Defining Humor in the Workplace - Coursework Example

Humor in the Workplace Name Institution Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Defining Humor in the Work Place 3 Introduction 3 Benefits of Humor 4 Cross-Cultural Use of Workplace Humor 9 How Workplace Humor Can Overcome Cultural Barriers 10 Conclusion 10 References 12 Appendix A 13 Defining Humor in the Work Place Introduction The most striking feature in most organizations today is change. Organizations are changing faster than before, and the change continues to increase. In the recent years, organizations have recognized that if they want to thrive and survive in the global market they have to be able to adapt. One of these changes being experienced by most organizations is the sense of humor at the workplace. Humor is all around and is used constantly used at the workplace, homes, in the media and many places where people interact. As a result, humor cannot be easily defined and; therefore, it does not lend itself to a general definition. However, Schönfeldt and Miznikova (2010) argues that due to the various definitions that different researchers have on the term, workplace humor can be defined as the comical communications that produce positive cognitions and emotions in the individuals, organizations and groups of individuals. Despite the belief that at the workplace business is serious, workplace humor can lighten the mood within the environment and make work life more enjoyable (Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). Within an organizational environment, human interaction is a significant aspect and, therefore, understanding the multifunctional role of humor can significantly contribute to the effective performance of the individuals within the organization. Workplace humor can be divided into several styles that leaders have a choice on how to introduce into an organization. There are four workplace humor styles that leaders can introduce into their organizations depending on their situation; affiliative, self-enhancing, self-defeating, and aggressive humor (Schönfeldt and Miznikova, 2010). Affiliative humor plays the role of improving the relationship between individuals within an organization. “It loosens the wheels of communication and permits the establishment of social relations with minimum dis” agreement (Schönfeldt & Miznikova, 2010, p. 12). This style of humor allows the leaders within an organization to tell funny things and jokes to provide their workers with a sense of comfort and ease social tensions within the organization. The second style of humor is the self-defeating humor, which involves individuals who produce an excessive amount of cynical and self-disparaging humor to ingratiate others at their expense. This style of humor is vital in gaining approval as we as fostering interpersonal communication. Leaders who use tis style of humor facilitate closer relationships with their juniors and in doing so, they become more approachable. Thirdly, the self-enhancing humor is vital in the sense that it allows individuals to cope with negative emotions, workplace stress. Leaders can utilize this humor within an organization to enhance their image about others within the organization. It also assists leaders to demonstrate to their subordinate that a leader is a positive person who can handle stress and face any threat directed to him. Aggressive humor does not produce any positive emotion and leaders or workers of an organization need to avoid this style of humor (Schönfeldt and Miznikova, 2010). Benefits of Humor Workplace humor and creativity within the organization are becoming topics of great interest to modern world managers. According to Lang and Lee, there is a need to understand the role of humor in developing creativity and performance in the workplace (Lang &Lee, 2010). Workplace humor has several benefits when used appropriately and can facilitate an effective working environment. Organizational benefits of workplace humor include reduced conflict, increased group cohesion, improved communication, and increased leadership effectiveness among others (See Appendix A for a summary of organizational outcomes, moderators and humor styles and how they relate to each other). Workplace humor is an effective method of encouraging and motivating employees to be productive. According Smith and Khojastehto (2014) humor has a unique ability to create group cohesiveness. In addition to this, humor within an organizational environment assists the managers and the subordinates to form a group identity and develop solidarity. Temporary groups within an organization such as the matrix teams, task forces, project teams, contract and contingent workers among others form around a relative and shared clear purpose and their success depends on a coordinated and tight combination of activity. These groups are faced with several challenges such as limited time to build trust and let it develop within the members, and as a result, group solidarity and identity must be formed quickly. This trust and solidarity can be easily achieved through humor that would in turn fosters successful completion of tasks within an organization (Smith & Khojastehto, 2014). Workplace humor is a vital element in the leadership of an organization in the sense that it assists leaders to accomplish a transactional goal while facilitating relational tasks effectively (Arfeen, 2009). Empowerment is an effective tool to achieve organizational goals, and successful leaders use humor to empower their subordinates. Leaders who use both positive and negative humor are associated with the empowerment of their workers and in return they achieve different outcomes. Application of positive humor results into positive outcomes since it affects the employee’s psychological empowerment. Furthermore, workplace humor affects the enhancement of feelings of empowerment and eliminates interpersonal barriers that are linked with organizational hierarchy (Smith & Khojastehto, 2014). There is a link between effective leadership and humor, and therefore, application of positive humor is associated with developing leader efficiency. Organizations that have different workers from different ethnic and racial backgrounds can be faced with significant problems especially when humor is used. However, when people with the organizational environment consider their cultural differences and humor are used appropriately, this humor can open doors for trust and solidarity between individuals. Humor can only promote diversity within an organization if it is applied appropriately and with caution (Smith & Khojastehto, 2014). Communication plays an essential role within an organization especially the transmission of information. The appropriate use of humor can promote effective communication and increase the ability to communicate. “The greatest contributor of humor in organizational communication, is that which allows expression of ideas that were not socially acceptable, no matter if it is affiliative, self-enhancing or self-defeating” (Smith & Khojastehto, 2014, 74). Workplace humor facilitates communication within an organization in the sense that it facilitates the transfer of information and feelings that are socially risky and unacceptable. Workplace humor can be a significant tool in assisting a business organization in providing information to its workers in ways that can minimize their stress and foster their unity. Humor can also benefit an organization through its ability to tone down threatening act and unwelcome news. Appropriate use of humor at the workplace can be beneficial in reducing conflicts, retain goodwill, enact politeness, foster collegiality and achieve willing compliance (Smith & Khojastehto, 2014). The use of workplace humor within an organization environment is associated with creative thinking. Romero and Cruthirds argue that, “Workplace humor promotes openness and creation of new ideas by relaxing people and making them less likely to criticize new ideas and mistakes (Romero & Cruthirds, 2006, p. 62). The lack of criticism creates a safe working environment that allows the employees to act on creative thinking and employing new ideas freely. Furthermore, the use of humor in the workplace fosters creativity by instilling a contagious fun mood in which innovative ideas are likely to emerge. Employees working in a humorous environment have the ability to have effective creative problem-solving skills (Romero & Cruthirds, 2006). Historical Attitudes towards Workplace Humor The idea of defeating humor at the workplace due to the perception of it being risky and uncivilized can be traced in certain historical contexts. Managers were thought to decrease sales and coordinate labor and therefore censorship through management control was implemented. Therefore, it was expected of them to be sober and reasonable, and the use of humor would be considered unprofessional (Schönfeldt & Miznikova, 2010). Brunner and Costello (2002) argue that if humor especially sexual humor is used to undermine power, women seeking to be successful in business management roles need to be aware that even subtle gender or sex-related humor may be blocking their path to the top. In 1980, the (EEOC) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published guidelines that define sexual harassment and classifies several behaviors such as jokes, remarks and sexual teasing as unhealthy workplace behaviors when used inappropriately (Brunner & Costello, 2002) these extreme attitudes towards humor illustrate how humor was suppressed in the workplace. In the 1930s, management control practices such as not allowing workers to talk to each other, hum or whistle were some of the attitudes and suppression of workplace humor (Schönfeldt & Miznikova, 2010). In the modern world, there still are remains of the historical attitudes of workplace humor where work is taken seriously, humor is an evidence of play and, therefore, it is unacceptable. Furthermore, organizations that would establish whether workplace humor is either embraced or denied in the organizational context still carry the historical attitudes of humor (Schönfeldt & Miznikova, 2010). Successfully Incorporate Humor at Work To successfully incorporate workplace humor with an organizational setting, organizations need to consider employing workers with preparatory experience on how to use humor in the workplace. Gunzelman (2010) suggests that employees that lack soft skills humor and organizational health have suffered. Education on how to best use workplace humor also suggests that employees receive preparatory experience with an intent to shine at the workplace in both hard and soft skill such as humor. Successful incorporation of humor at the workplace allows the organization to retain and recruit workers. For instance, Google has become a fun workplace for its employees, and it is rumored to attract thousands of applicants daily. Everett continues to suggest that this attraction and ability to control the talent within Google is attributed to the organization successful balance of work and play (Everett, 2011). Successful incorporation of humor within the workplace also increases job satisfaction. Employee dissatisfaction can significantly affect the employees’ emotional and physical health that in turn leads to absenteeism, sluggishness, and turnover. On the other hand, job satisfaction would lead to improved performance, cognitions and commitment among the employees. Some of the aspects that lead to job satisfaction include a good relationship between the management and subordinate, good wages, and incorporation of fun and humor in the workplace (Everett, 2011). An organization that knows how to balance fun and work develops a culture of shared values that will facilitate an interconnected team to work towards a common goal. Business leaders who foster job satisfaction through fun activities such as humor facilitate a shared history, and therefore teams that work and play together stick together. Cross-Cultural Use of Workplace Humor Different organizations across the world assemble individuals from different cultural backgrounds, and globalization amplifies the level of diversity. Workplace humor is a universal phenomenon practiced within different organizational environments and by individuals of all cultures. There is a need to consider cultural influence before understanding how workplace humor is communicated and the effects it has on the individuals within an organization. There is a difference on how cultures such as the Arab and American cultures on how they use humor. The American use of humor at the workplace is different from the Arab humor use in the sense that Americans use more self-enhancing and self-defeating humor at the workplace. On the other hand, the Arabs especially Arabic men use more aggressive humor than their women (Kalliny et al., 2006). In an organizational setting, managers who work with employees from different cultural settings need to consider the cross-cultural use of humor and consider the appropriate ways to include humor in the workplace. For instance, American managers working with Arabic workers need to avoid their self-defeating humor approaches since they are less common for Arabs, and the Arab followers would most likely misapprehend such advances and create negative perceptions, which could lead to cross-cultural communication barriers (Kalliny et al., 2006). How Workplace Humor Can Overcome Cultural Barriers Joking particularly about the things associated with the job or workplace has a positive impact in the workplace. Additionally, humor among employees is said to break cultural barriers, enhance departmental cohesiveness, creativity within the workers and overall performance of the organization (Daniels, 2008). Cross-cultural humor can be difficult since it is hard to know what is going to be funny or when to use humor within a diverse culture setting. According to Daniels, to break cultural barriers with humor, one needs to find a common ground. By applying the incongruity theory of humor, which argues that people find things funny when one takes two things and connects them in an unexpected way, one will be able to break the culture barrier. Conclusion One can also break the cultural barrier using humor by avoiding making jokes on issues relating, cultural values, ethnicity, and religion (Daniels, 2007). In addition to this, one can also break the cultural barrier using humor by considering his or her audience’s ethnic composition prior to selecting a humor style and content. Cultural barriers can also be broken when leaders encourage their works to use self-enhancing and affiliative humor within the workplace. These humor styles encourage creative thinking and can be used to develop an open working environment not limited to aspects of culture and ethnicity. References Arfeen, B. (2009). Humor in the workplace: How it works and what if it doesn’t?. LCOM Papers, 1, 1-15. Brunner, P. (2002). Sexual Humour: A Feminist Critique - The Feminist eZine. Feministezine.com. Retrieved 9 October 2015, from http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/funny/Sexual-Humour.html Daniels, B. (2007). Light Humor in the Workplace is a Good Thing, says MU Business Professor MU News Bureau. Munews.missouri.edu. Retrieved 9 October 2015, from http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2007/1030-robert-humor.php Everett, A. (2011). Benefits and Challenges of Fun in the Workplace. Library Leadership &Management, 25(1). Gunzelman, R. J. (2010). A research study considering the significance of teaching MBA students how to benefit from appropriate application of humor in the workplace (Doctoral dissertation, COLORADO TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY). Kalliny, M., Cruthirds, K. W., & Minor, M. S. (2006). Differences between American, Egyptian and Lebanese Humor Styles Implications for International Management. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 6(1), 121-134. Lang, J. C., & Lee, C. H. (2010). Workplace humor and organizational creativity. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(1), 46-60. N Schönfeldt, S., & Miznikova, J. (2010). The Serious Business of Humor: A qualitative study of humor as a management tool. Romero, E. J., & Cruthirds, K. W. (2006). The use of humor in the workplace. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 20(2), 58-69. Smith, J. W., & Khojasteh, M. (2014). Use Of Humor In The Workplace. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 18(1), 71. Appendix A A summary figure of the important parts of organizational outcomes, moderators and humor styles and how they relate to each other for N Schönfeldt & Miznikova (2010) review Read More