Rire et s'amuser au travail : l'humour comme outil de renforcement du leadership

This paper is about the link that we can do between humor and laughter on the one hand, and leadership in business on the other hand. To go further, the body of this text will be oriented around the question: can humor, properly used, serve as a tool to enhance the leadership process?

This study came from our eagerness for humor, fun and laughter in the day-to-day life. Finding more and more information on the relation between humor, the sense of humor and laughter, and the corporate world, we went to think that this subject was more relevant than what many people could think. Actually, some studies have already dealt with the role of humor in the global corporate performance. Nevertheless, most of previous studies and papers are about one specific subject. For instance, what is the direct relation between gender and type of humor? Is humor efficient in the US Army?

On another hand, we wanted to orientate our study around the leader. Not really around the phenomenon of leadership, but more around the person. We were very interested in notions of charisma as a tool to enhance communication, team building and give an efficient turn to the leadership process. But actually studies are very rich on this theme. Then naturally came the question of the use of humor that was "one of the least understood and the most valid tools for management and leadership" (Sir Brian Wolfson, 1991).

Auteurs: Ludovic Bourgoin, Arnaud Maynadié