Purpose

This study aims to investigate the relationship between different styles of humorous communication (i.e. controlling and liberating) and conflict transformation in groups, in particular the transformation of task and process conflicts into relationship conflict. This study also examines the extent to which power distance moderates the association between controlling humor and relationship conflict.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors collected data using a survey from 536 participants from two different countries varying in power distance (Romania and The Netherlands) working in groups in organizations from various sectors.

Findings

Supporting the hypotheses presented in this study, multi-level data analyses showed that liberating humor has a positive association with task conflict, while controlling humor has a positive association with both process and relationship conflict. Moreover, task and process conflict mediate the relationship between liberating and controlling humor (predictors) and relationship conflict (outcome). The hypothesis regarding the moderating effect of power distance was not fully supported by the data.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore the multilevel interplay of humor and intragroup conflict in cross-cultural settings and shows how various types of humor can shape the emergence of conflict and its transformation.

中文翻译：

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笑话和争吵：团体幽默和冲突转化的跨文化调查

目的

本研究旨在探讨不同风格的幽默沟通（即控制和解放）与群体冲突转化之间的关系，特别是任务和过程冲突向关系冲突的转化。这项研究还探讨了权力距离在多大程度上调节了控制性幽默和关系冲突之间的关联。

设计/方法论/途径

作者通过对来自权力距离不同的两个不同国家（罗马尼亚和荷兰）的 536 名参与者进行调查收集了数据，这些参与者在不同部门的组织中以小组形式工作。

发现

多层次数据分析支持本研究中提出的假设，表明解放性幽默与任务冲突呈正相关，而控制幽默与过程冲突和关系冲突均呈正相关。此外，任务和过程冲突调解释放和控制幽默（预测因素）与关系冲突（结果）之间的关系。关于权力距离调节作用的假设并未得到数据的完全支持。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这项研究首次探讨了跨文化环境中幽默与群体内冲突的多层次相互作用，并展示了各种类型的幽默如何影响冲突的出现及其转变。