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Human Relations
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Humor and group effectiveness

Eric Romero

Universidad Católica del Perú, eromero2002{at}hotmail.com

Anthony Pescosolido

University of New Hampshire, tuck.pescosolido{at}unh.edu

Despite the importance of groups in the workplace and the demand from workers for a fun work environment, there is no model that explains how successful organizational humor can impact work groups. The purpose of this article is to present a model, based on Hackman's framework of group effectiveness, that can be used to understand the relationship between successful organizational humor and group effectiveness. We explore the ability of successful organizational humor to influence groups through its positive impact on group productivity, viability and learning. Based on the literature from several disciplines, we propose that successful organizational humor can have a positive impact on a variety of group processes (e.g. effective communication, development of group goals, management of emotion, etc.) and outcomes (e.g. group productivity, group viability, and development of group members), which contribute to overall group effectiveness. The model has the potential to both advance theory on organizational humor and to offer value to practicing managers by providing an understanding of how two seemingly unrelated factors (humor and group effectiveness) are in fact related in a meaningful fashion.

Key Words: groups • human resources & industrial relations • humor • job/employee attitudes • management

Human Relations, Vol. 61, No. 3, 395-418 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726708088999
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