Why so Humorous? The Roles of Traditionality and Gender (Dis)Similarity in Leader Humor Behavior and Employee Job Performance

Abstract

Although the consequences of leader humor have been well documented, limited research attention has been devoted to its antecedents. The current research addresses this important issue by exploring whether and when an individual characteristic (i.e., traditionality) influences leader humor behavior. Based on the relational process model of humor and data from one multiwave, multisource field study, we find that leaders scoring low on traditionality are more likely to express humor with their followers, which in turn affects followers’ job performance. Moreover, the mediating effect of leader humor behavior on the link between leader traditionality and employee job performance is stronger when the genders of the leader and subordinates differ. We discuss the implications of the findings and future directions for research concerning the antecedents of leader humor.

Leader Humor and Employee Upward Voice: The Role of Employee Relationship Quality and Traditionality

“…Traditionality at the individual level refers to the degree to which individuals endorse traditional values (Yang, 2003). The essential characteristics of traditionality include submission to authority, fatalism, and a general sense of powerlessness (Farh et al, 1997; Xie et al, 2008; Tan, Wang, & Lu, 2020). Low-traditionality employees prefer less salient hierarchical differences, equality between leaders and followers (Cooper, 2008) and relationally oriented leadership (Cooper, 2008; Pundt & Venz, 2017; Robert et al, 2015).…”

“…Specifically, we argue that followers with lower traditionality will respond more sensitively to the high-quality supervisor–subordinate dyadic interaction induced by leader humor, which is consequently linked to follower upward voice. As low-traditionality employees prefer less salient hierarchical differences, equality between leaders and followers (Cooper, 2008) and relationally oriented leadership (Cooper, 2008; Pundt & Venz, 2017; Robert et al, 2015; Tan, Wang, & Lu, 2020). Moreover, the way in which authority treats followers to some extent determine followers’ behavioral responses (e.g., Farh & Chen, 2018; Farh et al, 2007; Hui et al, 2004; Zhang et al, 2014).…”

The Interplay of Servant Leader and Interpersonal Trust in Predicting Employee-Based Brand Equity: Moderating Role of Ethical Work Climate

“…However, connections between workers and management are essential in the workplace, therefore trust of the supervisor (TOS) should be included when describing employees’ knowledge-sharing habits ( Venters and Wood, 2007 ). Despite the hypothesized influence of supervisor trust, the actual results are equivocal due to potential methodological differences ( Tan et al, 2020 ). It is vital to reconsider the effects of confidence in colleagues as well as trust in supervisors on knowledge-sharing behavior ( Usmanova et al, 2021 ).…”

Leader humor and newcomer adjustment: The mediating role of role breadth self-efficacy

“…As a leader's behavior amuses subordinates by using humorous words and behaviors in interaction and communication with them (Yam et al, 2018), leader humor has received a wide range of attention in the field of management in recent years (Hughes and Avey, 2009;Neves and Karagonlar, 2020). A large and increasing body of research has substantiated the impact of leader humor on subordinates, including task performance (Neves and Karagonlar, 2020;Tan et al, 2021), job satisfaction (Robert et al, 2016), organizational citizenship behavior (Cooper et al, 2018;Tremblay and Gibson, 2016), voice behavior (Potipiroon and Ford, 2021;Tan et al, 2020), creativity (Peng et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2021), leader-member exchange (Pundt and Venz, 2017;Yam et al, 2018), relational identification and trust in leaders (Gkorezis and Bellou, 2016;Neves and Karagonlar, 2020). Notwithstanding such findings, with regard to the topic of newcomer adjustment, the question of whether and how leader humor may exert an influence on newcomers' adjustment has received little attention.…”