Speech held by Professor Marco Sampietro, SDA Bocconi School of Management at the NASA Project Management Challenge 2007. Humour literature suggests that using or promoting humor during working time can have positive effects. Since projects represent important cost and revenue drivers for companies, it is relevant to understand the impact that humour has on projects. To conduct the analysis, projects have been studied along the main factors that affect their performance. First, the distinction between soft and hard skills has been used, than both dimensions have been broken down. In the soft skills domain, the effects of humour have been studied along these dimensions: leadership, negotiation, motivation, stress management, conflict management, team building, and communication. In the hard skills domain, the impact of humour on process, procedures and tools has been taken into consideration. Based on the existing humour literature, it has been found that both soft and hard skills may often benefit from the use of humour but shortcomings are also present.

1. Effects of Humor on Project Management
Marco Sampietro 07/02/2007
marco.sampietro@sdabocconi.it
Project Management Challenge 2007

2. Agenda
 Humor relevance and definition
 Humor effects on soft skills
 Humor effects on hard skills
 Conclusions
 Future researches
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3. The growth of humor studies (Source: PsycINFO)
1400
1156
1200
Publishe Studies
945
1000
800
600 464
400
171
200 101 93 105
0 3 3 4 45
0
1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Years
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4. Relevance of the topic
In the past humor has not been taken into serious
consideration.
Humor, while fascinating humanity since recorder
history, has not led to the persistent pursuit of crucial
knowledge.
In the last 20 years psychologists and sociologists
have taken a more rigorous and systematic approach
toward humor.
The study of humor at work and in workgroups is only
at the beginning.
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5. Project Success and Humor: the Framework
P
R
O Soft Skills
J
E
Communication
Hard Skills C
T Team Management
Leadership
Methodologies
S Conflict Management
Procedures U
Problem Solving &
Tools C
Decision Making
C
E Stress Management
S Motivation
S Negotiation
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6. Definition of humor
Humor can be defined as a state of mind, as the
quality of causing amusement, and as the ability to
understand and enjoy what is funny and makes
people laugh.
(Source: Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture 1998)
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7. Communication
People keep more attention toward speakers that use
a humorous style.
Humor improves the information retention. This
characteristic can be misused: humor can remark or
hide a concept depending on the way it is applied.
Humor improves the persuasiveness of the
communication.
NASA Project Management 7/21
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8. Team Management: Team Building Phase
Humor is a non invasive way to test the relations and
gives people that use it a parachute in case of bad
responses.
A positive response boosts the use of humor in the
other team members, speeding up the socialization
process.
A joke can start a chain of humorous interpretations,
giving the sensation of consensus among team
members.
Humor represents a shared interpretation of events
that highlights similarities among team members and
creates a sense of equality.
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9. Team Management: Detecting the Team
Morale
The spontaneous use of humor is not always an
indicator of personal or organizational well being.
Humor is also used to respond to critical situation, to
alleviate anxiety and fear.
Humor is also a response to incongruities and
contradictions. Spontaneous humor may be a signal
of organizational ambiguity.
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10. Leadership
A study shows that the use of humor by leaders
relates positively to individual and unit performance.
Good leaders are often humor appreciators rather
than humor initiators.
Leaders that are humor initiators often have a task
oriented leadership style.
Leaders that are humor appreciator often have a
relationship oriented leadership style.
Bad leaders hide part of their inability by mean of
humor.
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11. Confict Management
Humor in avoidance conflict resolution style. The
coping functions of humor permits to lower the
emotional involvement related to a situation and to
change the dominant cognitive perspective.
Humor in confronting conflict resolution style. Humor,
mostly in the form of metaphors, shows the situation
under different perspectives thus permitting people to
deal with a broader set of alternatives.
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12. Confict Management
Humor in smoothing conflict resolution style. Humor
can be used to augment the positiveness of a
situation, playing down differences and thus
attempting to create a common ground.
Humor in compromising conflict resolution style.
Humor can be used to convey ambiguous messages
to express ideas that, if communicated directly, would
offend others.
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13. Confict Management
Humor in forcing conflict resolution style. Humor can
express hostility and aggressiveness. Embedding
aggressive messages in a humorous form is
perceived less risky for the sender and less hostile for
the receiver but leaves intact the meaning.
Not permitting conflicts to come to light can be
dangerous, it has been shown that humor does not
hide or suppress conflicts.
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14. Negotiation
Humor increases the likeability of a communicator
and liked communicators have more influential power.
Humor lower the perceived importance of the object
of the negotiation, thus conducting to greater
concessions.
In negotiations humor can thus play a double role,
depending on the part one takes.
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15. Motivation
Humor can influence sense of hope. Humor leads to a
greater sense of self-efficacy in dealing with specific
problems or stressful events.
Humor works both on agency and pathways
dimensions, producing an increase in motivation.
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16. Problem Solving and Decision Making
External humorous stimuli can positively affect
problem solving and creativity. Humor lowers tension
and improves divergent thinking.
In decision making, humor can reveal a negative
effect related to the perception of risk. Humor tends to
lower the importance of the discussed topic, thus,
risky activities can be underestimated. The effect on
hope and motivation may also play a negative role in
these situations.
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17. Stress Management
Humor, especially in the outcome of laughing, helps in
reducing the negative effects of stress.
Humor has also a positive effect on difficult situations
because produces a cognitive shift that show them as
less stressful and less emotional. However, this can
be dangerous when the situation may cause risks.
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18. Hard Skills
Hard skills must be learned and than applied.
Humor and learning hard skills. Incorporating humor
in lecture materials improves listeners/readers
attention, their ability to set connections between
concepts or find inconsistencies, and the information
retention. Humor is strongly preferable in self-
education activities.
Humor and the application of hard skills. The focus
shifts from the specific methodology to the way it is
used. Using a funny approach is important during the
introduction of new methodologies.
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19. Conclusions and Guidelines
Humor can be leveraged as a managerial tool. The
comprehension of its effects can be used to influence
people behavior and thus project outcomes.
Humor has not always positive meanings and positive
effects, so trying to detect criticalities that lay behind
humor is a non-trivial activity.
Standardizing the use of humor can be
counterproductive, it is better to promote a positive
climate that produce spontaneous humor. Canned
humor can be used but the risk to be unnatural could
be high.
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20. Current and future researches
 Use and effects of humor in multicultural teams
 Learning humor
 Humor dosage
NASA Project Management 20/21
Challenge 2007