The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Types of Humor in Business Communication
Purpose. The article presents pilot research results regarding emotional intelligence and humor style relationship in business communication. Method . Study sample comprised of 101 participants, 27 men and 74 women. We used R. Martin Humor Styles Questionnaire (Russian version; Ivanova et al., 2013), Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Lyusin, 2006) and M. Sherer and J. Maddux’ Social Self-efficacy Scale (Russian version by Boyarinceva, 1995). Supplementary, self-assessment of business communication’ and public speaking’ frequency at work data were assembled. Spearman’s ρ -criteria, cluster analysis (k -means) and Mann - Whitney U -criteria were used in data analysis. Findings. Intrapersonal EI positively correlates with self-enhancing humor ( ρ =0,365, p ≤ 0,01) and negatively with aggressive ( ρ = -0,355, p ≤ 0,01) and self-defeating humor ( ρ = -0,286, p ≤ 0,05). It was shown that the respondents who often interact with colleagues / clients and speak publicly at work had significantly higher rates of interpersonal EI and self-supporting humor compared with those who had little contacts at work. In addition, clustered by humor style data revealed significant differences in intrapersonal EI ( U = 839.0, р < 0,004) amongst respondents with reduced rates of destructive humor next to those who use all humor styles equally. Value of results. Research results correspond to previous studies on the regulatory function of self-enhancing humor in stressful situations. That affords us to outline stress-management programs using constructive humor as self-regulation technic in business communication.