Examining Relationships between School Administrators’ Humor Behaviors and Teachers’ Mobbing Experiences According to Teacher Perceptions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify school administrators' humor behaviors as perceived by teachers and to determine the relationships between the school administrators' perceived humor behavior and mobbing experienced by teachers. Data was obtained from 459 teachers chosen by systematic sampling. Results indicated that teachers described negative attitudes mostly encountered as "refusal to take their ideas and opinions into consideration," "hiding information that would affect their performance from them", and "humiliation suffered as a result of being assigned to works below the level of their competence." Teachers believed that school administrators generally had "Appreciative humor" and "productive-social humor" attitudes. While there was a negative and significant relationship between positive humor behaviors and mobbing, there were also positive and significant relationships between negative humor behaviors and mobbing. Sarcastic humor and rejective humor were the significant predictors of mobbing.

The views of Turkish teachers on the use of humor in secondary schools

“…While preparing the attitude scale, the opinions of four Turkish teachers and a doctoral student -working in the field of Turkish education-were asked. Moreover, "Development of Humor Attitudes Scale: Validity and Reliability Study" developed by Cemaloglu et al (2012) was used.…”

“…Humor has been conceptualized under four styles as being: the confirmative humor style, the productive humor style, the transmissive humor style and the non-humorous style (Cemaloglu et al, 2012).…”

Investigation of School Administrators’ Humour Styles and School Climate according to Teacher Perceptions

“…In the affirmative humour style, although a person is not the one who jokes or tells funny stories, he/she shows that he/she is ready to laugh at the humour and enjoys humour and looks for humorous situations (Babad, 1974). The person who affirms humour appreciates funny discourses or behaviours, loves jokes and reacts with laughter (Cemaloğlu et al, 2014). According to Babad (1974), the individual in the non-humorous style does not laugh, joke or humour.…”

“…In the sarcastic humour style, a derogatory manner is put forward, and the person who is exposed to humour is mocked, and his/her self is attacked. (Cemaloğlu et al, 2014). The sarcastic humour seen in organisations has an aggressive character, and that can lead to exclude employees from social interactions and cause poor performance (Tremblay, 2017).…”

“…Another study found that aggressive or self-destructive humour positively associated with stress (Romero & Arendt, 2011). Mobbing behaviours and cynicism can be experienced more especially in organisations where humour has a sarcastic or rejecting characteristic (Cemaloğlu, Recepoğlu, Şahin & Daşcı, 2014;Çetinkaya & Şener, 2016;Yılmaz & Altınkurt, 2016). The effect of humour on organisational life also makes it essential in the context of administration and leadership (Collinson, 2002;Romero & Arendt, 2011;Zeigler, Boardman & Thomas, 1985).…”