Humor at work: Validation of the short and work-related Humor Styles Questionnaire (swHSQ)

Autor(en)

Tabea Scheel, Cornelia Gerdenitsch, Christian Korunka

Abstrakt

As part of daily interactions humor is an integral element of work relationships with consequences for well-being or turnover intentions. However, its adequate assessment in the work context has yet to be improved. While the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al. 2003. Individual differences in uses of humor and their relation to psychological well-being: Development of the Humor Styles Questionnaire. Journal of Research in Personality 37. 48-75) covers adaptive and maladaptive functions of humor styles, it assesses humor in general life. With the adaption of the HSQ, that is, the short (12-item) and workrelated version of the HSQ (swHSQ), we provide an efficient tool for the assessment of individual humor styles in the work context. We validated and tested the swHSQ in two Austrian-German and one U.S. sample and analyzed its structure and impact by means of confirmatory factor analyses as well as regression analyses. The swHSQ seems valid and reliable (a between 0.62 and 0.86) in a German and an English version, thus representing an efficient selfreport tool for field research. Evidence for construct validity is provided with regard to humor styles' associations with optimism, occupational self-efficacy, irritation, and job satisfaction. While the positive (affiliative, self-enhancing) humor styles showed expected relationships with the outcomes, patterns of relationships of the negative styles suggest intercultural differences in workplace humor. Thus, self-defeating but not aggressive humor seems impactful in the Austrian-German sample, while the contrary was found in the U.S. sample.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Arbeits-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialpsychologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Journal

Humor: International Journal of Humor Research

Band

29

Seiten

439-465

Anzahl der Seiten

27

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1515/humor-2015-0118

Publikationsdatum

2016

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

501003 Arbeitspsychologie, 501015 Organisationspsychologie

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Allgemeine Psychologie, Language and Linguistics, Sociology and Political Science, Linguistics and Language

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/2179ab8d-0376-4494-b4b4-4d3cb0142f8f