Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicología del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.
Psicothema, 2012. Vol. Vol. 24 (nº 1). 87-93
Anja Van den Broeck1, Tinne Vander Elst2, Josje Dikkers3, Annet De Lange4 and Hans De Witte2,5
Building on positive psychology, the present study aims to address the role of humour in the workplace, and particularly in job design, one of the crucial job aspects contributing to employee well-being. Specifically, we examine the main effects of self-enhancing and affiliative types of humour both on burnout and work engagement. Furthermore, we study whether these humour styles serve as personal resources, moderating the associations of job hindrances (i.e., role conflict), job challenges (i.e., workload) and job resources (i.e., social support) with burnout and work engagement, as outlined in the Job Demands-Resources model. Results in a large sample of Belgian employees (N= 1200) showed that both types of humour related negatively to burnout and positively to work engagement. No interactions between humour and the job characteristics were found in the prediction of burnout. The significant interactions in predicting work engagement showed that self-enhancing and affiliative humour played a positive role, particularly when role conflict and social support were low. No interactions with workload were found. The discussion aims to shed light on the unexpected results and to further the study of the humour-health hypothesis.
¡Tiene gracia!: sobre el rol beneficioso del humor como afrontamiento y afiliativo en el diseño del trabajo. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo abordar el papel del humor en el ámbito laboral, en particular en el diseño del trabajo. En concreto, se examinan los efectos directos del humor afiliativo y el humor como afrontamiento en el burnout y el engagement. Además, basándonos en el modelo de Demandas-Recursos Laborales, analizamos si estos estilos de humor pueden actuar como recursos personales. En concreto, se examina su papel moderador en la relación entre estresores que suponen un obstáculo (i.e., conflicto de rol) o un reto (i.e., carga laboral), recursos laborales (i.e., apoyo social) y el burnout y el engagement. Los resultados en una amplia muestra de trabajadores belgas (N= 1.200) muestran que ambos tipos de humor se relacionan negativamente con el burnout y positivamente con el engagement. No se hallaron interacciones entre el humor y las características laborales a la hora de predecir el burnout. Sin embargo, las interacciones encontradas con vigor indican que ambos tipos de humor juegan un papel positivo, especialmente con bajos niveles de conflicto de rol y apoyo social. La discusión trata de explicar algunos hallazgos inesperados, así como promover el estudio de la hipótesis humor-salud.
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