Humour and laughter as indicators of meeting leadership style in FOMC meetings

This study explores the manifestation of meeting leadership styles through humour and laughter in Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meetings, focusing on differences across the tenures of Chairs Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of meeting transcripts from 1987 to 2017 highlight the role of humour. The study explores various functions of laughter and finds that laughter frequency and initiation of laughter differ among the chairs, reflecting their distinct leadership styles. The findings suggest that a more facilitative leadership style is marked by higher frequencies of laughter tokens. This research contributes to understanding the dynamics of meeting leadership and the strategic use of humour in professional settings.