Personality and humor in groups: implications for collective emotional intelligence, psychological safety and satisfaction

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to explore the role of team personality and leader’s humor style on the use of humor in group communication and the extent to which group humor mediates the association between team personality on the one hand, psychological safety, collective emotional intelligence and group satisfaction on the other hand. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a survey to collect data from 304 employees nested in 83 groups working in organizations from various sectors in Romania. Findings The study results show that extraversion is positively associated with group affiliative humor, while neuroticism has a positive association with group aggressive humor. The leader’s affiliative humor style had a significant positive effect on group affiliative humor, while the effect of leader’s aggressive humor style on the use of aggressive humor in groups was not significant. Furthermore, the authors examined the mediation role of group humor in the relationship between team personality and team emergent states and satisfaction. The authors found that group aggressive humor mediates the association between neuroticism and group emotional intelligence, psychological safety and satisfaction, while affiliative humor mediates the association between extraversion and emotional intelligence and team satisfaction. Originality/value The study reports one of the first attempts to explore the multilevel interplay of team personality and humor in groups as they relate to emergent states.