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Article
Publication date: 11 January 2024

Andreea Gheorghe, Petru Lucian Curșeu and Oana C. Fodor

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…

Abstract

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.

Details

Team Performance Management: An International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7592

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 January 2023

Laurent Bompar, Renaud Lunardo, Camille Saintives and Reynald Brion

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinct effects of aggressive and constructive humor on perceptions of Machiavellianism, relationship quality and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the distinct effects of aggressive and constructive humor on perceptions of Machiavellianism, relationship quality and willingness-to-switch (WTS).

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis includes a first replication study with 138 business-to-business buyers and a second study with 175 business-to-business buyers that aims to test the theoretical model. The Process macro is used to test the study’s hypotheses.

Findings

Results indicate that aggressive and constructive humor types have distinct effects on relationship quality and subsequent buyers’ WTS. Specifically, and contrary to constructive humor, aggressive humor from sellers increases buyers’ perceptions of Machiavellianism, which reveals detrimental to relationship quality and subsequently increases buyers’ WTS.

Research limitations/implications

Although the results about the effects of humor on relationship quality were obtained from actual buyers and consistent across the two studies, they were obtained from two cross-sectional designs, which limits the causality of the effects being observed.

Practical implications

Sellers may benefit from getting deep understanding of how usage humor may impact their relationship with buyers. In particular, this research makes clear for sellers that as long as the type of humor that they use when dealing with a buyer is constructive, no negative outcome might emerge. However, if the humor is aggressive, then the stereotype of Machiavellianism might emerge, leading to lower relationship quality and an increase in WTS from the buyer.

Originality/value

While research on humor as a communication technique for sellers has increased lately, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this research is the first to examine the effects of the distinct types of aggressive and constructive humor and to provide empirical evidence for the different effects of these two types of humor. This research also contributes to the literature on stereotypes associated with sellers, by presenting insights into how the negative stereotype of Machiavellianism is prompted by the use of aggressive humor.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 38 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 May 2023

Chen Yang and Xiaojiao Yang

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of leader aggressive humor on employee extra-role behaviors of proactivity and creativity by probing feeling…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship of leader aggressive humor on employee extra-role behaviors of proactivity and creativity by probing feeling ostracized as a mediator and team identification and professional identification as boundary conditions.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey sample of 347 employees was collected from three technology companies in Sichuan and Guizhou, China. Hierarchical regression analysis and PROCESS macro in SPSS were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results indicate that leader aggressive humor is negatively related to employee extra-role behaviors. Feeling ostracized is an important mechanism linking leader aggressive humor and employee extra-role behaviors and team identification and professional identification moderate the relationship.

Practical implications

Organizations should make rules to prevent leaders from using aggressive humorous behaviors and encourage coworkers to show more affiliative funny behaviors during breaks to reduce employees' sense of ostracism.

Originality/value

Building on sociometer theory, this research demonstrates the opposite moderating effects of team identification and professional identification in the effects of leader aggressive humor on feeling ostracized and consequently employee extra-role behaviors.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 38 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 July 2023

Qiandan Liao and Jenna Pandeli

Although humour and conflict are popular topics in management, little attention has been paid to the negative effects of humour in terms of how workplace humour could turn into…

Abstract

Purpose

Although humour and conflict are popular topics in management, little attention has been paid to the negative effects of humour in terms of how workplace humour could turn into unexpected conflicts. From the perspective of conflict management, human resources (HR) need to better understand this dynamic transition process. The purpose of this research is to explore the transition from humour to conflict and how HR perform when addressing humour-related issues.

Design/methodology/approach

A secondary data, multiple case study approach is adopted. Case studies are analysed qualitatively and thematically through a content analysis matrix.

Findings

Aggressive humour is closely related to conflict. Humour content and the context in which it takes place are important influential factors contributing to the transition from humour to conflict. It is challenging for HR to deal with humour-related issues: most victims are unwilling to report the issue at an early stage until they cannot bear the joke, forcing HR to perform reactively.

Practical implications

Workplace humour-related issues should not be overlooked. HR should adopt an early, proactive approach to prevent severe conflict from developing and relationships deteriorating.

Originality/value

This study highlights the dynamics and complexity of the transition from humour to conflict, providing new insights for HR in terms of effective conflict management.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 45 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 May 2023

Jose Luis Saavedra Torres, Ashok Bhattarai, Anh Dang and Monika Rawal

This study examines the use of dark humor in brand-to-brand communications on social media and its impact on consumers' brand perceptions. In particular, this study looks at…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the use of dark humor in brand-to-brand communications on social media and its impact on consumers' brand perceptions. In particular, this study looks at roasting messages in which a brand humorously insults its peers.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a sampling method to recruit 286 participants from the United States. They employed an ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc analysis to test the hypotheses, as well as Hayes' PROCESS to test the mediation and moderation effects, including Johnson–Neyman procedure.

Findings

The authors found that not all customers find roasting messages funny. Rather, consumers' personality and age will influence their perceived humor of the messages and their brand evaluations. Customers who are young and extroverted are likely to believe roasting messages to be funny. They thus perceive the brand to be cooler and more sincere when using such a communication approach, compared to when the brand neutrally interacts with others. Meanwhile, brands may find less success with old and introverted customers.

Originality/value

This research sheds light on how the consumers' perception of humor in a roasting type of brand-to-brand communication has an impact on consumers' psychological perceptions of brand coolness and brand sincerity. To guide practitioners, it explored how the interaction between a consumer's personality and age moderates the aforementioned relationship.

Details

Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7122

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 October 2022

Ayesha Tabassum and Len Karakowsky

This paper aims to draw upon extant theory and research to delineate the fundamental factors that impact how women evaluate disparaging humor directed at them. The conceptual…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to draw upon extant theory and research to delineate the fundamental factors that impact how women evaluate disparaging humor directed at them. The conceptual framework presented outlines the most fundamental organizational-, interpersonal- and individual-level factors that influence the accuracy of such evaluation.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that offers both a review of extant humor and gender research and theory and the presentation of a theoretical model that classifies sources of influence on evaluations of sexist humor from the perspective of the target.

Findings

Organization-, interpersonal- and individual-level factors are identified as sources of influence on women’s perception and evaluation of sexist humor leveled at them. This classification identifies factors including organizational power dynamics, egalitarian norms, interpersonal trust, target self-esteem and feminist identity.

Research limitations/implications

This paper offers a conceptual framework to guide future studies in more systematically examining the sources of influence on female targets’ capacity to recognize when they are the “punchline” of sexist humor.

Practical implications

The conceptual model developed in this paper offers important implications for managers and leaders in organizations in assisting targets to recognize instances of sexist humor directed at them. The aim is to arm potential victims with the knowledge necessary to foster awareness of their treatment in the workplace and to improve the accuracy of evaluation of workplace attitudes that may often nurture a sense of approval or apathy regarding displays of sexist humor.

Originality/value

This paper presents a novel classification of sources of influence on female targets’ evaluation of sexist humor in the workplace.

Details

Gender in Management: An International Journal , vol. 38 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-2413

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 July 2022

Leonidas A. Zampetakis and Panagiotis Gkorezis

The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on the relative impact of the various workplace resources on employees' effective coping with job stress symptoms, taking into…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to shed more light on the relative impact of the various workplace resources on employees' effective coping with job stress symptoms, taking into account synergistic and antagonistic effects. The authors used job demands-resources (JD-R) theory as an overarching theoretical framework to test the hypotheses.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors used a factorial survey experiment and a within-person design. Data were obtained from a random sample of 97 Greek employees working in public and private organizations. Multilevel modeling regression techniques were used for data analyses. The authors examined the relative effect of various job resources at different levels on employees' ratings of effective coping with job stress symptoms. In parallel, the authors investigated the possible synergistic and antagonistic interactions between the specific job resources.

Findings

The authors found that managers' leadership and humor style, their relationship with subordinates and coworkers’ support had positive effects on employees' coping with job stress. In addition, the authors found that the manager's leadership style interacts with manager–subordinate relationship quality and coworkers’ support as well as the latter interacts with the manager's humor style and manager–subordinate relationship quality. The study model explained 50% of the variance in effective coping with stress ratings.

Originality/value

The study highlights the importance of workplace resources as contextual variables, for the effective coping with stress symptoms at work. It highlights that a combination of workplace resources produces a net effect that was better than would have been expected based solely on the individual performance of these job resources. As such, the research answer calls to attend to the effects of synergistic effects of workplace resources on effective coping with stress symptoms at work.

Details

Personnel Review, vol. 52 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0048-3486

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 November 2022

Chaohua Huang, Shaoshuang Zhuang and Haiyan Ma

This study aims to examine the effects of pathos in sustainable brand stories featuring masculinity on brand masculinity and men’s sustainable brand attitude using Aristotle’s…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the effects of pathos in sustainable brand stories featuring masculinity on brand masculinity and men’s sustainable brand attitude using Aristotle’s rhetoric theory.

Design/methodology/approach

Three independent online experiments (N = 398; N = 216; N = 247) were conducted to observe how participants responded to a sustainable brand story. Data collected through a post-experimental survey were used to test the proposed model. Research hypotheses were inspected using SPSS.

Findings

The authors reveal brand masculinity is influenced by varying degrees of pathos: participants who read stories with all three pathos elements (metaphor, humor and empathy) demonstrated the highest level of perceived brand masculinity. Male consumers showed more positive attitudes toward masculine sustainable brand stories than feminine ones. The authors also identify the moderating effect of consumer generation: Gen Z (versus Gen Y) consumers demonstrated stronger character identification with hybrid masculinity (versus hegemonic masculinity) sustainable brand stories, resulting in more favorable sustainable brand attitudes.

Originality/value

The study provides a new angle for exploring the relationship between gendered sustainable brand stories and sustainable brand attitudes. It is the first (to the authors’ knowledge) that links Aristotle’s rhetoric theory to brand gender research, and it empirically demonstrates how male consumers from different generational cohorts respond to different masculinity strategies used by sustainable brands.

Details

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, vol. 35 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-5855

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 February 2023

Daniel Wolfgruber

The purpose of this article is to investigate the communicative constitution of organizational inclusion and/or exclusion through humorous acts at the expense of members of…

1810

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to investigate the communicative constitution of organizational inclusion and/or exclusion through humorous acts at the expense of members of minorities and/or historically disadvantaged groups.

Design/methodology/approach

Semistructured interviews with 84 employees in Austria and Germany dealing with their experiences regarding diversity and inclusion (D&I) at work were conducted and analyzed in two steps. First, a thematic text analysis was performed to structure the content and identify relevant themes and anecdotes for further analysis. Second, a ventriloquial analysis sought to identify the physically absent yet present voices in these anecdotes.

Findings

The interviews revealed that jokes and quips mostly target colleagues of observable foreign origin. The analysis further identified three themes that show that disparaging humor can simultaneously reinforce inclusion/exclusion across hierarchies and create boundaries within teams – but in different ways. The findings also indicate that above all prejudices “participate” in such events and that in most cases the collective is invoked to increase the joke's “authority”.

Originality/value

This research is the first one that investigates humor in the context of D&I through a communicative constitution of organization (CCO) lens, which facilitates studying the constitutive character of humorous communication in terms of inclusion and exclusion. Moreover, this is one of the first empirical humor studies to draw on established theory-driven concepts of inclusion-exclusion in its analysis.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 42 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 September 2023

Hooman Shahidi, Khairul Anuar Mohd Ali and Fazli Idris

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…

Abstract

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.

Details

Evidence-based HRM: a Global Forum for Empirical Scholarship, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-3983

Keywords

1 – 10 of 93