Surviving in a Man's World with a Sense of Humour: An Analysis of Women Leaders' Use of Humour at Work

Abstract

Communication not only constitutes one of the crucial aspects of leadership performance, but leadership can productively be viewed as a communication process. Humour is one of the prime means which enables leaders to achieve their various transactional as well as relational objectives. This article aims at exploring some of the ways in which women leaders make use of this particularly versatile discursive strategy in order to enhance their leadership performance while also resolving the challenges of being the `odd girls out' in a predominantly masculine work environment. Drawing on authentic discourse data collected in two New Zealand organizations, and pursuing a discourse-analytical approach, this article illustrates that women leaders skilfully employ humour to portray themselves as effective leaders while at the same time negotiating and performing their gender identities in a masculine domain. Findings also indicate the advantages of a discourse-analytical approach for an assessment of the complexities of the leadership process.