The relationship between emotional intelligence, sense of humor, and job satisfaction in masters of business students at a Midwestern university

This study examined the nature and strength of the relationship between sense of humor, emotional intelligence and their impact on overall job satisfaction. Further examined were to what extent age, ethnicity, gender, MBA specialty, management experience, and management level moderated emotional intelligence, sense of humor, and overall job satisfaction. Further inquiry was done on how the subfactors of sense of humor---(a) humor production or social uses of humor, (b) coping or adaptive uses of humor, (c) humor appreciation, and (d) attitudes toward humor itself---relate to the construct of emotional intelligence and overall job satisfaction, and to what extent do the emotional intelligence subfactors---(a) self-emotion appraisal, (b) regulation of emotion, (c) others' emotion appraisal, and (d) use of emotion-related to the construct of sense of humor and overall job satisfaction. The study was non-experimental, quantitative, correlation research using survey method. The survey was administered via Internet using four tools: the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale, the Overall Job Satisfaction Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Findings presented no significant relationships between sense of humor, emotional intelligence, and job satisfaction.