The relationship between supervisors' humor styles and subordinate job satisfaction

• Main Author: Puderbaugh, Amy
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2006
• Subjects: Assimilation; Cognition & reasoning; Communication; Corporate culture; Employee turnover; Employment; Human resources; Humor; Hypotheses; Job satisfaction; Labor relations; Leadership; Management; Management styles; Managers; Occupational psychology; Personality traits; Physiology; Polls & surveys; Productivity; Research methodology; Responsibilities; Skills; Stress; Studies; Subordinates; Supervisors; User satisfaction; Work environment
• ISBN: 9780542558689; 0542558688

The major purpose of this study was to add to the research of humor in the workplace by examining the effect of a supervisor's style of humor on subordinates' levels of job satisfaction. Other purposes were to determine: (1) if there was a statistically significant relationship between the supervisor's perceived humor style and the job satisfaction of subordinates, (2) if supervisors who employed a producer or reproducer style of humor had subordinates with higher job satisfaction ratings than those who employed the nonhumorous or appreciator styles, and (3) if subordinates perceived supervisors as having various humor styles. Study data was obtained by distributing two survey instruments: The Humor Style Survey (Babad, 1974) and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS; Spector, 1989). Both surveys were made available to 687 participants via a link on chapter webpages of a professional human resource organization. There were 141 respondents. An analysis of variance (ANOVA), a post-hoc Scheffe analysis and descriptive statistics were employed to determine if there was a significant relationship between the variables. Significant correlations were found between a supervisor's perceived humor style and the following areas of job satisfaction: supervision, contingent rewards, operating procedures, communication, and total satisfaction. All four humor styles were represented in the results.