{"id":2788,"date":"2021-05-11T13:23:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T12:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2023-03-08T13:37:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T12:37:35","slug":"are-you-having-a-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/are-you-having-a-laugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you having a laugh?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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In our latest post, Dr Rebecca Scott reflects on the importance of humour in the workplace and its effect on human behaviours like leadership, trust, communication and relationship building in business.<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As a consumer researcher, I\u2019ve led projects on extraordinary experiences like offshore yacht racing and Tough Mudder<\/a>. My research stream on the social and cultural aspects of consumption is orientated around \u2018the body\u2019 which has led me to explore consumption phenomena orientated around the darker aspects of multisensory experience such as physical pain, death, suffering and spatial isolation. The embodied experience of laughter was a road I was yet to travel.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But at the start of 2021 it was time for levity and laughter to take the spotlight. I read a book called Humor, Seriously<\/em> written by my Marketing heroes, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas. Both authors are Marketing Professors at Stanford and they teach \u2018Humor Serious Business\u2019 on the Stanford MBA to some of the world\u2019s most ambitious and brilliant business minds. In this class and in their book, they outline how to use humor and levity to transform an organization. Students get the same credit on this course as they do for \u2018Managerial Accounting\u2019 and Financial Trading Strategy!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I won\u2019t claim to be an expert in the area of humour, but I\u2019m passionate about using my academic platform to be a protagonist for its uses, both in my teaching and my forthcoming research. As we grow up and enter the workforce we become serious business people. I fell victim to this, and in doing so, I lost my levity in a sea of slide decks and emails. And that\u2019s a problem, because levity at work has so many powerful competitive advantages such as: idea generation, leadership, teamwork, trust, making an impression, getting your foot in the door and so much more.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For example, in 2019 a Harvard Business Review survey found that 58% of employees trust a complete stranger more than their own boss. 45% of them cited this lack of trust as the single biggest issue impacting their performance at work. And leaders agree, 55% of CEOs feel this lack of trust is a threat to organisational growth. Today\u2019s workforce are looking for authentic human leaders, aspirational yes, but also flawed. Humour humanizes us to our colleagues, breaks down barriers and balances authority with approachability. Research shows that the lack of levity in our work lives has dire consequences for our physical health, our relationships and our teams and companies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Learn to laugh at work<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In March, I had the pleasure of joining Rod Banner, founder of JoyTech [Business Architect, Brand Marketer and Technologist] and Neil Mullarkey, co-founder of The Comedy Store Players, to talk about the value of humour in the workplace.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Neil, who has appeared on Have I Got News For You<\/em>, Whose line is it anyway?<\/em> and QI<\/em> is, as you can imagine, very funny, but he\u2019s also savvy about the part humour can play in our lives.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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