LAUSR

ABSTRACT How can effective business communicators keep meetings from being so boring? This case study of a volunteer organization explains how organizational leaders used humor strategically to maintain membership and keep members focused on tasks during meetings. Volunteer organizations depend on members to get work done, which means they have a large stake in maintaining members’ interest and enthusiasm about the tasks they accomplish together. Ethnographic observations and interviews of a volunteer organization revealed that the leadership of the organization employed humor, especially during large meetings, as a means of motivating members to belong as well as directing their collective efforts in productive ways. This double function of humorous meeting leadership is explored and proposed as a helpful model for business communicators.