April time is prankster season for many cultures throughout the world, and Wikipedia gives a fun, historical background on the popular tradition of "April Fools' Day" or "All Fools' Day." This makes it an appropriate time to explore three critical aspects to sense of humor – something that researchers and HR practitioners alike pinpoint as a core competency for hospitality professionals similar to problem-solving and critical thinking ability.
Believe me when I say as a psychological profiler that sense of humor is more complicated than you might guess, and the nuances matter especially in the realm of workplace performance. Understanding these nuances in oneself can improve social skills and recognizing the nuances in others can help to spot good hires. From an industrial-organizational view, sense of humor is the ability to use and appreciate humor in social and business situations as a means to build rapport and diffuse interpersonal conflict and tension with coworkers and stakeholders. This definition implies that humor can be used appropriately and inappropriately. Rod Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario who studies humor, agrees. According to Dr. Martin, "being funny" could equally reflect good social skills and well-being or personality flaws.
Humor is largely a social phenomenon, but how it's used reveals much about a person. It's a fascinating mesh of personality, temperament, attitude and intelligence. These characteristics speak to role and cultural fit. To demonstrate, let's examine three important facts of humor.
Fact 1: It Matters How Humor is Expressed
Writing for PsychologyToday.com, Louise Dobson posed a subtly provocative question to readers, "What's your humor style?" Professionals probably don't give much thought to this, but they should. Make no mistake – one's coworkers and team members are well aware of the answer, which has particular consequences. There are arguably four basic types of humor that fill the workplace. Two varieties tend to be inappropriate or counterproductive, whereas the other two are more appropriate and tend to promote good relationships and employee engagement.
On the negative side of the fence we first have "Put-Down Humor." This variety of humor feels aggressive to people and is used to criticize and manipulate others through teasing, sarcasm and ridicule. Dr. Martin concludes that those who use this type of humor aren't any less well-adjusted than others, but it does undermine working relationships especially when it's shrugged off as "only teasing." Soft bullying is still bullying. Next, there's "Self-Deprecating Humor." We all know people who position themselves or accept being the target of others' amusement. Dobson reported that a small dose of it is charming but that a little goes a long way. This type of humor is often used by those who are eager to ingratiate themselves with others. The downside is that this behavior can eventually diminish self-respect and foster depression and anxiety. Moreover, it points to a "self-defeating mindset" that spills over into other areas of life. Those who routinely make fun of themselves in public also tend to maintain that hostility toward themselves in private.
On the positive side of the fence, we first have "Bonding Humor." Almost all social circles seem to have an individual or two who keep the group's mood in check by saying witty things, sharing jokes and expressing optimism and positivity. This is a healthy dynamic for employee engagement if done with taste and moderation, since tension can be reduced while increasing a measured, positive view of situations. Finally, there's what Dobson called "Laughing at Life" humor. It's admirable to see successful people who don't take themselves too seriously – and can even laugh at themselves. More than a social skill, Dobson and Dr. Martin note that this type of humor represents "a prism that colors the world in rosier shades." This sense of humor allows an individual to think more holistically and balanced and to cope with challenges more effectively by not permitting negative emotions to dominate thought and action. Dr. Martin further describes it as "self-enhancing humor," because the person is able to maintain a sense of perspective privately without needing a group of people to experience joy and entertainment.
Fact 2: There are Many Suggestive Benefits to Laughter and Humor
"Laughter is the best medicine" is a common mantra with good reason. While it's not scientifically proven that humor acts like a wonder drug of sorts, many studies suggest that humor has a multitude of positive effects, such as…
- Cognitive & Physical benefits
- Increased endorphins and dopamine
- Increased relaxation response and ability to cope with stress and discomfort
- Reduced pain and stress
- Increased creativity and improved problem-solving ability
- Emotional benefits
- Elevated mood and feelings of well-being
- Reduced depression, anxiety, and tension
- Increased self-esteem and resilience
- Increased hope, optimism, energy, and vigor
- Social and Team benefits
- Bonding with friends and family and happier relationships
- Reinforcement of group identity and cohesiveness
- Increased friendliness and altruism
• Increased "likability" to others
Think of it this way – promoting an appropriate sense of humor in the workplace is an effective and essentially free way to reinforce personal wellness and effectiveness, team building and broad employee engagement. It's also a simple but powerful tactic when coaching others. In particular, the "fake it until you make it" approach works to improve mood, temperament and attitude. For example, researchers have found that when you act "act as if" you're feeling an emotion like happiness or irritation (by arranging your face in a smile or a frown), you're actually more likely to feel that emotion. In a classic study, participants were instructed to hold a felt-tip marker in their mouths in a way that caused their facial muscles to be formed into a smile or a frown. While holding the marker this way, they were asked to view comic strips and say how funny they found them. Those whose facial muscles were mimicking a smile found the same comics funnier than those whose facial muscles were set into a frown.
Fact 3: Sense of humor is relevant at all employment levels
It's well known that past research suggests that varied knowledge, skills and abilities are needed at different points in one's career. Technical competence appears to be more critical at early stages, whereas interpersonal and analytical skills tend to be more relevant in middle- and later-career stages. However, more recent research suggests that this common knowledge might be a gross oversimplification. For example, researchers have found that managers don't necessarily value cognitive ability when hiring for entry-level service work, because they underestimate the knowledge and skill required for successful performance in these jobs. Similarly, it's tempting to assume that only customer-facing employees need have a healthy sense of humor to navigate the social circumstances in the workplace, while those in higher-level roles need to exude a more rigid executive presence to show "professionalism." There's evidence that such a view is misguided.
My team recently published a study in Psychological Reports where human resource professionals around the world rated the relevance of thirty different types of personality traits, knowledge areas and skills for hospitality workers across entry, mid-management and senior employment levels. Sense of humor was found to be among the top ten characteristics, traits or abilities that were rated as relevant for all employment levels. In fact, HVS Executive Search's worldwide competency norms on the 20|20 SkillsTM assessment show that high performers across Line, Middle and Senior employment levels have statistically identical levels of Sense of Humor – a strong above-average score of 84 (average standard deviation = 9.7) on a 0-100 point scale. Taken all together, an appropriate Sense of Humor seems to be a reliable indicator of a peak performer throughout the organizational chart.
Final Thoughts
This might all sound good, but one pitfall is that sense of humor can be difficult to assess. Memorizing a million jokes doesn't give someone a sense of humor. The ability to say or appreciate something funny or witty often requires good emotional and social intelligence. An appropriate sense of humor is about timing, the ability to say the funny thing at the right time and to the right people. In this sense of humor is more of a learned skill than a rigid personality trait.
Gauging a person's natural tendency for humor is tricky. Candidates, for example, will almost always politely laugh at a hiring manager's jokes so that's not helpful. There's a different tactic I've used effectively and recommend now to see whether someone initiates their sense of humor. Before the candidate arrives, place some unexpected object in the interviewee's chair – such as a child's toy or a stapler. When the candidate comes in, carefully watch and listen to the person's reaction. Those with a strongly positive outlook and ability to build rapport with others will often smile, laugh or make a witty remark about almost sitting on this out-of place object.
Of course, assessing sense of humor also gets more scientific. The 20|20 SkillsTM assessment includes a Sense of Humor subscale that measures themes of "Bonding Humor" and "Laughing at Life" which have positive impacts in the workplace. This subscale has strong reliability and validity. And yes, the questions are relevant to people of different demographic backgrounds. For instance, none of the Sense of Humor subscale questions or the total score show any statistically significant (p < .01) bias for respondents' age (younger vs. older), sex (men vs. women), current job level (Line, Middle and Senior) and country of residence (US vs. non-US).
Hopefully this article inspired you think seriously about Sense of Humor in yourself, coworkers and the workplace in general. It's only fitting for me to leave you with a little taste of humor that appeals to those who appreciate critical thinking skills…
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were out camping one night. They went into their tent, curled up in their sleeping bags and fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, Holmes woke up Watson and said, "Watson, look straight up, what do you see?"
Watson looked up at the stars and said, "I see thousands of tiny lights, but I know they are really stars, like the sun that gives life to our planet, and there are billions of them that my naked eyes cannot see.
Holmes said, "And what do you deduce from that?"
My God Holmes. If just a few of those stars had planets, and just a few of those planets had life, well there could be millions of civilizations out there. My God Holmes, you're a genius."
Sherlock Holmes said, "Watson – someone stole our tent."
References
Dobson, L. (2006). What's your humor style? . Psychologytoday.com.http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200606/whats-your-humor-style. Accessed 03/15/2013
Houran, J., & Lange, R. (2007). State-of-the-art measurement in Human Resource assessment. International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Systems, 1, 78-92.
Lange, R., & Houran, J. (2009). Perceived importance of employees' traits in the service industry. Psychological Reports, 104, 567-578.
Martin, R. A. (2007). The psychology of humor: An integrative approach. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press.
Rynes, S. L., Brown, K. G., Colbert, A. E. (2002). Seven common misconceptions about human resource practices: Research findings versus practitioner beliefs. Academy of Management Executive, 16, 92-103
Yip, J. A., & Martin, R. A. (2006). Sense of humor, emotional intelligence, and social competence. Journal of Research in Personality, 40, 1202-1208.
Source: HVS Executive Search
About HVS
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