he video discusses the key results of the TEKES-funded project ‘Humour as a Strategic Tool for Creating Innovative Business’ (HURMOS). The project was carried out in co-operation with the University of Oulu and the Oulu University of Applied Sciences in 2015-2017.

The aim was to explore how humour can be incorporated into business. Among employees inside an organisation, humour offers business potential: affiliative, coping and reframing types of humour as well as telling stories enhance innovativeness at the individual level. In contrast, aggressive humour is negatively connected with innovativeness also when communicating with interest groups outside an organisation. Moreover, a playful attitude and atmosphere in general have a positive influence on work engagement.

The results of the potential and the limits of humour in business concern both internal and external corporate communication; they were explored in such contexts as recruitment advertising, service encounters, business development workshops as well as different forms of branding in social media. According to the studies where humour was used in peer-group mentoring and service design workshops, positive humour seems applicable in such activities.