TY - JOUR
T1 - Does leader humor style matter and to whom?
AU - Neves, Pedro
AU - Karagonlar, Gökhan
N1 - Funding agencies#
FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia#
under the project Ref. UID/ECO/00124/2013#
and by POR Lisboa #
under the project LISBOA-01-0145-FEDER-007722.#
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - Purpose: The interest on leader humor styles is recent. By applying a trustworthiness framework, the authors examine (1) how leader humor styles contribute to performance and deviance via trust in the supervisor and (2) who benefits/suffers the most from different leader humor styles. Design/methodology/approach: The authors tested their hypotheses in a sample of 428 employee–supervisor dyads from 19 organizations operating in the services sector. Findings: Affiliative and self-enhancing leader humor styles are particularly beneficial for employees with low core-self-evaluations, helping them develop trust in the supervisor and consequently improving their performance. An aggressive leader humor style, via decreased trust in the supervisor, reduces performance, regardless of employees' core self-evaluations. Self-enhancing and self-defeating leader humor styles also present significant relationships with organizational deviance. Research limitations/implications: Limitations include the cross-sectional design and the limited number of mechanisms examined. Practical implications: Organizations need to train leaders in the use of humor and develop a culture where beneficial humor styles are endorsed, while detrimental humor styles are not tolerated. Originality/value: These findings contribute to the literatures on trust and humor, by showing that the use of humor is not as trivial as one could initially think, particularly for those with low core self-evaluations, and by expanding our knowledge of the mechanisms by which different leader humor styles may influence performance and deviance.
AB - Purpose: The interest on leader humor styles is recent. By applying a trustworthiness framework, the authors examine (1) how leader humor styles contribute to performance and deviance via trust in the supervisor and (2) who benefits/suffers the most from different leader humor styles. Design/methodology/approach: The authors tested their hypotheses in a sample of 428 employee–supervisor dyads from 19 organizations operating in the services sector. Findings: Affiliative and self-enhancing leader humor styles are particularly beneficial for employees with low core-self-evaluations, helping them develop trust in the supervisor and consequently improving their performance. An aggressive leader humor style, via decreased trust in the supervisor, reduces performance, regardless of employees' core self-evaluations. Self-enhancing and self-defeating leader humor styles also present significant relationships with organizational deviance. Research limitations/implications: Limitations include the cross-sectional design and the limited number of mechanisms examined. Practical implications: Organizations need to train leaders in the use of humor and develop a culture where beneficial humor styles are endorsed, while detrimental humor styles are not tolerated. Originality/value: These findings contribute to the literatures on trust and humor, by showing that the use of humor is not as trivial as one could initially think, particularly for those with low core self-evaluations, and by expanding our knowledge of the mechanisms by which different leader humor styles may influence performance and deviance.
KW - Core self-evaluations
KW - Deviance
KW - Leader humor styles
KW - Performance
KW - Trust
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85081339114&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JMP-12-2018-0552/full/html
U2 - 10.1108/JMP-12-2018-0552
DO - 10.1108/JMP-12-2018-0552
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85081339114
VL - 35
SP - 115
EP - 128
JO - Journal of Managerial Psychology
JF - Journal of Managerial Psychology
SN - 0268-3946
IS - 2
ER -