussed.
Originality/value
This paper provides evidence to suggest that supervisor humor results in greater employee in-role and extra-role performance.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the relationship between different styles of humorous communication (i.e. controlling and liberating) and conflict transformation in groups, in particular the transformation of task and process conflicts into relationship conflict. This study also examines the extent to which power distance moderates the association between controlling humor and relationship conflict.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected data using a survey from 536 participants from two different countries varying in power distance (Romania and The Netherlands) working in groups in organizations from various sectors.
Findings
Supporting the hypotheses presented in this study, multi-level data analyses showed that liberating humor has a positive association with task conflict, while controlling humor has a positive association with both process and relationship conflict. Moreover, task and process conflict mediate the relationship between liberating and controlling humor (predictors) and relationship conflict (outcome). The hypothesis regarding the moderating effect of power distance was not fully supported by the data.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the multilevel interplay of humor and intragroup conflict in cross-cultural settings and shows how various types of humor can shape the emergence of conflict and its transformation.
Celem badania, przeprowadzonego w grupie 334 pedagogw resocjalizacyjnych, byo zidentyfikowanie preferowanych przez nich stylw humoru, kategorii oceny poznawczej oraz strategii radzenia sobie ze stresem z uwzgldnieniem rnic midzypciowych, a take ustalenie korelacji pomidzy tymi zmiennymi.
Humor is a key indicator of the health of work groups, including during times of crisis. Moreover, studies of newly formed groups show that the type of humor used can change as members of a group get to know one another and form bonds. Yet in the context of a relatively established work group, can the nature of the group’s humor evolve in response to a crisis? We address this question in the context of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), examining whether the FOMC was able to pivot its use of humor following the 2007 financial crash. As hypothesized, we find a post-crash increase in “affiliative” humor in general, and “playful banter” specifically, indicating effective group dynamics among members (which bodes well for the global economy). The FOMC thus offers evidence that established work groups can use humor as a dynamic mechanism for adapting to new circumstances.
This article builds on rich empirical data following our unexpected discovery of a local practice to circumvent a stressful and counterproductive work environment due to distrust at the Port of Tema in Ghana. Using theoretical work on networks, trust, and humor, as well as extensive ethnographic fieldwork, we found that the humorous atmosphere at the regularly held physical berthing meetings fosters a sense of community, which enables competing professions, private companies, and public institutions to manage their mutual distrust. In an environment where trust among competitors is unrealistic, we argue that the objective of the performance of humor and transparency at the physical berthing meetings is the management of distrust rather than the creation of trust. The meetings have, gradually, grown to serve as a pragmatic local stakeholder adaptation to the challenges posed by universally perceived politicized, opaque, and corrupt business practices at the Port of Tema and beyond. In conclusion, we posit that our empirical findings allow us to identify the potential of and gaps in theories about trust and humor in understanding the dynamics of coping strategies among competitors in business settings that are characterized by unethical practices.
The low appeal of nursing is currently a challenge in Finland and many other countries. Retaining factors that would keep nurses within the field have been discussed, as have attracting factors that would draw new workers to the field. Finnish discourse often focuses on the heaviness of nursing, shift work, bad leadership and low work wellbeing. The last can be influenced by many things, such as the use of humor. Workplaces can learn to use positive humor, which raises spirits and increases a sense of community. The purpose of this study was to survey fun workplace experiences in the social and health care field and what was learned from them. As there has been little research on the use of humor in social and health care work in Finland, the aim of this study is to increase knowledge and discussion of the topic. The study was conducted in 2016-2017 by collecting narratives (N=34) from master’s degree students in Leadership. The data were analyzed through inductive content analysis. Fun experiences in personnel leadership showed and reinforced social capital and a sense of community at the workplace. The sense of community included developing workplace community skills, maintaining a sense of togetherness, advancing workplace well-being and doing activities, spending time and using professional skills together. Learning from fun experiences through reflection was formed from leadership that increases workplace well-being. This consisted of four categories: reinforcing a fun work atmosphere, reinforcing togetherness, appreciative leadership and the multiplicity of the supervisor’s role. Positive humor can be used to advance workplace well-being and personnel retention. Keywords: leadership, humor, work well-being, experience-based learning, Finland
Are happy people more likely to be cooperative and successful negotiators? On the basis of the Affect Infusion Model (AIM; Forgas, 1995a), Experiment 1 predicted and found that both good and bad moods had a significant mood-congruent effect on people's thoughts and plans, and on their negotiation strategies and outcomes in both interpersonal and intergroup bargaining. Experiment 2 replicated these results and also showed that mood effects were reduced for persons more likely to adopt motivated processing strategies (scoring high on machiavellianism and need for approval). Experiment 3 confirmed these effects and demonstrated that the mood of the opposition also produced more mood-congruent bargaining strategies and outcomes. The results are discussed in terms of affect priming influences on interpersonal behaviors, and the implications of these findings for real-life cognitive tasks and bargaining encounters are considered.
Given the unique vulnerabilities of children during disasters, and the low rates of disaster preparedness in the United States, this content analysis examines the nature of federal preparedness materials specifically crafted for children. Three websites were analyzed: Let's Get Ready, FEMA for Kids, and ReadyKids. Borrowing from risk and health communication literature examining effectiveness of fear appeals, and using the Extended Parallel Process Model as a framework, content was examined for perceived threat, perceived efficacy, and possible behavioral outcomes. Results indicated heavy use of fictional characters and activities, some persuasive messages to parents, and an overall lack of messages connoting urgency. Being “prepared” was explicitly defined, with each site mentioning specific supplies. Consequences were highlighted on the FEMA site only, using fear appeals to emphasize severity and susceptibility, which may unintentionally trigger fear control responses in children rather than preparedness behavior. Shortcomings of the websites and suggestions for improvements are also discussed.
This paper discusses psychological safety and distinguishes it from the related construct of interpersonal trust. Trust is the expectation that others' future actions will be favorable to one's interests; psychological safety refers to a climate in which people are comfortable being (and expressing) themselves. Although both constructs involve a willingness to be vulnerable to others' actions, they are conceptually and theoretically distinct. In particular, psychological safety is centrally tied to learning behavior, while trust lowers transactions costs and reduces the need to monitor behavior. This paper proposes a model of antecedents and consequences of psychological safety in work teams and emphasizes the centrality of psychological safety for learning behavior. Drawing from field research in a variety of organizational settings, I describe different approaches to studying and measuring psychological safety in teams. I conclude with implications of this work including limitations of psychological safety in practice and suggestions areas for future research.
For two weeks, 286 participants used the Rochester Interaction Record to describe their social interactions. They also completed the Coping with Humor Scale and measures of depression, social skills, loneliness, and social anxiety. Scores on the CHS were positively related to how pleasurable people found their interactions, how confident they felt in their interactions, and how much time they spent with others. Moreover, the strength of these relationships was moderated by depression, but not by other measures of adjustment. These relationships were stronger for people who were less depressed.
Sense of humor and a humorous external event were evaluated as possible factors affecting individuals' emotional responses to a stressor. Participants' anxiety and affective state were assessed prior to and after observing a stress-arousing segment from a movie. Following this stressor, participants received a treatment which involved viewing either a humorous videotape, a nonhumorous videotape, or waiting without distraction, before providing a final measure of affect and anxiety. The results revealed that the stressor elevated anxiety and lowered positive affect. The humor treatment successfully reduced anxiety and raised positive affect relative To the waiting condition. The nonhumorous videotape treatment also reduced anxiety, but did not increase positive affect. Nine measures of sense of humor were used in regression analyses to pi edict anxiety and affect at each point in the procedure (pre-stressor, post-stressor, posttreatment). The Metamessage Sensitivity scale of the Sense of Humor Questionnaire (Svebak 1974) was the most useful predictor across the different measures of anxiety and affect, although other measures were significant at some points in the procedure or for participants receiving one of the treatments. The overall results from the regression analyses, and a comparison of the relationships among the various measures of sense of humor, suggest that there is a common element of sense of humor that involves an appreciation for the personal and social utility of humor that may be closely related to emotional responses to life events. Taken together with the results from the treatment manipulation, the results indicate that an external humorous event can have a significant impact on negative emotional responses to stressors, but that one's sense of humor also plays an important role.
Using interview and participant-observation data gathered among correctional officers, 911 call-takers, and firefighters, this study explores how humor enables human service workers to manage identity and make sense of their work in relation to preferred notions of self. In the face of trying job duties, humor serves employee identity needs through differentiation, superiority, role distance, and relief. Moreover, humor serves as a sensemaking vehicle through which employees select, maintain, reproduce, and reify preferred interpretations of work. The analysis characterizes humor as an unfolding, collaborative, and interactional practice that can play a key part in socializing newcomers, building knowledge, and constituting the organizing process.
The focus of this paper is on the organizational significance of shop-floor humour and in particular its relationship to gender identity and working-class resistance. A brief review of the literature on organizational humour is followed by a more detailed examination of the illuminating analysis by Willis of school/shop-floor counter-culture. Although his research provides a strong basis for the case study presented below, it is criticized for a tendency to romanticize working-class culture, humour and informal opposition.
In contrast, by means of an empirical analysis of joking forms in the components division of a lorry producing factory, the paper then explores not only the collective elements, but also the internal divisions and contradictions that characterize shop-floor relations. By critically questioning the workers' manifest search to secure a highly masculine sense of identity, the paper is able to highlight a 'darker side' of shop-floor culture, which underpins and ultimately undermines the creative humour and collectivity found in the factory.
This study examined the relationships between group goal setting and the emergence of leadership. Specifically, groups were assigned either group goals, individual goals, or both group and individual goals to determine how the type of goal relates to the frequency of leadership emergence. In addition, other antecedents and the consequences of emergent leadership were tested. A sample of 468 college students performed an interdependent word-building task in groups offour. Results indicated that the nature of the assigned goal did not influence leader emergence. Emergence was, however, related to individual task ability and commitment to the assigned group goal. Groups in which leaders emerged outperformed groups without emergent leaders, but perceptions of free riding were not affected. Finally, the emergent leader's personal goalfor the group strongly influenced the group 's chosen goal for the group. The implications and limitations of these findings and suggestions forfuture research are discussed.
Qualitative analysis of the events leading to the deaths of eight climbers on Mt Everest in 1996 illustrates the breakdown of learning in teams. The analysis contributes to research on the role of teams in organizational disasters by considering team learning and development as the basis for success in complex and changing organizations. Multiple qualitative methods reveal three precursors associated with the breakdown of learning in teams: narrowly defined purpose, directive leadership and failure to sense an ill-defined problem. Findings have implications for normal disasters and sense-making, performance in short-term project teams, and organizational learning.
A growing stream of theory and research suggests that overlap in team member mental models (i.e. socially constructed theories about systems and their expected behavior) has a positive influence on team processes and outcomes. In this article we argue that for self- managing work teams (SMWTs), the content of those shared mental models is also important. We begin by reviewing theory on SMWT effectiveness to determine the content of effective teamwork mental models in SMWTs. These are proposed to include: (1) psychological ownership of team processes and outcomes; (2) a need for continuous learning; and (3) a need for heedful interrelating. We then conduct content analyses of four published longitudinal studies of SMWTs to uncover the opportunities and challenges to developing and sustaining these mental models in dynamic organizations. Results suggest these mental models flourish when organizational supports back up their existence. However, since mental models are fluid and adapt to explicit and implicit messages, they weaken if shifting priorities cause organizational support to wane. Finally, the implications of our findings are discussed.
Three studies, conducted with 143 undergraduates, are reported that investigated the hypothesis, long held by theorists, therapists, and laypersons alike, that a sense of humor reduces the deleterious impact of stressful experiences. In each study a negative-life-events checklist was used to predict stress scores on a measure of mood disturbance. These studies made use of different measures of Ss' sense of humor, including 4 self-report scales and 2 behavioral assessments of Ss' ability to produce humor under nonstressful and mildly stressful conditions. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that 5 of the 6 humor measures produced a significant moderating effect on the relation between negative life events and mood disturbance. Ss with low humor scores obtained higher correlations between these 2 variables than did those with high humor scores. Results provide initial evidence for the stress-buffering role of humor. (42 ref)
Recent work in emotions and emotion management suggests that humor is a social phenomenon and serves an important purpose in interaction. That is, humor can be viewed as interpersonal emotion management, whose purpose is to manage the emotions of others as well as of the self. This article offers the following definition as an analytical tool: humor as emotion management is an expert cultural performance; which strengthens or restores the feeling norms of the situation and creates amusement in the self and others; generating positive sentiments among members of an interacting group by bonding them and/or reducing an external threat; often at the expense of some excluded person(s), event(s), or object(s).
This paper presents a model of team learning and tests it in a multimethod field study. It introduces the construct of team psychological safety—a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking—and models the effects of team psychological safety and team efficacy together on learning and performance in organizational work teams. Results of a study of 51 work teams in a manufacturing company, measuring antecedent, process, and outcome variables, show that team psychological safety is associated with learning behavior, but team efficacy is not, when controlling for team psychological safety. As predicted, learning behavior mediates between team psychological safety and team performance. The results support an integrative perspective in which both team structures, such as context support and team leader coaching, and shared beliefs shape team outcomes.
This paper explores the paradoxical role of the external leaders of self-managing work teams. Observation, interviews, group elicitations, and a literature search were used to identify salient leader behaviors in a medium-sized manufacturing plant that had been operating for several years under a system of self-managing work teams. A self-management leadership questionnaire was developed to measure the 21 leader behaviors identified. Correlations with overall leadership-effectiveness ratings generally indicated that the external leaders' most important behaviors are those that facilitate the team's self-management through self-observation, self-evaluation, and self-reinforcement. The study suggests that there is a legitimate role for external leaders of self-managing work teams but that it differs from traditional and participative leadership roles.
This study examines the relationships between workplace humor, manager gender, and leadership outcomes. A sample of 321 business school alumni provided data on the use of both positive and negative humor by their managers and described their managers’ relative use of task behavior, relationship behavior, and overall effectiveness. While humor was expected to affect perceived leader behavior and effectiveness, an interaction between humor use and manager gender was hypothesized where male managers were advantaged in ratings relative to females. The results show that positive humor is associated with higher ratings of desirable leader behaviors. Negative humor use was only associated with lower task-behavior ratings. Significant interactions between gender and humor use were found on relationship behavior and effectiveness, however the direction was not as predicted. Female managers using positive humor at work were rated higher than males in leader outcomes while females using negative humor were rated lower than males in those outcomes. Positive humor use may benefit managers (especially females) by improving communication and group relations.
Humor has been suggested as an effecive management tool. Reviewed in this paper is the existing research on humor appreciation or what is funny to whom; the influence of humor on group characteristics such as cohesiveness, communications, power, and status; and the linkage, if any, between group dynamic variables and human performance. A list of guidelines for management in matching humor with the situation is given, and some priorities are suggested for research.
Small-Company Executives Tell How Team Development Improves Productivity and Profits.
Variations in attention during intentional or incidental learning were investigated. Materials for intentional learning were presented to 165 college students in conjunction with peripheral cues of humorous and non-humorous materials presented for incidental learning. An hypothesized funneling effect, an attentional shift during learning to the incidental materials, was not found for humorous or non-humorous materials and intentional recall of materials. Subjects with high self-reported sense of humor attended significantly more than subjects with a low sense of humor to incidental humorous materials. Further, subjects with high sense of humor showed significantly greater recall of incidental humorous materials than subjects with low sense of humor. A one-item self-report scale of sense of humor provided behavioral discrimination. The complexity of intentional and incidental learning and the effects of sense of humor on attention to intentional and incidental materials were discussed.
This study investigated the effects of homogeneous composition and orientation upon the development of cohesion in growth groups. Eight groups, each composed of seven members, were homogeneously composed on the basis of inclusion need using Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior. Members were graduate students enrolled in a group procedures course in counseling psychology. Two high-inclusion, two high-moderate, two low-moderate, and two low-inclusion groups were formed. One group from each of these levels was then randomly selected to receive either a cohesion or general-orientation message. Cohesion was measured by a questionnaire developed by Yalom and was assessed at three intervals. Results indicated that the two low-moderate inclusion groups surpassed the other groups in the development of cohesion; most work toward the establishment of cohesion was completed by Session 15 or mid-way period; and the effects of orientation were negligible.
This research examines gender differences in personal characteristics, work experiences, work attitudes, and professional commitment for a group of young (age < 45) dentists. While males and females had similar work attitudes, they differed in work experience -males worked more hours, saw more patients, and earned higher incomes. Males had higher scores on affective and behavioral professional commitment measures than did females, but the gender difference was significant only for behavioral commitment. For both females and males, affective professional commitment was related positively to job satisfaction, office cohesion, having young children, and negatively related to stress. The relationship between owning the practice and affective professional commitment was greater for men than women, whereas the relationship between the proportion of office staff who are close friends and affective professional commitment was greater for women than men. For males, behavioral commitment was related positively to being married, being a specialist, working more hours, having higher income and belonging to the professional association. For females, behavioral commitment was related positively to job involvement, office cohesion, and the number of days worked each week. Results suggest that affiliation is related more closely to professional commitment among females, while practice control and productivity are related more closely to professional commitment among males.
Three benefits of humor in the workplace are explored: its promotion of health, mental flexibility, and smooth social relations.
In this study, we examined the links between leadership style, the use of humor, and two measures of performance. Results indicated that leadership style was moderated by the use of humor in its relationship with individual and unit-level performance. Implications for further research on the use of humor by leaders are discussed.
This study began with the premise that people can use varying degrees of their selves. physically. cognitively. and emotionally. in work role performances. which has implications for both their work and experi ences. Two qualitative. theory-generating studies of summer camp counselors and members of an architecture firm were conducted to explore the conditions at work in which people personally engage. or express and employ their personal selves. and disengage. or withdraw and defend their personal selves. This article describes and illustrates three psychological conditions-meaningfulness. safety. and availabil ity-and their individual and contextual sources. These psychological conditions are linked to existing theoretical concepts. and directions for future research are described. People occupy roles at work; they are the occupants of the houses that roles provide. These events are relatively well understood; researchers have focused on "role sending" and "receiving" (Katz & Kahn. 1978). role sets (Merton. 1957). role taking and socialization (Van Maanen. 1976), and on how people and their roles shape each other (Graen. 1976). Researchers have given less attention to how people occupy roles to varying degrees-to how fully they are psychologically present during particular moments of role performances. People can use varying degrees of their selves. physically, cognitively, and emotionally. in the roles they perform. even as they main tain the integrity of the boundaries between who they are and the roles they occupy. Presumably, the more people draw on their selves to perform their roles within those boundaries. the more stirring are their performances and the more content they are with the fit of the costumes they don. The research reported here was designed to generate a theoretical frame work within which to understand these "self-in-role" processes and to sug gest directions for future research. My specific concern was the moments in which people bring themselves into or remove themselves from particular task behaviors, My guiding assumption was that people are constantly bring ing in and leaving out various depths of their selves during the course of The guidance and support of David Berg, Richard Hackman, and Seymour Sarason in the research described here are gratefully acknowledged. I also greatly appreciated the personal engagements of this journal's two anonymous reviewers in their roles, as well as the comments on an earlier draft of Tim Hall, Kathy Kram, and Vicky Parker.
Humor is a common element of human interaction and therefore has an impact on work groups and organizations. Despite this observation, managers often fail to take humor seriously or realize its numerous benefits. Humor is more than just funny concepts; it represents a multifunctional management tool that can be used to achieve many objectives. This article describes how managers can use humor to reduce stress and enhance leadership, group cohesiveness, communication, creativity, and organizational culture. Specifically, we suggest humor styles that are best suited to realize these outcomes. Additionally, the effect of humor on organizational outcomes is moderated by individual differences such as ethnicity and gender. Much like selecting the proper tool from a tootkit, managers can select the appropriate humor style suitable for the desired organizational outcome, adjust for individual differences, and achieve positive organizational outcomes.
Humor has been suggested as an effecive management tool. Reviewed in this paper is the existing research on humor appreciation or what is funny to whom; the influence of humor on group characteristics such as cohesiveness, communications, power, and status; and the linkage, if any, between group dynamic variables and human performance. A list of guidelines for management in matching humor with the situation is given, and some priorities are suggested for research.
The universal popularity of ethnic jokes and in particular those about supposedly 'stupid' or 'crafty' ethnic minorities is to be explained in terms of the general characteristics of industrial societies rather than the particular circumstances of each separate society. The ethnic jokes of western industrial societies in both peacetime and wartime reflect the competing moral values, uncertain social boundaries and impersonal power structures of these societies. The corresponding eastern European jokes are in some respects similar but as one might expect highly politicized and reflect the deeper social and political divisions that characterize the socialist industrial countries. Ethnic jokes delineate the social, geographical and moral boundaries of a nation or ethnic group. By making fun of peripheral and ambiguous groups they reduce ambiguity and clarify boundaries or at least make ambiguity appear less threatening. Ethnic jokes occur in opposed pairs such as those mocking 'stupid' and 'crafty', or 'cowardly' and 'militaristic' groups respectively and express the problems and anxieties caused by the conflicting norms and values inevitably found in large societies dominated by anomic impersonal institutions such as the market place and bureaucracy.
Many have acknowledged the favorable, even therapeutic, effects of humor. However, few have attempted to relate humor to the functions of management and leadership. Research on this topic could possibly convert an undeveloped resource into a tool that could enhance our ability to get things done.
A series of studies has shown that humor and intimacy are closely related. Since trust is an essential part of intimacy, it was hypothesized that there would be a close correlation between humor and trust. The Trust versus Mistrust Scale of the Measures of Psychosocial Development, Coping Humor Scale, Multi-dimensional Sense of Humor Scale, and Situational Humor Response Questionnaire were given to 89 subjects. There were significant correlations between the Trust versus Mistrust Scale and each of the humor scales. The positive relationship between trust and humor was explained in terms of such mediating variables as extroversion, stress reduction, and self-esteem. It was suggested that future studies should investigate the relationship between humor and other variables associated with intimacy and trust, such as self-disclosure.
The proposed theory states that affect influences cognition by determining the amount of effort that is expended in information processing. It was predicted that negative affect leads to low-effort attributional processing and that positive affect leads to high-effort attributional processing. Correspondent dispositional attributions were considered low-effort attributions, and other attributions were considered high-effort attributions. In Studies 1 and 2, negative, neutral, and positive affect were induced by asking subjects to describe either negative, neutral, or positive events, respectively. Subjects then made attributions for others' positive and negative behaviors. In Studies 1 and 2, subjects in the negative affect condition generated more correspondent dispositional attributions than subjects in the positive or neutral affect conditions for both positive and negative behaviors. These results were replicated in Study 3, in which subjects were assigned to affect condition (negative versus neutral) on the basis of their levels of chronic depression. Correlational analyses revealed that, across studies, increased negative affect in the negative affect conditions was associated with more low-effort attributional processing. Implications of the effort hypothesis for other areas of social cognition are discussed.
This investigation sought to understand the impact of sense of humor on relationship development. High and low sense of humor subjects were paired with moderate sense of humor partners and were instructed to interact for 30 minutes. A post‐interaction questionnaire tapped attributional confidence and the desire to interact in the future. Results indicated that a high, rather than a low, sense of humor facilitated the reduction of uncertainty and also served to reduce social distance between interactants. These findings provide support for the facilitative nature of humor in the development of interpersonal relations. Indeed, sense of humor is an engaging personality trait that has direct implications for social relationships.
Charisma is commonly thought of as an extraordinary personal characteristic. In contrast, this paper proposes that charisma is a product of emotional interaction between charismatic leaders and their followers. More specifically, charisma is argued to spring from charismatic leaders' use of emotion rules to redefine both objective and subjective aspects of their followers' realities. Through modeling emotion charismatics first gain legitimacy; then they propose changes in the social order and redefine the emotions necessary for such changes to occur. An analytical model of the emergence of charisma based on the evoking, revoking, and refraining of emotion rules is developed. To tentatively illustrate its utility the model is applied to speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. The implications of this analysis of emotional interaction for the study of social change are discussed.
This paper is an exploratory study examining humor differences among four regions of the United States and the managerial implications of such differences. The results indicate significant differences between the regions regarding affiliative and self-defeating humor, the creation and performance of humor, the use of humor in coping and in social situations, and attitudes toward humor. Managerial implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
We examined the relationship between leader effectiveness mid humor in two cadet samples at the United States Military Academy. In both groups, subordinates were asked to recall particularly good or bad leaders and then rate them on leadership and humor. In study 1, using Craik, Lampert, and Nelson's (1996) measure of styles of humorous conduct, warm humorous conduct was higher in good leaders than in bad leaders, even after controlling statistically for rated leadership. In study 2, participants rated other attributes such as physical ability, intelligence, and consideration, as well as humor and leadership. Again, we found that good leaders were rated higher in humor, even after controlling statistically for other attributes. Organisational culture, in the military and elsewhere, supports the use of humor by leaders in appropriate ways. Although a study that included average leaders, instead of very good or bad leaders, might not show such strong effects, further research into the context for appropriate use of humor by leaders is certainly indicated.
The relationship between people and the organizations they work for is changing. Corporations no longer can offer the job security and career paths they used to. A new relationship needs to be developed that rewards performance and skills in ways that contribute to organizational effectiveness.
Work is one important source of an individual's social identity, and workplace interaction is a crucial means of instantiating that identity. As one component of workplace discourse, humour can provide insights into the distinctive culture which develops in different workplaces. Using a community of practice framework, this paper explores the potential of humour analysis for identifying characteristics of workplace sub-cultures which develop within different organisations. In particular, patterns of variation in the frequency, type and style of humour used in meetings in four different organisations is examined. The dataset is taken from the larger corpus of the Victoria University of Wellington Language in the Workplace Project.
Humour has a positive effect on individuals and teams at work. Based on the humour literature reviewed, specific humour styles were predicted to have a positive effect on work effort and mental state. An empirical study was conducted to examine these relationships. Self-enhancing and team humour contributed to reported positive mental state. Team humour and positive mental state was associated with higher reported individual work effort. Furthermore, individuals who use affiliative humour contributed to the creation of team humour. Reported differences in humour styles based on gender, age, and ethnicity were also found. Some pragmatic managerial implications and ideas for future research are suggested.
Humor, a communicative tactic used to engender support, is often employed, but rarely understood. Literature in the field of humor has attempted to define situations where humor could be beneficial. Even today few definitive answers exist relating humor to effective leadership communicative behavior. Thus, the purpose of this research is to present current research findings about the symbolic nature of leadership as enacted through humor.
Initially, this research details the important symbolic realm within which leaders work. Next, some of the relevant literature dealing with humor is discussed. Specifically, humor is defined and the purposes of humor are elaborated. This research also reviews contemporary leadership literature dealing with humor. Finally, this research evaluates the appropriateness of each form of humor and specific guidelines for effective humor are discussed.
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