Harmony and Distress: Humor, Culture, and Psychological Well-Being in South Korean Organizations

Enhancing emotional health and engagement in Chinese English language learners: an approach from teachers' autonomy- supportive behavior, teachers' harmony, and peer support in a two-sample study

Background

In the evolving landscape of Chinese education, understanding the factors that influence the emotional health and engagement of English language learners is increasingly vital. Against this backdrop, our study delves into how teachers' autonomy-supportive behavior, teachers' harmony, and peer support impact these key educational outcomes.

Aim

This study investigates the roles of teachers' autonomy-supportive behavior, teachers' harmony, and peer support in influencing the emotional health and engagement of English language learners in China.

Method

Involving a diverse sample of 68 English Language Teachers and their 389 students from various Chinese universities, the study leverages a convenience sampling method.

Results

Key findings indicate that students' emotional health is predominantly influenced by peer support, while student engagement is significantly affected by a combination of teachers' autonomy-supportive behavior, peer support, and teachers' harmony. These outcomes highlight the importance of both teacher behavior and peer relationships in educational settings, underscoring their crucial roles in enhancing student well-being and engagement. The study's methodology, incorporating a diverse sample from multiple educational institutions and a comprehensive analytical approach, offers robust insights. However, the limitations of convenience sampling and reliance on self-reported data necessitate a careful interpretation of the findings.

Implications

Implications from this research are vital for educational policy and practice, emphasizing the need for interventions that enhance teacher-student relationships and foster supportive peer environments. This study adds to the body of knowledge on factors influencing emotional health and engagement among English language learners, advocating for a comprehensive approach in educational strategies and interventions.

The neuroscience of respect: insights from cross-cultural perspectives

Cultural values such as respect influence cognition, emotion, and behavior by modulating brain functioning. This mini-review discusses the cultural differences of respect as an essential human value, and the neural underpinnings accompanying them. Although neuroscientific studies are limited, we outline potential brain structures and networks that contribute to respect and use clinical examples to illustrate how behavior changes when these neural systems fail. A better understanding of the neuroanatomical basis of respect and its neural manifestations across cultures will help to advance current conceptualizations of the biology of human values.

Relationships between Humor Styles and the Big Five Personality Traits in Workers: A Network Analysis

In this study, we investigated the relationship between the four humor styles (Affiliative, Self-enhancing, Aggressive, and Self-defeating) assessed via the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and the ten facets of the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) through network analysis. Four hundred and sixty-two Italian workers (61.3% women; Mage = 48.59; SD = 10.75) participated in the study and filled out the HSQ and the BFQ. Both centrality indexes (Expected Influence [EI]) and bridge nodes were calculated. In addition, the stability and accuracy of the network were checked. The network analysis revealed that HSQ Self-enhancing (EI = 0.63) showed the highest centrality among the HSQ styles, whereas BFQ Emotion Control (EI = 1.10) showed the highest centrality among BFQ facets; it also revealed that they were positively linked. Furthermore, HSQ Self-defeating emerged as the second-most-central humor style, negatively associated with BFQ Emotion Control. Concerning Bridge dimensions, four nodes were identified: HSQ Aggressive Humor, BFQ Emotion Control, BFQ Dynamism, and BFQ Dominance, with positive links between humor and personality except for Aggressive humor and Emotion Control, which showed negative links. On the basis of these results, the high centrality of HSQ Self-enhancing indicates the possibility of using this node as a starting point to foster positive and adaptive humor styles. The centrality of HSQ Self-defeating suggests that strength-based interventions could be focused to increase adaptive humor styles and to decrease them in order to enhance health-promoting humor styles. Furthermore, the bridge node of the HSQ Aggressive humor style with specific personality facets shows its possible use in intervention to both resize and to adaptively improve relationships between humor and personality.

Fostering egalitarianism for team learning in professional service teams

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore what contributes to egalitarian teams and facilitates for team learning in professional service teams.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative case study, including 41 in-depth interviews (n = 18) of professional service team members and managers in one of Nordics largest professional service companies was conducted.

Findings

This study reveals how acknowledgement of generational differences and humour can facilitate egalitarianism and psychological safety for members of professional service teams. This in turn relates to team learning processes and behaviours. Humour creates a “safe space” between team members representing different areas of the novice–expert continuum for idea generation and knowledge sharing.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to contribute with insight on experiences and expectations of humour as an enabling mechanism for egalitarianism and team learning in professional service teams. The findings provide professional service firms with valuable and tangible insights, which could serve as a basis for designing learning and training practices.

Smashing, Shaming, or Polite Fun and Joy? How Workplace Humor Influences Positive Well-Being in South Korean Workplaces

Humor is contextual, ambiguous, and varies within cultures but is widely associated with positive outcomes such as well-being and happiness. While humor is universal and enhances interpersonal relationships which can benefit psychological well-being, we argue that humor can also be diminish psychological well-being in Confucian-based, South Korean workplaces. Our research questions asks: how do hierarchical workplace relationships influence shared humor and positive well-being in Korean workplace contexts? Our contextual, ethnographic research includes in-depth field observations and semi structured interviews in three Korean organizations. Traditional Confucian-based cultures value face-saving, trust, and harmony while emphasizing formality and hierarchy. Korean honorifics maintain harmony, hierarchy, and politeness which creates benefits for group processes and influences the sharing of humor. Humor is enacted in accordance with workers' hierarchical status which has a significant impact upon the types of humor shared and the responses available to subordinate employees. Investigating these dimensions in Korean workplaces we argue that honorifics and hierarchy influence humor interactions in complex ways that have implications for psychological well-being.

Curvilinear relationship between experienced incivility and nontask behavior in Korean companies

Purpose

Most existing studies treat the relationship between experienced incivility and behavioral responses as linear. However, the current study examines the curvilinear relationships between experienced incivility and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and instigated incivility using conservation of resources (COR) theory and by referring to related studies that have identified typical positive and negative employee nontask behaviors. Furthermore, this study identifies turnover intention as a moderator of these curvilinear relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

All samples were obtained from respondents working for Korean companies listed on the Korean Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (KOSDAQ); 228 samples were used for the analysis. A quadratic regression function was established to analyze the curved relationships according to hierarchical stages.

Findings

Our analysis determined that a U-shaped curvilinear relationship exists between experienced incivility and OCB, and an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship exists between experienced and instigated incivility. However, the moderating effect of turnover intention is significant only in the relationship between experienced and instigated incivility.

Originality/value

This study exhibits three points of originality—first, by simultaneously considering two dependent variables as responses to experienced incivility and examining their response patterns; second, by using a curvilinear relationship model to investigate the relationship between experienced incivility and its dependent variables; and finally, by finding a moderator to the curved relationship.

A comparison of sociobehavioral impact on cognitive preservation in Alzheimer's disease between Taiwan and Korea: A cross-national study

Both Taiwan and Korea are developed countries with different cultures. When encountering the issue of dementia, such sociobehavioral factors have various and different impacts on dementia. We aim to assess the cross-national difference of sociobehavioral impact on cognitive preservation in Alzheimer's disease (AD) between Taiwan and Korea.A uniformed data set was administered regarding AD. We evaluated annual cognitive function using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Clinical Dementia Rating sum of box (CDR-SB), and CDR for 2 continuous years. Annual change of scores compared with the baseline indicated cognitive change as preservation or decline. We recorded the sociodemographic variables of interest, including education duration, level of independence, living situation, and marital status. Step-wise regression analyses were performed to determine the independent factors for cognitive preservation.In total, 503 participants in Taiwan and 77 participants in Korea were recruited from 2011 to 2014. The baseline demographic characteristics were different in levels of education, living situation, level of independence, and dementia severity between the 2 countries. With follow-up for 2 years, cognitive preservation was associated with CDR staging at baseline and independence [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.657, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.109-2.477, P = .014] in the Taiwanese population, whereas cognitive preservation was related to living alone (adjusted OR = 3.316, 95% CI = 1.135-9.687, P = .028) in the Korean population. The levels of education showed inconsistency in cognitive preservation in both countries.Cognitive preservation was associated with independence in the Taiwanese population, whereas cognitive preservation was related to living alone in the Korean population. By practicing relevant socioeconomic support, this might contribute to lessening the negative impact of dementia and preserving cognition in different countries.

The Influence of Confucianism on Corporate Environmental Investment: Evidence from Chinese Private Firms

While China’s economic development has made tremendous progress, it has also caused serious environmental pollution problems. This paper uses the date of the Chinese Private Enterprise Survey (CPES) to empirically investigate the impact of Confucianism on corporate environmental investment and its internal mechanism. The results show that: (1) Confucianism plays a significant role in corporate environmental investment. (2) In the areas where environmental regulation is relatively weak, Confucianism has a more significant effect on promoting corporate environmental investment. (3) The positive influence of Confucianism on corporate environmental investment is more obvious in heavy polluting industries. This paper’s conclusions deepen the theoretical cognition of the economic consequences of Confucianism and enrich the relevant literature on the subject of Confucianism. At the same time, this paper also expands the understanding of the determinants of corporate environmental investment from the perspective of the informal institution.

You Must Be Joking! Benign Violations, Power Asymmetry, and Humor in a Broader Social Context

Violated expectations can indeed be funny, as is acknowledged by incongruity theories of humor. According to the Benign Violation Theory (BVT), something is perceived as humorous when it hits the “sweet spot,” where there is not only a violation, but where the violation is also perceived as benign. The BVT specifies how psychological distance plays a central role in determining whether a certain event, joke, or other stimulus is perceived as benign or malign. In line with the aims of this research topic, we specifically address how this “sweet spot” may be influenced by social distance. This form of psychological distance has so far received less attention in the BVT than other forms of distance. First, we argue that the BVT needs to distinguish between different perspectives in a given situation, i.e., between the joke-teller and the joke-listener, and needs to account for the social distance between the two parties as well as between each of them and the joke. Second, we argue that the BVT needs to acknowledge possible power asymmetries between the two parties, and how asymmetries might influence the social distance between the joke-teller and joke-listener, as well as between each of these and the joke. Based on the assumption that power influences social distance, we argue that power asymmetry may explain certain disagreements over whether something is funny. Third, we suggest that cultural differences might influence shared perspectives on what is benign vs. malign, as well as power balance. Thus, cultural differences might have both a direct and an indirect influence on what is perceived as humorous. Finally, we discuss potential implications beyond humor, to other social situations with border zones. Close to the border, there is often disagreement concerning attempted violations of expectations and norms, and concerning their nature as benign or malign. This can for instance occur in sexual harassment, #MeToo, bullying, aggression, abusive supervision, destructive leadership, counterproductive work behavior, organizational citizenship behavior, parenting, and family relations. New understanding of border zones may thus be gained from BVT along with our proposed systematically mismatched judgments which parties could make about attempted benign violations.