Science + comedy = super (soft skills) edutainment!

We were delighted to welcome comedian and medical doctor, Fabian Unteregger, as a guest lecturer for our business administration master seminar, “No funny business? Leadership soft skills for a digital, dispersed, and diverse age” at the University of Zurich.

After I presented an overview of the current science on behavioral humor, Fabian presented tips and tricks of successful humor use in professional settings. By the way, he also scored a 4/4 (100%) on our pop quiz that day, showing that my students aren’t the only ones who are soft skills experts!

What a fun (and funny) way to learn about leadership soft skills with this scholar-comedian combo.

1st Annual Workshop on Workplace Humor SUCCESS!

We recently welcome 20 international experts and early career scholars for our first annual winter workshop on workplace humor at the University of Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland. Cecily Cooper (Miami Business School) and Brad Bitterly (Michigan Ross) presented their recent workplace humor work and gave feedback for management scholars, while Paul McGhee (Professor Emeritus) and Tracey Platt (University of Wolverhampton) presented their thoughts on the humor habits and gelotophobia and gave feedback for psychology scholars. Thanks again to everyone for their participation and active engagement!

For a summary of the key takeaways, see here. This was created to enhance long-term learning from the event but also as an inclusion initiative for interested persons who were unable to attend.

I represented UZH business to develop and organize this interdisciplinary workshop with my super co-organizers Jennifer Hoffman and Christian Kastner (UZH Psychology). Our event was funded by a generous grant from the UZH Graduate Campus. As suggested by our title, we hope to make this a regular event. So stay tuned for details about a 2020 event!

Did you hear the one about the (free) workplace humor workshop?

We are pleased to announce an exciting, interdisciplinary event for early career scholars interested in humor research. Please reserve the dates now and plan to be in Zurich. Research at all stages of development is welcome, as we will have paper roundtables for more developed work as well as science slams for new ideas. There will be no participation fees due to the gratefully acknowledged funding by the UZH Graduate Camps. UZH Prof. and humor expert Willibald Ruch will welcome you, while the following international humor experts will give keynotes and serve as mentors: 

• Dr. Brad Bitterly (OB/Business) Post-Doc, University of Michigan, USA
  Research interests are humor, status, power, and trust

• Dr. Cecily Cooper (OB/Business) Professor, Associate Professor, University of Miami, USA
  Research interests are humor, leadership, fairness, and trust

• Dr. Paul McGhee (Psychology) Professor Emeritus
  Research interests are development of humor in children, primates, and across the lifespan; sense of humor; humor training and malleability; humor response

• Dr. Tracey Platt (Psychology) Senior Lecturer, University of Wolverhampton, UK
  Research interests are gelotophobia (fear of being laughed at), comic styles, class clowns, laughter, facial expressions of amusement

Application criteria:

The workshop is aimed for early career academics (e.g., PhD students, post docs, assistant professors), and exceptional master's students (depending on availability). Applications can be sent until December 1st to Dr. Jamie Gloor including:

• Extended Abstract/Full Paper (what you can share, depending on the stage of your research)

• CV (current affiliation, email, education, experience, and presentations/publications)

• Short summary of motivation for participation and expectations (max. 200 words)

As many of our mentors also study trust, power, status, and leadership, we also encourage submissions on these topics.

Congratulations Dr. Bruno Staffelbach

Hearty congratulations to Dr. Bruno Staffelbach, my professor, advisor, and the newly appointed President of the University of Lucerne!