Humor at Work in Teams, Leadership, Negotiations, Learning, and Health

This 2nd edition provides a comprehensive, updated review of current knowledge on the adaptive and maladaptive functions of humor. Humor is a pervasive aspect of daily interaction - including in the workplace. Affiliative, self-enhancing, self-deprecating and aggressive humor can all occur at work and have unique and sometimes ambiguous effects. This volume presents research on humor in five important workplace domains: teams, leadership, negotiation, learning, and health. It combines and integrates research from a range of fields, including work and organizational psychology, social psychology, communication, linguistics and sociology. By highlighting research gaps and proposing future research questions, the book provides a solid foundation for further research on humor in the aforementioned areas. For practitioners, the book offers tailored recommendations for each domain.

Tabea Scheel is a professor of work and organizational psychology at Europa-Universität Flensburg. She earned her doctorate from the University of Leipzig and has held academic positions at institutions including Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, and the University of Vienna. Tabea is an alumni of the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. Her research focuses on new ways of working, workplace well-being, leadership, humor, and pro-environmental behavior. Beyond academia, she is a certified coach and has worked as a behavioral and communication trainer since 2006. Her teaching emphasizes organizational behavior, well-being at work and workplace analysis.

Christine Gockel works as a professor of psychology, focusing on organizational psychology at the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin). She earned her Ph.D. in social and personality psychology from Michigan State University and has held academic positions in Germany and Switzerland. Her research explores how humor, psychological safety, and transactive memory systems contribute to team performance and long-term viability. In addition to her academic work, she has extensive experience coaching leaders and teams, particularly in hybrid and virtual environments. Her teaching focuses on leadership, team dynamics, and intercultural collaboration.