0
0
Training and developing leaders is a staple within the realm of Industrial-Organizational Psychology especially those that are newly promoted to management. One of the emerging areas within coaching and leadership focuses on positive psychology.
Positive psychology interventions such as humor in the workplace is associated with good physical and mental health, reduce workplace stress, and promote effective functioning (Mesmer-Magnus, Glew, & Viswesvaran, 2012). Authors Mesmer-Magnus, Glew, and Viswesvaran (2012) also point to a survey which found that 97% of employees desired managers who had a sense of humor to create a favorable work climate and encourage favorable employee/manager relationships. In a recent meta-analysis they found that supervisor humor enhanced performance, satisfaction, workgroup cohesion, and reduced work withdrawal. In addition, Smith and Khojasteh (2014) found that leaders who used positive humor in the workplace helped their employees feel more empowered and allowed better interpersonal relationships to develop. Humor also leads to greater leader effectiveness as teams developed stronger group identity and solidarity (Smith & Khojasteh, 2014). Based on this information it is clear that coaching leaders to develop their own sense of humor leadership style could significantly impact how their teams perceive them in a positive way, but is there a fine line to using humor in the workplace?
Lopez and Pedrotti (2015) focused on the work of Barbara Fredrickson to see how positive emotions could broaden a person’s thought-action repertoire to open individuals to new thoughts and behaviors. In a related area they discussed how joy itself could induce playfulness, which aides in developing vital survival resources such as handling stress in the workplace. Magnuson and Barnett (2013) studied playfulness in 898 college students to determine whether being playful impacted stress levels and coping strategies. Playfulness was defined as providing oneself with “amusement, humor, and/or entertainment” (Magnuson & Barnett, 2013, p. 129) and proposed that being playful could impact one’s feelings of stress and how they coped with the stress they perceived. Ultimately, the researchers found that playful individuals had lower levels of perceived stress, while individuals who had lower playful scores had higher levels of perceived stress (Magnuson & Barnett, 2013). They also found that playful adults often employed similar coping styles and were cognitive-emotional in nature and were more approach-engagement focused with higher uses of emotional support and humor when compared to their less playful peers (Magnuson & Barnett, 2013).
While the research presents a strong case for using humor in the workplace, defining humor and cultivating humor within an organization is a challenge to consider. Smith and Khojasteh (2014) distinguish between positive and negative humor, which have significantly different employee outcomes. They argue that “putdown” humor can include insults and demeaning jokes, which could be taken the wrong way resulting in negative outcomes. Helping leaders to understand how to apply positive humor and develop an awareness of their environment is essential. In addition, Mesmer-Magnus, Glew, and Viswesvaran (2012) explain that cultivating a culture of humor may take time. Successful humor requires that the sender and receiver both find the concepts humorous and developing a culture of trust and understanding is required for this type of intervention to be positive. The current mood of a department or work environment can make a significant difference in how humor is perceived so a leader should take special care in working with leaders individually on applying their own sense of humor to the workplace. Overall, this type of intervention would be a great tool for leaders to incorporate provided these aspects are taken into consideration.
For those in leadership positions, do you utilize humor in your own authentic style? What best practices should be considered when attempting to add humor into the workplace?
References
Bains, G.S., Berk, L.S., Daher, N., Lohman, E., Schwab, E., Petrofsky, J., and Deshpande, P. (2014). The effect of humor on short-term memory in older adults: A new component for whole-person wellness. Advanced Mind Body Medicine, 28(2), 16-24.
Beard, A. (2014). Leading with humor. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/05/leading-with-humor
Bitterly, T. B., A.W. Brooks, and M. E. Schweitzer. (2017). Risky business: When humor increases and decreases status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(3), 431–455.
Crawford, C.B. (1994). Theory and implications regarding the utilization of strategic humor by leaders. Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(4), pp. 53-67.
Lopez, S. J., Pedrotti, J. T., and Snyder, C. R. (2015). Positive psychology: The scientific and practical explorations of human strengths (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Magnuson, C. D., and Barnett, L. A. (2013). The playful advantage: How playfulness enhances coping with stress. Leisure Sciences, 35(2), 129-144. doi:10.1080/01490400.2013.761905
Martineau, W.H. (1972), “A model of the social functions of humor”, in Goldstein, J. and
McGhee, P. (Eds), The Psychology of humor, Academic Press: New York, NY, pp. 101-25.
Mesmer-Magnus, J., Glew, D. J., and Viswesvaran, C. (2012). A meta analysis of positive humor in the workplace. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27(2), pp. 155-190. doi:10.1108/02683941211199554
Messmer, M. (2006). Human resources kit for dummies, (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons: Chichester, U.K.
Robert, C., Dunne, T. C., and Iun, J. (2016). The impact of leader humor on subordinate job satisfaction: The crucial role of Leader–Subordinate relationship quality. Group & Organization Management, 41(3), 375-406. doi:10.1177/1059601115598719
Robert, C. and Yan, W. (2007). The case for developing new research on humor and culture in organizations: Toward a higher grade of manure. Research in Personnel and Human Resource Management, 26, pp. 205-67.
Romero, E.J. and Cruthirds, K.W. (2006). The use of humor in the workplace.Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(2), pp. 58-69.
Smith, J. W. and Khojasteh, M. (2014). Use of humor in the workplace. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 18(1), p71.
Thorson, J.A. and Powell, F.C. (1993). Development and validation of a multidimensional sense of humor scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 49(1), pp. 13-23.
