06 Jan How about making 2016 the year of happiness at work?!?!
via SmartCompany by Jane Le
Workplaces in January are not generally very funny places to be, but new research has found humour can be just the thing to get an organisation off on the right foot.
The ever-present need to respond to multiple stakeholders, operate in multiple markets and offer multiple products and services, means modern firms are often chasing multiple goals, which are not always easy to reconcile.
Leaders of many organisations are under pressure to balance their investment in existing markets and products with investment in market development and product innovation. Given budget restraints, this creates tough choices. Responding to constantly evolving regulatory requirements can also create a lot of tension and difficulty.
Yet, in a recent two-year study focusing on a large telecommunications organisation dealing with stresses caused by major regulatory changes, we found people were really good-humoured. They were always joking, making light of the difficult work they had to do.
Wanting to better understand this dynamic, we delved deeper, looking specifically at why people were joking so much and what it accomplished.
Interestingly, we found humour was not just a way for employees to relieve tension and make work more enjoyable through moments of playfulness, it was also actually functional. It directly addressed the tensions that people experienced…
…keep reading the full article HERE