Communication not only constitutes one of the crucial aspects of leadership
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process. Humour is one of the prime means which enables leaders to achieve their
various transactional as well as relational objectives. This article aims at
exploring some of the ways in which women leaders make use of this particularly
versatile discursive strategy in order to enhance their leadership performance
while also resolving the challenges of being the `odd girls out' in a
predominantly masculine work environment. Drawing on authentic discourse data
collected in two New Zealand organizations, and pursuing a discourse-analytical
approach, this article illustrates that women leaders skilfully employ humour to
portray themselves as effective leaders while at the same time negotiating and
performing their gender identities in a masculine domain. Findings also indicate
the advantages of a discourse-analytical approach for an assessment of the
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