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Humor and its implications for leadership effectiveness
Abstract
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.
... In modern organizations where formal hierarchy and its rigidity often bound and restrict people's interactions with one another, humor and laughter provide an instant and easy way to set oneself free from the imaginary barrier that prevents individuals to communicate effectively (Malone, 1980). Scholars, especially since the 1980s, have tried to garner better understandings on the nature and the impact of humor in the workplace and have associated humor to be a very practical and valuable managerial tool to facilitate topdown influences (e.g., Decker & Rotondo, 2001;Priest & Swain, 2002;Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). Among these scholars, many have associated humor to be an important leader trait due to its positive association with leadership effectiveness (e.g., Avolio, Howell, & Sosik, 1999;Bass, 1990;Clouse & Spurgeon, 1995). ...
... A sense of humor is a personality trait that is frequently associated with leadership effectiveness (Bass, 1990;Priest & Swain, 2002). Previous research has identified leader humor to be positively correlated with transformational leadership. ...
... For instance, Avolio et al. (1999) found a significant positive relationship between leader humor and followers' perceptions of leader's transformational leadership behaviors. Priest and Swain (2002) discovered that humor is associated more with a transformational leader than with a less transformational leader. Similarly, Hughes and Avey (2009) also reported a positive association between leader's use of humor and followers' perceptions of leader's transformational leadership behaviors. ...
In this article, drawing on leader categorization theory, we examined the influencing processes of team leaders’ humor on their teams’ performance. Using a time-lagged study, including 244 leaders and 815 followers in a manufacturing firm in Northern China, we found that leaders’ humor is positively related to subordinates’ perceptions of transformational leadership, which in turn, has a positive effect on the team’s performance. In addition, we found that the relationship conflict between a team leader and his or her team members moderates the positive, indirect effect of leader humor on team performance through subordinates’ transformational leadership perceptions. When the relationship conflict between the leader and his or her team members is high, leader’s humor becomes more relevant to subordinates’ perceptions of leader’s transformational leadership, and therefore exerts a stronger positive influence on team performance. The model developed in this study furthered the current understandings on leader humor and its usefulness in practical settings.
... In modern organizations where formal hierarchy and its rigidity often bound and restrict people's interactions with one another, humor and laughter provide an instant and easy way to set oneself free from the imaginary barrier that prevents individuals to communicate effectively (Malone, 1980). Scholars, especially since the 1980s, have tried to garner better understandings on the nature and the impact of humor in the workplace and have associated humor to be a very practical and valuable managerial tool to facilitate topdown influences (e.g., Decker & Rotondo, 2001;Priest & Swain, 2002;Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). Among these scholars, many have associated humor to be an important leader trait due to its positive association with leadership effectiveness (e.g., Avolio, Howell, & Sosik, 1999;Bass, 1990;Clouse & Spurgeon, 1995). ...
... A sense of humor is a personality trait that is frequently associated with leadership effectiveness (Bass, 1990;Priest & Swain, 2002). Previous research has identified leader humor to be positively correlated with transformational leadership. ...
... For instance, Avolio et al. (1999) found a significant positive relationship between leader humor and followers' perceptions of leader's transformational leadership behaviors. Priest and Swain (2002) discovered that humor is associated more with a transformational leader than with a less transformational leader. Similarly, Hughes and Avey (2009) also reported a positive association between leader's use of humor and followers' perceptions of leader's transformational leadership behaviors. ...
In this article, drawing on leader categorization theory, we examined the influencing processes of team leaders’ humor on their teams’ performance. Using a time-lagged study, including 244 leaders and 815 followers in a manufacturing firm in Northern China, we found that leaders’ humor is positively related to subordinates’ perceptions of transformational leadership, which in turn, has a positive effect on the team’s performance. In addition, we found that the relationship conflict between a team leader and his or her team members moderates the positive, indirect effect of leader humor on
team performance through subordinates’ transformational leadership perceptions. When the relationship conflict between the leader and his or her team members is high, leader’s humor becomes more relevant to subordinates’ perceptions of leader’s transformational leadership, and therefore exerts a stronger positive influence on team performance. The model developed in this study furthered the current understandings on leader humor and its usefulness in practical settings.
... Humor has also been associated with reduced absenteeism, job satisfaction (Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2012), higher organizational commitment, and lower turnover intentions (Brief & Weiss, 2002). Further, in a study conducted by Priest and Swain (2002), employees were asked to recall good or bad leaders and rate their use of humor. They found that good leaders were reported to use significantly more humor. ...
... Team leaders are positioned well to have a disproportionately powerful impact on employees' behavior through humor efforts, partly stemming from their own sense of humor (Priest & Swain, 2002). Leaders who are seen as effectively using humor may be more persuasive than their less-humorous counterparts, as humor creates positive affect (Kuiper, McKenzie, & Belanger, 1995), increases liking for the source (Morkes, Kernal, & Nass, 1999), suggests a shared set of personal values (Meyer, 1997), and increases trust in the source (Hampes, 1999). ...
Humor is an inherently social phenomenon. In the workplace, humor manifests most prominently in teams of employees that work together (e.g. Lefcourt, 2001). Humor in workgroups and teams can be a powerful positive resource and has been linked to a number of positive outcomes. In organizations, humor has the potential to enhance group cohesiveness (Duncan, 1982), improve employee morale (Gruner, 1997), stimulate individual and group creativity (Murdock & Ganim, 1993), create a more positive organizational culture (Clouse & Spurgeon, 1995), and to promote motivation (Crawford, 1994) and productivity (Clouse & Spurgeon, 1995). Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to review how humor in teams might play a key role in driving these workplace outcomes. By discussing what is known about humor in teams, the chapter concludes with ideas for future inquiry in the area of humor in teams, particularly in terms of interaction processes and workplace fun.
... The influence of humorous leader on leadership mainly includes leadership effectiveness, leader-subordinate exchange relationship and leadership style. Priest and Swain (2002) explored the relationship between humorous leader and leadership effectiveness, suggesting that good leaders tend to exhibit more humorous behaviors, and that leaders who use humorous behaviors tend to be perceived as having higher leadership effectiveness [18]. Hoption et al. (2013) explored the relationship between the humorous style of leadership and transformational leadership, and used personalized care as one of the indicators of transformational leadership. ...
... The influence of humorous leader on leadership mainly includes leadership effectiveness, leader-subordinate exchange relationship and leadership style. Priest and Swain (2002) explored the relationship between humorous leader and leadership effectiveness, suggesting that good leaders tend to exhibit more humorous behaviors, and that leaders who use humorous behaviors tend to be perceived as having higher leadership effectiveness [18]. Hoption et al. (2013) explored the relationship between the humorous style of leadership and transformational leadership, and used personalized care as one of the indicators of transformational leadership. ...
... Employees whose supervisors had a high sense of humor also reported greater job satisfaction (Decker, 1987). Similarly, Priest and Swain (2002) found that military cadets rated particularly good leaders as having a significantly warmer, competent, and positive style of humor, whereas poor leaders were rated as having a colder, inept, and mean-spirited humorous style. Decker and Rotondo (2001) reported that managers' use of positive humor was associated with more successful task and relationship behaviours and with greater overall effectiveness whereas use of negative humor was related to lower ratings on these measures of managerial competence. ...
... This may be the reason why there is relationship between humor and psychological climate in men; men's level of aggressive humor is significantly higher, which is in accord with the results of other investigators (for example, Martin et al., 2003;McGhee, 1979;Pollio and Edgerly, 1976). It follows that humor is an auxiliary means for men to be more authoritative and charismatic, which is supported by the results of leadership research (for example, Priest and Swain, 2002) that found that leaders endowed with a sense of humor are perceived as more effective. ...
... Based on these findings, scholars have been asking for more evidence regarding the use of humor in management and leadership (Wisse and Rietzschel, 2014). A few researchers have already related positive forms of humor to followers' perceptions of leader effectiveness (Crawford, 1994;Decker and Rotondo, 2001;Holmes and Marra, 2006;Priest and Swain, 2002;Rizzo et al., 1999). Yet, these studies have been either theoretical or general in nature. ...
... Leaders' SD humor and perceived leader effectiveness A number of researchers have shown that leaders' humor increases the likelihood that their followers consider them effective (Crawford, 1994;Decker and Rotondo, 2001;Holmes and Marra, 2006;Priest and Swain, 2002;Rizzo et al., 1999) as followers tend to draw inferences about what dictates leader's attitudes and behavior (Dirks and Ferrin, 2002). In this vein, leader SD humor may also evoke a similar influence on followers' perceptions about leader effectiveness. ...
Purpose
Recent years have seen an increasing interest in leader’s use of humor among organizational scholars. In this regard, leader positive humor has been shown to be related to leader effectiveness. However, to date there is limited theoretical and empirical attention regarding the relationship between self-deprecating humor in particular and leadership effectiveness. As such, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of leader’s self-deprecating humor on follower’s perceptions of leader effectiveness. In doing so, the authors also encompassed trust in leader as a mediator.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from three different samples. The authors examined the hypotheses using hierarchical regression, bootstrapping analysis and Sobel test.
Findings
Results produced consistent evidence that the use of self-deprecating humor by the leader positively affects his/her perceived effectiveness and that this relationship is partially mediated by trust in leader.
Research limitations/implications
A main limitation of the present research relates to its cross-sectional design that cannot infer causality. In addition, data were gathered from a single source. As such, this may raise the possibility of common method bias.
Originality/value
The present paper contributes to the limited theoretical and empirical organizational research regarding the role of leader self-deprecating humor. More specifically, this is the first study, to the best of authors’ knowledge that links this type of humor to his/her effectiveness.
... In the West, individuals who have a sense of humor are positively perceived as being more extroverted, which is a socially desirable trait. By contrast, those who lack a sense of humor tend to be negatively perceived (Cann & Calhoun, 2001;Priest & Swain, 2002). Moreover, subordinates tend to view humorous supervisors as motivating, confident, friendly, intelligent, and pleasant leaders (Priest & Swain, 2002). ...
... By contrast, those who lack a sense of humor tend to be negatively perceived (Cann & Calhoun, 2001;Priest & Swain, 2002). Moreover, subordinates tend to view humorous supervisors as motivating, confident, friendly, intelligent, and pleasant leaders (Priest & Swain, 2002). Westerners tend to regard the use of humor as a common social tactic and evidence of a positive disposition, whereas the Chinese tend to regard the use of humor as a special behavior particular to humorists (Yue, Jiang, Lu, & Hiranandani, 2016). ...
Humor has been positively perceived in general. However, research has shown that a leader should adopt humor with care and only after considering the relevant context, such as cultural differences. This study was undertaken to gain insight into how leader humor is perceived in the predominantly Confucian culture of Taiwan, through a series of in-depth interviews with individuals from throughout the hierarchies of various organizations. Overall, our participants expressed conflicting attitudes toward leader humor in the workplace, depending on the place and time of their leader humor experience. Specifically, leader humor was deemed more effective in informal domains and when a good leader–follower relationship exists. The findings echo the implicit theory of leadership and highlight the need to consider the context when exercising leader humor in Confucian cultures. Implications and future study directions are discussed.
... During the past two decades, there has been a burgeoning literature that specifically documents various benefits of leader humor in organizational settings (Cooper, 2005(Cooper, , 2008Cooper & Sosik, 2012;Robert & Wilbanks, 2012), including but not limited to followers' job performance (Arendt, 2009), trust in leader (Hughes & Avey, 2009), job satisfaction (Hurren, 2006;Vecchio, Justin, & Pearce, 2009), psychological empowerment (Gkorezis, Hatzithomas, & Petridou, 2011), affective (organizational) commitment (Hughes & Avey, 2009), as well as appraisals of leadership or business unit effectiveness (Avolio et al., 1999;Cooper, 2002;Decker & Rotondo, 2001;Priest & Swain, 2002). Leader humor engenders such benefits because it is a relational currency (i.e., expression of care and affection) that is valued by followers. ...
... "a mean-spirited use of humor"; p. 283). Craik et al.'s (1996) conceptualization of humor styles was adopted by Priest and Swain (2002) who found that warm and benign humor styles were particularly important to leadership effectiveness. R. A. Martin et al. (2003) developed the Humor Styles Questionnaire to measure the four humor styles: affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating (see Table 2 for sample items). ...
During the past two decades, the burgeoning literature on leader humor has documented various ways that humor enables leadership effectiveness. Yet there are problems of construct clarity and measurement associated with leader humor, as well as unanswered questions related to the theoretical frameworks and predictive value of leader humor. We provide a systematic review on leader humor, in which we address the issues of constructs—trait humor versus (behavioral) humor expression—and associated measures, discuss the main and emerging theoretical frameworks, assess the empirical literature via a meta-analysis and path analyses, and offer directions for future research. Our review not only offers theoretical insights for this research area, but also presents empirical gaps and opportunities through a quantitative summary.
... Beyond romantic affiliations, Westerners have positive perceptions about humorous individuals. For example, a study in organizational contexts revealed that subordinates view humorous supervisors as more motivating, confident, friendly, intelligent, and pleasant leaders (Decker, 1987;Priest and Swain, 2002). Similarly, in competitive sports contexts, players wanted to play for a humorous coach and perceived the coach as competent (Grisaffe et al., 2003). ...
... Similarly, in competitive sports contexts, players wanted to play for a humorous coach and perceived the coach as competent (Grisaffe et al., 2003). In short, in Western society, people who have a sense of humor are positively perceived as more extroverted and socially desirable; in contrast, those who lack a sense of humor draw negative perceptions (Allport, 1961;Cann and Calhoun, 2001;Priest and Swain, 2002). ...
Humor seems to manifest differently in Western and Eastern cultures, although little is known about how culture shapes humor perceptions. The authors suggest that Westerners regard humor as a common and positive disposition; the Chinese regard humor as a special disposition particular to humorists, with controversial aspects. In Study 1, Hong Kong participants primed with Western culture evaluate humor more positively than they do when primed with Chinese culture. In Study 2a, Canadians evaluate humor as being more important in comparison with Chinese participants. In Study 2b, Canadians expect ordinary people to possess humor, while Chinese expect specialized comedians to be humorous. The implications and limitations are discussed.
... Because the military is s highly authoritarian setting placing importance on a hierarchy, aggressive humor is often taken for granted as a prototypical leader humor style by followers [79]. Hence, in the military setting, leaders who use positive humor at work are benefitted by being rated as more competent leaders by their followers because they are perceived as being more openminded compared to others [80]. Hence, unlike affiliative humor, it seems that the leaders' aggressive humor has a direct effect on the followers' change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors, not an indirect effect via team commitment. ...
... Because the military is s highly authoritarian setting placing importance on a hierarchy, aggressive humor is often taken for granted as a prototypical leader humor style by followers [79]. Hence, in the military setting, leaders who use positive humor at work are benefitted by being rated as more competent leaders by their followers because they are perceived as being more open-minded compared to others [80]. Hence, unlike affiliative humor, it seems that the leaders' aggressive humor has a direct effect on the followers' change-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors, not an indirect effect via team commitment. ...
The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanisms by which leader humor affects followers’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, we examine the mediation effect of team commitment in the leader humor–change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior link and whether it varied by leader Machiavellianism. Using multi-sourced data from the four battalions of the Republic of Korean Army, our findings show that team commitment mediated the positive relationship between leaders’ affiliative humor and followers’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the mediated relationship was stronger when leader Machiavellianism was lower. On the other hand, we found no support for the negative relationship between leaders’ aggressive humor and followers’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... Also, Ben-Ari and Sion argue that humour and expressive behaviour simply allow troops a release from the boredom and tediousness that mark their daily lives. In addition to this, Priest and Swain (2006) found that new cadets at the United States Military Academy who use humour as a coping strategy during stressful new cadet training were more likely not to quit. ...
The main objective of the study presented in this article was to investigate how the total institution characteristics of the military, in particular the breakdown of barriers between work, leisure and privacy, affect the social interaction between male and female soldiers, notably when it comes to joking and humour. In order to get access to the informal side of the soldiers' life, a 24-year-old researcher was embedded for 18 days with a unit who lived together in gender-mixed rooms in Army barracks in a rural and isolated place in northern Norway (Setermoen). The fieldwork and subsequent analysis revealed that humour plays a major role in the soldiers' everyday life and relations to one another. This article illustrates how the soldiers use it to cope with the deprivation of privacy, to negotiate their relations (especially to the opposite sex) and to handle their lower position in the institutional hierarchy. It argues that the total institution “forced” the soldiers to engage in joking relationships, which functioned as a way to “save face” in potentially embarrassing situations, express disagreement and conflict in a non-threatening way, maintain a feeling of autonomy and reduce the social distance from non-commissioned officers without challenging the formal hierarchy. However, because such relationships are characterized by playful hostility and insult, they are potentially risky and problematic, because one navigates in a landscape without any clear lines between what is funny and what is offensive. Accordingly, the divide between banter and harassment becomes blurred.
... Mizah ve liderlik davranışı arasındaki ilişkiler üzerine yapılan araştırmalar, pozitif ve negatif mizahın (kendine ve başkalarına yöneltilen) örgütsel davranış üzerinde farklı etkilere sahip olduğu argümanını desteklemektedir. Pozitif mizah kullanımı ya da benzer şekilde 'sıcak mizahi davranış' (Priest ve Swain, 2002) ve mizahın "hedonik tonusu" ( Cooper, 2003), liderlerin davranış ve etkinliği astlar tarafından liderin değerlendirilmesi ve lider-çalışan ilişkileri ile ilgilidir. Pozitif (fonksiyonel) mizahın, astların lider etkinliğinin (Priest ve Swain) ve lider-üye etkileşim kalitesinin değerlendirmesi ile pozitif yönde ilişkili olduğu bulunmuştur ( Cooper, 2003). ...
... For example, humor is regarded as a desirable positive trait of an individual (Allport, 1937;Maslow, 1968;Mintz, 1983;Mindess et al., 1985). Humorous people are thought to be more attractive (e.g., Regan and Joshi, 2003;Fraley and Aron, 2004) and more motivating, creative, and capable (e.g., Sternberg, 1985;Priest and Swain, 2002). Humor also takes on meaning as an essential element of psychological health associated with self-awareness, welladjustment, and affability (Allport, 1961;Martin and Ford, 2018). ...
Humor is a universal phenomenon but is also culturally tinted. In this article, we reviewed the existing research that investigates how culture impacts individuals’ humor perception and usage as well as humor’s implications for psychological well-being. Previous research has substantiated evidence that Easterners do not hold as positive an attitude toward humor as their Western counterparts do. This perception makes Easterners less likely to use humor as a coping strategy in comparison with Westerners. Despite this difference, Westerners and Easterners have similar patterns in the relationship between their humor and psychological well-being index, though the strength of the relationship varies across cultures. Implications and potential future research avenues discussed.
... It has also been shown "to play an important role in facilitating communication and improving the climate in organizations" (Decker and Rotondo 2001, p. 459). A growing interest in humor has especially developed in the field of transformation leadership as researchers discover its influence in affecting change behaviors (Avolio, et al. 1999;Shamir 1995) and overall leadership effectiveness Decker and Rotondo 2001;Hughes and Avey 2008;Priest and Swain 2002). ...
This study demonstrates how digital content, engagement strategies and influence tactics inspire social media communities to embrace B2B marketers seeking their advocacy. Using grounded theory in the context of transformational and charismatic leadership, a model is proposed for examining a marketer’s capacity to inspire. Along with its proposed antecedents and outcomes, inspirational motivation was tested on a dyad of 171 influencer/content evaluators. Results confirmed that inspirational motivation drives social media influence. Inspirational motivation, in turn, is directly influenced by humor, visionary insights and engagement. Results also showed support for the mediating influence humor has on visual storytelling and inspirational motivation.
... In addition, in studies of teachers and leaders, humour has been associated with positive outcomes such as leader effectiveness, improved learning and performance. 30,[35][36][37][38] Coaches' use of humour may contribute to create a positive team atmosphere and promote bonding between team members and thereby reduces players' uncertainty. Hogg et al. 28 argues that the uncertainty reduction is a mechanism that positively influences team identity. ...
The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the relationship between coaches' communication patterns (feedback and use of humour) and team identity in youth soccer. A cross-sectional design was used and participants were 532 soccer players, aged from 13 to 20 years, taking part in a youth soccer tournament, the Sør Cup. Structural Equation Modelling based multiple regression analysis was conducted, and the findings revealed that positive/instructive feedback and coaches' use of humour were positive significant predictors of team identity. Contrary to our expectations, negative/punishment feedback was not significantly related to team identity. The findings are discussed within a social identity framework. It is concluded that positive/instructive feedback and the use of humour are elements that coaches may use to develop the team identity. However, future work is needed to further validate the scales used in this study, and to examine how the use of humour may influence the athlete and the team.
... In the workplace, the impact of humor is also reflected on the assessment of leadership. Priest and Swain (2002) showed that there was high correlation between leaders' kindness humor with leadership effectiveness. Meanwhile, due that women began to enter into the workplace, the role of gender on organizational behavior researches had been more and more. ...
Along with
the development of researches on Organizational Behavior, more and more scholars
pay attention to the organization humor. This article firstly reviews the concept
and measurement of organization humor, and then mentions some relevant researches.
In the fourth part, this article lists some further advice which may be studied
in the future.
... One may also turn around this thinking and examine whether "good" and "bad" leaders are associated differently with humor. This is exactly what Priest and Swain (2002) did. They conducted two studies in the military and asked their participants to think of a "good" or a "bad" leader. ...
A leader may use humor for a variety of relational goals in a hierarchical relationship. Humor can be used to create cohesion and strengthen solidarity with subordinates, but also to create divisions between them and increase a leader’s status. The duality of humor functions becomes especially apparent in the context of leader-subordinate relationships. In this chapter, we will describe how perceptions of leader humor and leader effectiveness go hand in hand, partly due to implicit personality theories. We will show that the effects of leader humor are stronger in some tasks and for some persons than others, and that the effects of general leader behaviors such as transactional and transformational leadership in part depend on leader humor use. We will explain various response strategies that enable listeners to acknowledge humor and power differences simultaneously. Finally, we will close by pointing out differences in humor use between female and male leaders.
... This kind of trust and centripetal force may drive members to follow the leader to grow and progress, and improve job performance (including enhancing employee creativity) (Lee 2015;Mesmer-Megnus et al. 2012;Lyttle 2007). However, many previous studies have supported that leader humor is positively related to employee creativity (Avolio et al. 1999;Vecchioi et al. 2009;Priest and Swain 2002;Collinson 2004). A few empirical studies have investigated the impact of leader SD humor. ...
Recently, several organizations and human resource managers focused on the positive relationship between leader humor and employee creativity. Based on the superiority theory and social interaction perspective, the study examines the relationship between leader self-deprecating humor and employee creativity, and investigates the moderating effects of team harmony and organizational pride. The results using three-wave and 320 valid leader–employee dyads (115 team leaders and 320 employees) from 13 companies in Taiwan show that: (1) leader self-deprecating humor positively affects leader identification; (2) leader identification positively affects employee creativity; (3) leader identification mediates the relationship between leader self-deprecating humor and employee creativity; (4) team harmony moderates the relationship between leader self-deprecating humor and leader identification; and (5) organizational pride moderates the relationship between leader identification and employee creativity. Implications for behavioral researchers and human resource managers are discussed.
... In addition, several studies have associated supervisor positive humor with employees' perceptions of managerial effectiveness (Decker and Rotondo, 2001;Rizzo et al., 1999). In a related vein, Priest and Swain (2002) indicated that good leaders received higher evaluations from their subordinates in regard to their sense of humor compared to the bad leaders. Similarly, Shamir (1995) revealed that close leaders were described as having high levels of humor. ...
Purpose
– Substantial research has examined the pivotal role of supervisor positive humor in generating employee outcomes. To date, though, little is known about the relationship between supervisor humor and newcomers’ adjustment. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this gap by examining the effect of supervisor positive humor on newcomers’ adjustment. In doing so, the authors highlighted relational identification with the supervisor as a mediating mechanism that explains the aforementioned association.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data were drawn from 117 newcomers. In order to collect the data the authors used the snowball method. Also, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted.
Findings
– The results demonstrated that supervisor positive humor affects employees’ relational identification with the supervisor which, in turn, positively relates to newcomers’ adjustment.
Research limitations/implications
– Data were collected using a cross-sectional design and, therefore, the authors cannot directly assess causality. Moreover, the authors used self-report measures which may strengthen the causal relationships.
Originality/value
– To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study that illustrates the role of supervisor humor in enhancing both newcomers’ relational identification and adjustment.
... Humor is considered a positive and desired personality characteristic across many cultures (Martin, Kuiper, Olinger, & Dance, 1993). Studies have shown a strong correlation between recognizing another's sense of humor and having a stronger appreciation for them, including seeing them as more pleasant, intelligent, confident, and even as better leaders (Decker, 1987;Priest & Swain, 2002). It can therefore be assumed that when an individual appreciates a post that includes humor, it is connected with the way they want to present themselves. ...
While the centrality of Facebook as a political arena has been widely acknowledged, only scant attention has been given to what makes some political posts more successful than others. Addressing this gap, we analyzed a corpus of political posts written by diverse political actors in Israel. We explored, in particular, two main groups of factors that have been associated with major attributes of Facebook usage: content engagement and self-presentation. The analysis yielded a model of six features that promote the success of a political post: implied emotions, humor, first person, self-exposure, personal stance, and anger-evoking cues. We also identified differences in successful posts written by right-wing and left-wing actors; while humor was found to be a significant predictor of success only in left-wing posts, references to an out-group are associated with success only in right-wing ones. Overall, the findings showed that attributes of self-presentation are strongly linked to the success of political posts.
... Although a considerable amount of increase has occurred in the number of studies on humor in recent years, the number of studies on the relationship between leadership and humor style is scarce. According to the review of the related international literature, the concept of humor has been associated with humor in the workplace (Bradney, 1957;Caudron, 1992;Consalvo, 1989;Coser, 1959;Decker & Rotondo, 1999;Duncan, 1982Duncan, , 1984Duncan & Feisal, 1989;Duncan, Smeltzer, & Leap, 1990;Dwyer, 1991;Goodchilds, 1959;Holmes, 2007;Holmes & Marra, 2006;Murphy, 1986;Romero & Cruthirds, 2006), organizational culture (Clouse & Spurgeon, 1995;Fine & De Soucey, 2005;Gunning, 2001;Holmes & Marra, 2002;Lake, 2008;Linstead, 1985;Robert & Yan, 2005), job satisfaction and burnout (Decker, 1987;Hurren, 2001Hurren, , 2006Mertz, 2000;Puderbaugh, 2006;Spurgeon, 1998), emotional intelligence (Teehan, 2006;Yip & Martin, 2005), and leadership and organizational climate (Andersen, 1999;Arendt, 2006;Bateman, 2006;Benham, 1993;Bolinger, 2001;Cross, 1989;Davis & Kleiner, 1989;Decker, 1986Decker, , 1987Decker, , 1991Decker & Rotondo, 2001;Ellis, 1991;Franklin, 2008;Hoffman, 2007;Kent, 1993;Koonce, 1997;Philbrick, 1989;Phillips, 2000;Priest & Swain, 2002;Puderbaugh, 2006;Rahmani, 1994;Sala, 2000;Susa, 2002;Vecchio, Justin, & Pearce, 2009;Vickers, 2004;Vinson, 2006;Vinton, 1989;Williams, 1994;Williams & Clouse, 1991;Ziegler, 1982;Ziegler & Boardman, 1986;Ziegler, Boardman, & Thomas, 1985). Therefore, it is possible to argue that humor has been discussed in terms of various variables by many researchers, and that it has been tried to examine humor in a multifaceted manner. ...
This study aimed at examining the relationship between high school teachers' perceptions of teacher leadership and school principals' humor styles. A total of 252 teachers employed in 12 high schools located in the city centre of Ankara, Turkey participated in the study. “The Humor Behavior Scale” developed by Cemaloglu, Recepoglu, Şahin, Dasci and Kokturk (2013) and “The Teacher Leadership Scale” developed by Beycioglu and Aslan (2010) were used to gather data. Results of the study indicated that productive-social humor style was positively and significantly correlated with such dimensions of teacher leadership as institutional improvement, professional improvement, and collaboration among colleagues. Results also revealed that the productive-social humor style was a significant predictor of institutional improvement and professional improvement. Results were discussed within the context of the improvement of the leadership behaviors of teachers.
... As this study found some buffering effects of humor on burnout, we believe that practitioners might consider humor as a tool to buffer the negative consequences of job insecurity. Supervisors might facilitate the use of positive humor by eliminating job hindrances and by using positive humor styles themselves (Priest & Swain, 2002). Additionally, it is important to generate a work climate that enables, or at least allows, laughter at the workplace, thereby giving employees ways to counter stressful situations (Scheel & Gockel, 2017). ...
The present study examines an important contemporary stressor: Job insecurity, both in terms of losing one’s job as such (i.e. quantitative job insecurity) and losing one’s valued job aspects (i.e., qualitative job insecurity). Moreover, we study whether humor assists in offsetting the negative associations of these types of job insecurity with employee well-being. Specifically, by drawing up the conservation of resources theory, self-enhancing and affiliative humor are framed as personal resources buffering the detrimental relationship of both types of job insecurity with burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) and work engagement (i.e., vigor and dedication) in a large heterogeneous sample of Belgian employees ( N = 3,254). Results evidenced the detrimental main effects of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity as well as the beneficial relations of self-enhancing and affilitative humor on burnout and work engagement. In addition, the buffering role of affiliative humor was supported in the relationships of both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity with burnout. Self-enhancing humor only interacted with qualitative job insecurity in the prediction of exhaustion. The discussion centers around the importance of personal resources attenuating the negative associations of quantitative and quantitative job insecurity, and highlights the different roles of humor for employees’ work-related well-being.
... Effective managers are perceived by employees as using more humor than ineffective managers (e.g. Avolio et al., 1999;Priest and Swain, 2002;Sala, 2000). Since Malone's (1980) seminal work pointing to the potential of positive forms of humor as managerial tools, other scholars documented how humor can contribute to managerial effectiveness (Anderson, 2005;Crawford, 1994;Duncan and Feisal, 1989;Huang and Kuo, 2011;Wood et al., 2011). ...
Evidence from emerging scholarly investigations consistently points to managerial humor as fruitful new grounds to expand management knowledge and practice. In light of this, the present study examined managerial humor as an affective event at work that has short-term emotional and long-term psychological outcomes for employees. To test this empirically, we recruited a sample of 2498 Australian employees to participate in a field experience sampling study. We also considered the potential moderating effect of leader–member exchange on the humor–emotions relationship. Findings provide initial support for managerial humor as an affective event such that when employees perceived their manager’s humor as positive they reported experiencing positive emotions, and vice versa. Importantly, employees with high-quality relationships with their managers responded to their manager’s humor use with a greater number of positive emotions and fewer negative emotions than did employees with low-quality relationships with their managers. We argue that humor is an event that managers must responsibly manage in order to produce positive emotional experiences for employees and support healthy emotion regulation at work. We also discuss the conditions under which it is advisable for managers to use humor with employees, and suggest future research directions to develop this growing field of inquiry.
... Because humor is so enigmatic as a form of communication, researchers have attempted to better understand how it functions. Priest & Swain (2002), and Mesmer-Magnus, et al (2012) showed positive uses of humor in developing friendships and being playful are positively correlated to communication competence that contributes to a positive workplace, leadership effectiveness, and improve interpersonal skills. For example, humor is used to avoid difficult topics or introduce new information (Ullian, 1976). ...
... Substantial research has suggested their positive effect on organizational and employee functioning (e.g., Duncan and Feisal 1989;Lamm and Meeks 2009;Mesmer-Magnus et al. 2012;Tews et al. 2015). In this context, several scholars have examined the relationship of supervisors' humor with their effectiveness (Decker and Rotondo 2001;Priest and Swain 2002;Rizzo et al. 1999), and several subordinate outcomes such as adjustment (Gkorezis et al. 2016), feedback-seeking behavior (Karakowsky et al. 2019), psychological empowerment (Gkorezis et al. 2011), job satisfaction (Decker 1987;Mesmer-Magnus et al. 2018), intention to stay (Sobral and Islam 2015), and innovative behavior (Pundt 2015). ...
Supervisor humor has been shown to be related to various employee outcomes. In this vein, prior research has demonstrated the positive role of supervisor humor in increasing employee job performance. However, little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms that explain this relationship. Addressing this gap, the present study develops and tests a moderated mediation model by highlighting work enjoyment as a mediator and suspicion about the supervisor as a moderator. Results from a sample of 190 employees working in a large retail organization showed that work enjoyment mediates the relationship between supervisor humor and subordinates’ job performance and, further, that this indirect effect is dependent upon suspicion of the supervisor.
... It helps solidify group bonds by providing commonality amongst what would otherwise be a diverse group, and relieves tension and stress in what is often a stressful job (Dixon 1980.) Humor is also identified as a significant characteristic of effective military leadership (Priest and Swain 2002.) Internet memes are just the latest humor delivery device and have held a steady place on social media platforms for about as long as these platforms have existed. ...
Humor is a foundational element of culture and can have both positive and negative effects within a group or society. One such group with its own well-defined culture is the United States military. Sexual assault has been highlighted of late as a major challenge facing military leadership, policy makers, and military personnel themselves. This study is a content analysis that examines 35 internet memes taken from a Google search of military memes and identifies emergent themes. Four thematic units were identified within the sample. The results indicate possible focal points for the future construction of education programs geared toward military sexual assault and harassment training, as well as a jumping off point for future research concerning military workplace culture and sexual assault. Past research documents that most major branches of the US government , including major branches of the military (Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force), face sexual harassment problems amid a culture where harassment is a common occurrence (Pryor 1988; Abed 1985; Alsmeyer 1981). As Pryor (1988) writes, anecdotal accounts from women in the military suggest that sexual harassment is a common experience. Even before the issue became so widely discussed, Reily (1980) surveyed enlisted women in the Navy and reported that virtually all (90 percent) had experienced verbal harassment and that most (61 percent) had experienced physical sexual harassment at work. While harassment may differ across branches of the military, as well as between different military
... Although a number of authors have shown the positive effects of leader's humor expression on followers (Avolio et al., 1999;Hughes & Avey, 2009;Priest & Swain, 2002;Vecchio et al., 2009), they have all simply focused their enquiries on how often humor is expressed by leaders without further distinguishing the features of humor that may elicit positive outcomes. Since humor can also lead to negative effects when used improperly (Avolio et al., 1999;Malone, 1980;Romero & Cruthirds, 2006), it is important to identify when and how humor expression can lead to positive outcomes. ...
Using both experimental and field data, we examined how and what style of leader humor expression leads to positive work outcomes. We develop and test a dual process model (the affective mechanism and the cognitive mechanism) delineating the psychological process by which leader humor expressions influence follower outcomes. We test our model across two studies. Study 1 demonstrates in an experiment that the perceived funniness of leader humor causes followers to report greater positive affect as well as positive evaluation of the leader. Extending these findings into organizational field context, Study 2 surveys a sample of 211 employees and 47 managers and finds that employees’ positive affect at work and their positive evaluation of their manager mediated the relationship between perceived funniness of manager’s humor and employee performance. However, the mediation path of positive evaluation is negatively moderated by manager’s humor style such that when the manager has a self-deprecating humor style, the positive effect of perceived humor funniness will decrease. We also contribute to the leadership, affect and humor literature by suggesting the need to view leader humor expression as a perception by the recipient rather than intention of the sender, proposing two features of leader humor expression (perceived humor funniness and humor style) that have been neglected by past research.
... In organizations, individuals who occupy the role of leader are expected to influence and persuade followers towards the goals of organizations. Effective leaders have been shown to use more humor than ineffective leaders (Aviolo, Howell, & Sosik, 1999;Holmes & Wood et al. 323 Marra, 2006;Priest & Swain, 2002;Sala, 2000); however, as has been stressed earlier, the effects of humor depend upon the message. Negative humor directed at others (Type 4) is associated with less effective leadership, as indexed by lower ratings on leadership behaviors, including task and relationship behaviors (Decker & Rotondo, 2001). ...
... While most prior research into humour (Cooper, 2005(Cooper, , 2008Robert & Wilbanks, 2012;Wood et al., 2011) and leadership in extreme contexts has been conceptual (Hannah et al., 2009;Klein et al., 2006) or qualitative in nature (Moran & Roth, 2013;Roth & Vivona, 2010;Vivona, 2014aVivona, , 2014b, our study complements and extends these theoretical and qualitative investigations, uncovering the importance of absence of humour in leadership in emergency settings. In contrast to the results of the few previous studies that suggested a positive value of leader humour (e.g., Priest & Swain, 2002;Roth & Vivona, 2010;Sliter et al., 2014;Vivona, 2014a), we demonstrated that absence of humour in leadership plays a critical role in effective leader communication. ...
A leader’s humour can be detrimental to communication effectiveness, particularly in emergency situations. Using reversal theory, we argue that the absence of humour in leadership leads to more effective communication in frontline practice because it enhances communication clarity. Combining data from a vignette study (N = 127) and two field studies (N = 134 and N = 165) among firefighters working at the frontline, the results confirm our expectations. As frontline interventions call for a serious mindset, the absence of humour in a leader increased perceived leader frontline communication effectiveness due to higher clarity in frontline communication. Overall, the findings demonstrate the critical role of leaders not displaying humour in emergency settings, and they highlight the influence of contextual factors on determining whether the use of humour is beneficial or risky in communication.
... Over the past two decades, there has been a growing interest in managerial and leadership's use of humor, and their potential impact in shaping employees' attitudes and behaviors (Kong et al., 2019), and business unit effectiveness (Priest and Swain, 2002;Cooper K.M. et al., 2018). Specifically, researchers found that positive humor used by managers during their interactions with their employees increased organizational and employee creativity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996;Li et al., 2019); employee positive emotions and work engagement (Goswami et al., 2016); employees' psychological capital (Li et al., 2019); manager-subordinate relations (Messmer, 2012;Liu et al., 2019); and leadership effectiveness ratings (Decker and Rotondo, 2001). ...
Humor is a form of communication that is intended to be entertaining and produce positive affective and cognitive responses from receivers. Nonetheless, humor in the workplace is a complicated matter. It has been recognized as a valuable tool for managers because it can activate various favorable outcomes and alter employees’ perception of the manager’s warmth and competence (impression management), but not always to the benefit of the manager. In our studies, the use of humor showed changed attitudes toward a manager’s warmth and competence, and eventually influenced the employee’s behavioral intentions. In Study 1, we tested the use of managerial humor in two emails. The humorous manager was perceived as warm, but not competent. Impression management mediated the employee’s willingness to work with the manager. In Study 2, we tested the use of managerial humor with one introductory email. In this study, we also monitored the gender of both the manager and the employee. Once again, the humorous manager was perceived as warm and humor mediated employees’ behavioral intentions. As for competence, gender moderated the results, such that male employees perceived humorous female managers as more competent, while female employees perceived humorous male managers as less competent. Practical implications are presented.
... Humor is also recognized as an important part of leaders' communication styles that affects how well they are perceived by their followers (Cooper, Kong, & Crossley, 2018). When used appropriately, it has been shown that leaders' humor can signal their competence, confidence and status (Avolio, Howell, & Sosik, 1999;Decker & Rotondo, 2001;Mao, Chiang, Zhang, & Gao, 2017;Priest & Swain, 2002). Although humor as a leader communication style can be both beneficial (e.g., using humor to improve relationships with followers) and socially harmful (e.g., laughing at followers for the intention of insulting them) (Martin, Puhlik-Doris, Larsen, Gray, & Weir, 2003;Romero & Cruthirds, 2006), this current research focuses on the positive aspects of leader humor and so does our measurement of the concept. ...
Past research indicates that leader humor can bring many positive outcomes; however, its influence on employee voice has been largely neglected. We propose that leader humor can influence employee voice behaviors (i.e., promotive and prohibitive) via the mediating role of psychological safety. Drawing upon the substitutes for leadership theory, we further propose that team humor could moderate the influence of leader humor. Based on the latent moderated mediation structural equation modeling analysis, we found that employees whose leaders used humor more frequently perceived higher levels of psychological safety and in turn engaged in more promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors. Moreover, the indirect effects of leader humor were found to be more pronounced when teams have a low level of humor. On the other hand, leader humor has less influence on employee voice when teams have a high level of humor, which provides support for the leadership substitutes argument. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
... While most prior research into humour (Cooper, 2005(Cooper, , 2008Robert & Wilbanks, 2012;Wood et al., 2011) and leadership in extreme contexts has been conceptual (Hannah et al., 2009, ;Klein et al., 2006) or qualitative in nature (Moran & Roth, 2013;Roth & Vivona, 2010;Vivona, 2014aVivona, , 2014b, our study complements and extends these theoretical and qualitative investigations, uncovering the importance of absence of humour in leadership in emergency settings. In contrast to the results of the few previous studies that suggested a positive value of leader humour (e.g., Priest & Swain, 2002;Roth & Vivona, 2010;Sliter et al., 2014;Vivona, 2014a), we demonstrated that absence of humour in leadership plays a critical role in effective leader communication. ...
... Humour constitutes a relatively informal discursive practice, through which leaders might symbolize their superiority, stave off mistrust, and exert control over others. From this perspective, when practised in 'appropriate' ways, humour reinforces asymmetrical power relations (Priest & Swain, 2002). Such arguments are partly rooted in Radcliffe- Brown's (1940) view that humour helps reproduce social order, and there is evidence that humour establishes privileged (and coercive) positions within power relations (Holmes, 2000). ...
How do people use humour to make sense of and constitute organizations? To understand this, I consider humour as a dynamic discursive practice, through which people (re)produce, complicate and potentially transform relations of power in the workplace. To extend the reach of humour research to this end, I have reviewed and synthesized the literature on humour to identify five contextual resources for agentic sensemaking in the use of humour through which discourses are destabilized and critiqued. I then consider six discursive practices, exercised through humour, that generate power and help constitute organizations. To complete my conceptual framework, I identify and discuss five potential avenues for future research on humour and power at work. I aim to inspire researchers to associate, use and analyse the processes in my framework to generate critically orientated evidence of how people use humour to substantiate organizational/workplace realities. I conclude that humour offers rich potential to better understand how people subjectively constitute organizations in practice.
... Further, it has been found that those leaders who are deemed to be highly effective tend to share a number of features in common. Specifically, effective leaders tend to value humor in the workplace (Holmes & Marra, 2006), possess a good sense of humor (Franklin, 2008), and to use positive humor frequently and negative humor infrequently (Decker & Rotondo, 2001;Ellis, 1991;Fields, 2011;Priest & Swain, 2002). There is some research which suggests that the relationship between leader humor and leader effectiveness may depend on the leader's gender, however. ...
Workplace humor is currently an emerging area of study in management research. While studies on the functions and outcomes of workplace humor in the United States abound, there is little research on humor in Australian workplaces. This limits Australian organizations from tapping the rich potential of humor to achieve positive employee and organizational outcomes. This study aims to start a research agenda on workplace humor in Australia by conducting a survey study of Australian employees’ perception of the occurrence and acceptability of humor behavior in their workplaces and by analyzing humor events at work. To achieve the latter objective, first, the scattered workplace humor literature is reviewed to develop a single framework that can effectively situate and capture humor events. Findings from 433 respondents indicate that humor occurs across a variety of organizations in Australia and that employees report positive views toward workplace humor. A surprising finding was that employees reported they expect their managers to use humor with them. Implications for managers and future research directions are developed.
Cartoons, one of the most frequently encountered forms of humor, have a venerable history. Eighteenth-century Britain saw the establishment and widespread acceptance of cartoons as a medium for expressing political and moral opinions, most notably in Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress. Such cartoons had, and still have in the case of editorial cartoons in newspapers, an overtly political purpose achieved primarily through satire and irony. The nineteenth century saw less politically focused cartoons emerge as a common genre. Gag cartoons initiated in magazines such as Punch are designed primarily for entertainment with the picture and accompanying caption creating humor. The analysis of such cartoons therefore falls within the domain of humor research.
Differences in emotional intelligence between effective and ineffective leaders in the public sector: an empirical study
The literature supporting leadership as the most important factor related to organizational success or failure is burgeoning. To a large extent, this may explain why so much research focuses on factors influencing leadership effectiveness. A crucial aspect of leadership research is to determine why some individuals perform effectively in leadership roles while others demonstrate mediocre or low levels of effectiveness. Once measures of individual characteristics have been validated within a relevant context, they become useful sources of information for selecting, placing, and promoting people into leadership positions. The aim of this study was to determine if there are statistically significant differences in emotional intelligence between effective and ineffective leaders. The sample included 114 leaders at the middle management level in a public sector institution in South Africa. Each leader’s effectiveness was rated by themselves (self-rating), as well as by four subordinates, thus involving 570 participants. The EQ-i® was used as a measure of emotional intelligence, while Spangenberg and Theron’s Leadership Behaviour Inventory was used to determine leadership effectiveness. Multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the effective leaders scored significantly higher on the total emotional intelligence measure. They also scored significantly higher on two emotional intelligence composite scales (Interpersonal EQ and Stress Management EQ) and six sub-scales (Self-actualization, Empathy, Social Responsibility, Stress Tolerance, Problem-solving, and Optimism).
Points for practitioners:
The relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership effectiveness seems to warrant organizational consideration of the possible inclusion of emotional intelligence, among other competencies, as a selection and promotion criterion for future leaders. Job analyses and the subsequent identification of job competencies can be used in order to determine, among others, the emotional intelligence requirements of specific leadership tasks, duties, and behaviours at different managerial levels within the organization. Based on such predetermined criteria, valid measures of emotional intelligence could be included as part of the selection and promotion process, along with other desirable individual attributes, such as verbal and numerical abilities, personality attributes, and specific managerial and leadership competencies required for effective leadership specifically within public sector institutions. Leadership development courses may also include programmes to develop emotional intelligence competencies. Potential candidates nominated to attend these courses could be equipped with a vital understanding of their own emotional functioning as well as an awareness of their influence on their followers. The continuous provision of feedback, mentoring, and modelling is also a key consideration in the development of emotional intelligence.
Research suggests that laughter can serve several communicative functions beyond indicating mirth, and as such, may hold propositional meaning. The present study analyzes cross-linguistic differences in the propositional content of laughter in American English and Central Thai television shows. A framework for classifying laughter by propositional content was first developed by drawing on existing literature and bottom-up analysis of the laughter found in American English and Thai shows. The framework includes categories of positive valency, negative valency, and humor, along with subcategories of disbelief, support, expressive, and pride. A multi-modal corpus of laughter was then created by compiling all laughter instances in the first 100 min of three American English television shows and three Thai television shows. The meanings of all 848 laughter instances in the corpus were categorized by propositional content of laughter. Results show that humor laughter and negative-support laughter are more frequent in American English, and positive-support laughter and negative-pride laughter are more frequent in Central Thai. These findings provide further evidence that laughter contains propositional content because they indicate that laughter use is subject to cross-linguistic variation that aligns with existing linguistic patterns and cultural values.
According to the leadership's researchers, effective leadership is a key analyst of organizational success or failure while examining the factors that lead to organizational success [1]. The undeniable question is, do leadership or leaders and effective leadership matter and positively effect on organizational outcomes? Based on [2] argument, the effective leadership is important and does effect on organizational outcomes. In this article the author discussed what leader effectiveness is and how it is measured based on outcomes. In sum up, effective leaders have power over specific traits and show specific behaviors or styles of leadership.
Introduction: Leadership is considered a necessity for people and institutions by scholars and academicians [1]. This study focuses on understanding traits and characteristics of leaders in a rural and remote health service area of Australia.
Methodology: Convenience sampling was used to invite participants, who were identified by their position description. Fourteen healthcare leaders were interviewed. Grounded theory process and thematic analysis were used to analyse the data [2]. Ethical approval was obtained.
Results: The results show that adaptation, contentiousness, acting as a role model, agreeableness and ability to take initiative were consistent themes for the existing leaders in rural and remote health service areas. Ownership, passion for work, staff and community involvement and sociability were considered important in rural area. Dominance, self-confidence and extraversion were viewed favourably in rural areas. Resilience, generation trait, adaptability and emotional intelligence were identified as rural specific traits.
Conclusion: Rural area leadership is a challenge and leaders require rural specific skills to be successful. Leaders may need to modify and shift emphasis on specific traits and characteristics to work in rural health services. Further study in different rural and remote settings is proposed to test the effectiveness of the described traits and characteristics.
The main aim of this study is to determine teachers’ perceptions about school principals’ humor styles through metaphors. The study, which is the qualitative research, was designed as a basic qualitative research. The working group of the study was consisted of 73 teachers working at public schools in Eskisehir during 2015-2016 academic year. In order to determine teachers’ perceptions about school principals’ humor styles, the form, written the following sentence: “school principal’s humor style is like …….., because it is ……..” was given to the participants and it was requested to fill this form from participants. Data obtained has been analyzed by using content analysis. Findings of the study showed that 60 teachers produced 53 valid about the concept of school principals’ humor styles and these metaphors were grouped under 8 different categories. There categories are; motivator humor, problem-solving humor, sarcastic humor, changeable humor, nonhumor style, balanced humor, thought-provoking humor and reflective humor. According to the results of the study, it was determined teachers produced more metaphors about motivator humor and problem-solving humor styles compared with other styles. Teachers produced less metaphors about reflective humor style.
This study investigates the structural relationships among humor leadership, psychological empowerment, innovative behavior, and job performance in the Korean hotel industry. This study reveals following key major findings. First, a leader’s use of humor in leadership significantly and positively influences an employee’s psychological empowerment. Second, an employee’s psychological empowerment significantly and positively influences innovative behavior and job performance. However, innovative behavior does not significantly influence job performance. In the final section, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. © 2019 by Emerald Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
This chapter provides findings from an exploratory study on humor in Australian organizations where employees’ perception of (1) the frequency of humor occurrences in their workplaces, and (2) how employees perceive such behavior is examined, along with (3) the nature of humor events in Australian organizations (i.e., the participants in humor behavior, channels used, and intentions and functions of humor use). This study utilizes the WHEF developed in Chapter 2 of the book and provides the foundation for understanding the general humor behavior in Australian workplaces.
This Chapter examines managerial humor and its impact on employees' emotions and psychological resources at work. The literature on humor, emotions and Positive Organizational Behavior is reviewed to develop propositions on how managers can intentionally use humor to bring about positive emotions in employees and build-up their psychological resources. The Chapter also explores the dark side of humor where humor is used to harm and belittle organizational members.
The past decade has witnessed the resurgence of humor as an important topic of inquiry in organizational research. This momentum is evident in the increased number of publications on employees’ humor behavior at work to a greater extent.
Given its capacity to cultivate a range of positive outcomes in the workplace, humor has been recognized as a valuable tool for leadership purposes. However, the theoretical understanding of leader humor remains relatively limited and the mechanism through which it influences follower outcomes has not been clearly identified. Drawing on signaling theory, we developed and empirically tested a model which delineates the relationship between leader humor and a specific follower behavior – proactive feedback seeking. We collected data from 304 employees and their respective leaders working in a large Canadian retail organization. Results of our analyses indicate that leader humor can impact subordinate feedback-seeking behavior via its influence on subordinates’ affect-based and cognition-based trust in the leader.
Purpose – Humor could act as a therapeutic agent for the employees by creating an entertaining
environment. It is also considered as a valuable administrative tool to increase production and
workers’ productivity. Leadership, on the other hand, is an important component of all kinds of
organizations. Humor and leadership have been studied extensively in a variety of contexts.
Although the relationship between humor types and leadership styles has become a topic of interest
for the researchers, the predictive power of humor types in explaining leadership styles has not been
studied. The aim of this study is to find out whether the subordinates’ views regarding the type of
their leaders differ and the type of humor predict leadership style of the managers.
Design/methodology/approach – The study employed survey research design. To this end, 225
subordinates working at different organizations in a city located in Black Sea Region, Turkey
participated in the study. In order to collect data Leadership Style Scale and Humor Behavior Scale
were used.
Findings – The findings of the study revealed that the subordinates working for different
institutions mostly think that their managers are transactional leaders. In addition, the results of
hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that humor types predict leadership styles at
different levels.
Discussion – The results of this study revealed that leadership styles differ depending on the type
of organization. It can be argued that most of the subordinates in the organizations where the
managers are appointed believes that their managers have the qualities of a transactional leader.
Worship music parody videos are one of the key elements within evangelical Christian “joking culture.” The musically facilitated “worship experience” is among evangelicalism’s most sacred rituals, and worship parody creators must carefully negotiate the line between humor and profanity. Drawing from textual analysis of selected blogs, forums, and YouTube comments, this article demonstrates the comedic and serious roles these videos serve. Worship parodies demonstrate how evangelicals employ humor around one of their most sacred practices to question the boundaries of what is sacred, engage in discourse about power and morality, mediate internal disagreements, and shore up a shared religious identity.
This Chapter puts humor under the scientific lens to understand how a typical humor event unfolds. In doing so, the Chapter reviews humor theories and research and develops the Workplace Humor Events Frameowork.
This study examined the relation of cognitive factors (implicit theories, self-schemas, and perceived similarity) to liking and leader-member exchange (LMX) in a field setting. Perceived similarity significantly predicted LMX quality, with liking mediating this relationship. Supervisor-subordinate match on implicit performance theories, the normativeness of both subordinates' and supervisors' self-schemas, and subordinates' negative affectivity also predicted liking and LMX ratings. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
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.
From a sample of 3,500 eighth-grade pupils, 96 class clowns were identified by peer nominations on a sociometric form. These pupils were compared to a randomly selected sample of 237 nonclown classmates on the bases of teacher ratings and student self-esteem and school-attitude measures. Clowns were found to be predominantly males. Clowns were seen by their teachers to be higher than nonclowns in Asserting, Unruliness, Attention Seeking, Leadership, and Cheerfulness, and to be lower in Accomplishing. Clowns report lower attitudes toward teacher and principal than do nonclowns and see themselves as leaders and as being vocal in expressing ideas and opinions in front of their classmates.
This study systematically examines the relations between the folk concept of ''sense of humor'' and the behavioral domain of everyday humorous conduct. Participants completed our Humorous Behavior e-sort Deck (HBQD) and a set of self-ratings contributing to an overall sense of humor index as well as personality measures including the California Psychological Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Our analyses revealed that overall sense of humor subsumed only a delimited and specific set of humor-related behaviors, in particular, socially constructive and competent forms of humorous conduct within interpersonal contexts. Results with the HBQD further indicated that overall sense of humor was positively associated with only two dimensions of humorous conduct (Socially Warm Versus Cold humorous style and Competent versus Inept humorous style) and unrelated to three others (Reflective versus Boorish, Earthy versus Repressed and Benign versus Mean-spirited humorous styles). Sense of humor was also found to be linked to socially desirable behaviors, but only those behaviors associated with social warmth and competence and not the entire range of socially desirable forms of humor. Analysis of the concept of ''sense of humor'' among subsamples of extraverts and introverts also revealed that although socially constructive uses of humor were important for both psychological types, humor competence figured more prominently in the introverts' notion of sense of humor. General personality characteristics were only minimally related to overall sense of humor, but revealed substantial and differentiated correlates to the styles of humorous conduct isolated by the HBQD. Overall, our findings argue strongly for a comprehensive approach to the assessment of individuals' understanding of humor and their styles of everyday humorous conduct.
With the movement away from the rational, bureaucratic model of organizations, there is a greater appreciation among scholars and practitioners for the significance of nonrational components of organizational life. In light of this transition and the pervasiveness of humor in organizational life, a study was conducted to describe and explain the occurrence of humor in small task-oriented meetings of five to nine participants to determine the managerial relevance of humor in them, and to suggest the importance of humor to leadership in general. This qualitative research study describes the occurrence of humor in 22 task-oriented management meetings representing six separate management groups over a two-year period. A unique finding of this study is three different patterns of humor which correspond to three distinct phases of problem-solving meetings. This finding, which is new to the study of small-group process, is discussed with particular emphasis on its usefulness to leaders of such groups.
Explores the role of humor in leadership and in management as a method of achieving 3 ends: (1) reducing stress in the workplace; (2) helping employees understand management concerns; and (3) motivating employees. Several techniques are suggested for communicating management concerns with humor. These include keeping the humor relevant to the main message, being brief and conversational, and being humble and self-effacing. Suggestions for avoiding inappropriate uses of humor are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Explores the role of the sage-fool as a means of creating a countervailing power against the regressive forces inherent in leadership, by reinforcing the leader's capacity for reality testing. After a review of leadership theories, salient characteristics of the role of the sage-fool are reviewed, taking a historical perspective. The fool, in playing the role of mediator between leader and followers, is shown to bring to the surface certain conflictual themes, allowing both parties to deal with the issues at hand. In this context, the role of humor and joking relationships is examined. Two case examples are presented of the fool in an organizational setting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Ratings of leadership ability for 1096 male and 91 female cadets at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) were examined for gender differences. Males were rated significantly higher than females for two of the three rating periods. Correlates of these ratings were examined in an effort to explore the meaning of such ratings for males and females. For both male and female cadets, situationally specific correlates of leadership ratings were identified. Physical ability and performance were most highly correlated with leadership ratings during summer training camp, while academic ability and performance were most highly correlated with these ratings during the academic year. These correlations were generally higher for females than for males. The value of such information to organizational newcomers and the means by which such information might be transmitted to them were discussed.
It is proposed that followers' implicit leadership theories for appointed and elected leaders considered worthy of influence consist of expectations organized around category prototypes. An assessment of college students' leader prototypes yielded 14 key appointed leader behaviors and 19 key elected leader behaviors. Subsequent investigations provided evidence for the existence of this leader category. Participants, for whom a leader-worthy-of-influence category was suggested, seemed to rely on associated prototypes during a leader behavior recognition task. They selectively recognized category-consistent information more than did a control group. Results are discussed with relation to the synthesis of the universal and situation-contingent behavior and trait approaches for predicting leadership effectiveness, leader selection and training, and cross-situational comparisons of leader categorizations.
Examined implicit leadership theory (preconceptions about the patterning of leadership variables) in 235 college students. Ss completed the Survey of Organizations questionnnaire on a fictitious "Plant X" about which they were given little information. Factor analysis, performed on the items purported to measure 4 leadership factors, resulted in the conceptualized factor structure. Since no information was given regarding supervisory behavior in Plant X, the factor structure was attributed to an implicit leadership theory. Factor analysis on subsamples indicated the factor structure could not be attributed to either experience in organizations or previous instruction in management. It is suggested that responses to questionnaires regarding organizational variables may be contaminated by implicit theory and that multitrait-multimethod procedures may be required to validate questionnaires.
A questionnaire concerning life changes, personality factors, and adjustmental and leadership qualities of U.S. Naval aircrewmembers involved in aircraft accidents was sent to investigating flight surgeons during 1977-78. The responses were divided into two groups: those who were causally involved in accidents and those who were not. In order to cross-validate the results, data were collected and analyzed during 1979. Results indicate that aircrewmembers in the process of deciding about staying in the service are more likely to fall into the causally involved group. So were those who had trouble with interpersonal relationships, had no sense of humor or humility concerning themselves, were immature, or had recently lost a friend or family member through death.
A set of categories for the first-hand observation of group process are presented. A set of conditions are described which are believed to be characteristic of many staff conferences, committees, and similar groups dealing with problems of analysis and planning with the goal of group decision. The hypothesis is presented that under these specified conditions the process tends to move through time from a relative emphasis upon problems of orientation, to problems of evaluation, and subsequently to problems of control, and that concurrent with these transitions, the relative frequencies of both negative reactions and positive reactions tend to increase.
Implicit leadership theories : Defining leaders described as worthy of influence Personality and social
- McGraw Hill
The value of humour in effective leadership Leadership and Organizational Department of the Army Military Leadership
- Davis
Getting down to funny business s
- Orben