Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2014

Publication Title

Journal of Applied Psychology

Volume

99

Issue

6

First Page

1278

Last Page

1287

Abstract

Research on humor in organizations has rarely considered the social context in which humor occurs. One such social setting that most of us experience on a daily basis concerns the team context. Building on recent theorizing about the humor—performance association in teams, this study seeks to increase our understanding of the function and effects of humor in team interaction settings. Specifically, we examine behavioral patterns of humor and laughter in real teams. We videotaped and coded humor and laughter during 54 regular organizational team meetings. Performance ratings were obtained immediately following the team meetings as well as at a later time point from the teams' supervisors. Lag sequential analysis identified humor and laughter patterns occurring above chance (e.g., a joke followed by laughter, followed by another joke). At the behavioral unit level within the team interaction process, humor patterns triggered positive socioemotional communication, procedural structure, and new solutions. At the team level, humor patterns (but not humor or laughter alone) positively related to team performance, both immediately and two years later. Team-level job insecurity climate was identified as a boundary condition: In low job insecurity climate conditions, humor patterns were positively related to performance, whereas in high job insecurity climate conditions, humor patterns did not relate to team performance. The role of job insecurity as a boundary condition persisted at both time points. These findings underscore the importance of studying team interactions for understanding the role of humor in organizations and considering team-level boundary conditions over time.

Comments

© 2015 American Psychological Association. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. The final published version of this article can be found at http://www.apaexcellence.org/resources/research/detail/5886.

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