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  • July–August 2020
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review

Sarcasm, Self-Deprecation, and Inside Jokes: A User's Guide to Humor at Work

By: Brad Bitterly and Alison Wood Brooks
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

Humor is widely considered essential in personal relationships, but in leaders, it’s seen as an ancillary behavior. Though some leaders use humor instinctively, many more could wield it purposefully. Humor helps build interpersonal trust and high-­quality work relationships and influences behaviors and attitudes that matter to leadership effectiveness, including employee performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and creativity.
These benefits don’t come without potential costs. The guidelines in this article suggest ways to capture the benefits of humor while avoiding the downside risks.

Keywords

Managing People; Humor; Leadership; Relationships

Citation

Bitterly, Brad, and Alison Wood Brooks. "Sarcasm, Self-Deprecation, and Inside Jokes: A User's Guide to Humor at Work." Harvard Business Review 98, no. 4 (July–August 2020): 96–103.
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About The Author

Alison Wood Brooks

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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More from the Authors

    • September 2020 (Revised November 2020)
    • Faculty Research

    Gong: Resonating Conversational Insights

    By: Alison Wood Brooks and Trevor Spelman
    • March 2020
    • Faculty Research

    The Boss Has the Wrong Idea

    By: Katherine B. Coffman, Alison Wood Brooks, Judith A. Clair, Katherine Chen, Manuela Collis and Kathleen L. McGinn
    • 2020
    • Faculty Research

    Topic Preference Detection: A Novel Approach to Understand Perspective Taking in Conversation

    By: Michael Yeomans and Alison Wood Brooks
More from the Authors
  • Gong: Resonating Conversational Insights By: Alison Wood Brooks and Trevor Spelman
  • The Boss Has the Wrong Idea By: Katherine B. Coffman, Alison Wood Brooks, Judith A. Clair, Katherine Chen, Manuela Collis and Kathleen L. McGinn
  • Topic Preference Detection: A Novel Approach to Understand Perspective Taking in Conversation By: Michael Yeomans and Alison Wood Brooks
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