Light Humor in the Workplace is Good Thing, Says MU business Professor

It is commonly believed that kidding around at work isn’t a good thing. Well, it is, says a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher, who has examined how workplace humor affects the working environment.

Chris Robert, assistant professor of management in MU’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, says that humor – particularly joking around about things associated with the job – actually has a positive impact in the workplace. Occasional humor among colleagues, he says, enhances creativity, department cohesiveness and overall performance. The conclusion was made by examining theories on humor and integrating literature from a wide variety of disciplines that touch on the subject. Several hundred sources were analyzed by Robert and collaborator Wan Yan, a business doctoral student, who have attempted to bring together literature from numerous disciplines to make the case that humor is serious business.

“Humor has a significant impact in organizations,” says Robert, who also teaches psychology in MU’s College of Arts and Science. “Humor isn’t incompatible with goals of the workplace. It’s not incompatible with the organization’s desire to be competitive. In fact, we argue that humor is pretty important. It’s not just clowning around and having fun; it has meaningful impact on cohesiveness in the workplace and communication quality among workers. The ability to appreciate humor, the ability to laugh and make other people laugh actually has physiological effects on the body that cause people to become more bonded.”

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Education, Lotto Sites Gain on Web in August

Education-related sites had a strong presence in this month's rankings as schools and universities across the country began another academic year. August also saw traffic increases to lotto/sweepstakes sites as lottery jackpots reached near record highs. Humor sites gained on the strength of Comedy Central's spike in traffic, and sports/outdoor retail sites grew in anticipation of the fall sports season.

That's according to a monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties for August released by comScore Media Metrix.

With students and teachers heading back to the classroom in late August, education sites experienced strong growth for the month. The training and education category grew 15 percent to more than 12 million visitors, making it the top gaining category for the month. College resource site Fastweb led the category with 2.5 million visitors (up 13 percent), followed by The College Board with nearly 1.9 million visitors (up 12 percent) and Nellnet, Inc., an education planning and financing
company, with 1.4 million visitors (up 11 percent). The education information category increased 8 percent to more than 63 million visitors, as Dictionary.com Sites led the category with 11.8 million visitors, followed by Answers.com (9.3 million visitors) and Pearson Education (8.6 million visitors).

Multi-state lotteries Mega Millions and Powerball both reached massive jackpots in August causing lotto/sweepstakes sites to rise 8 percent to more than 31 million visitors for the month. Powerball.com surged to 2.3 million visitors (up 123 percent), while Megamillions.com saw its traffic swell to 1.1 million (up 100 percent).

The humor category grew 8 percent in August, reaching more than 30 million Americans. The increase was largely propelled by gains at Comedy Central from its "Indecision 2008" coverage. National Lampoon Humor Network led the category with 5.6 million visitors, followed by Comedy Central with nearly 5 million visitors (up 105 percent) and Jokeroo Entertainment Inc.
with nearly 3 million visitors (up 37 percent).

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