, 1
5277 
8313Humor is ubiquitous in the workplace. Since leaders are regarded as agents of organizations and hold power, leadership humor has an important impact on employees and organizations. Leadership humor, which is an important research branch in the field of humor and a hot topic in the field of leadership research, has received much attention from researchers at home and abroad in recent years. Based on reviewing the relevant literature on leadership humor at home and abroad, this paper finds the following conclusions: There are a large number of valuable research findings on leadership humor in western countries. The research has lagged behind in China. Leadership humor is defined from the perspectives of behavior and trait view. The differences exist between leadership aggressive humor and abusive supervision, leadership affiliative humor and inclusive leadership, leadership self-deprecating humor and leadership self-defeating humor. There are many structural dimensions and measurement scales of leadership humor. The confirmed factors which influence leadership humor are comparatively less, including employee affectivity, leader-member exchange, leaders’ gender, work performance and status. The factors that influence college students’ humor are not necessarily applicable to leaders. Leadership humor moderates the effects of transformational leadership, contingent reward leadership, laissez-faire leadership, abusive supervision, leader integrity and so on. According to the current research results, management implications of leadership humor research are proposed. Finally, based on the shortcomings of the existing research, this paper puts forward some research ideas in the future: strengthening the validation and development of measurement tools, enriching the influence factors of leadership humor, strengthening the influence result research of leadership humor, expanding the influence mechanism of leadership humor on outcome variables, perfecting the design of research methods, and promoting cross-cultural comparison research. The contributions of this paper are to grasp the context and the latest progress of leadership humor research, to clarify existing problems and possible research directions in the future, to provide a new theoretical perspective for explaining organizational behaviors in China, and to provide an important reference for promoting the research and practice of leadership humor in China.
/ Journals / Foreign Economics & Management
Foreign Economics & Management
LiZengquan, Editor-in-Chief
ZhengChunrong, Vice Executive Editor-in-Chief
YinHuifang HeXiaogang LiuJianguo, Vice Editor-in-Chief
A Literature Review of Leadership Humor and Prospects
Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 41, Issue 03, pp. 70 - 84 (2019) DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2019.03.005
Summary
References
Summary
Keywords
[1] Shi Guanfeng, Mao Shuting, Wang Kun. The relationship between leader humor and employees’ creativity: A study from the perspective of social exchange theory[J].Human Resources Development of China,2017,(11):17-31.
[2] Zhu Yu, Qian Shuting. Analysis of the frontier of inclusive leadership research and future prospects[J].Foreign Economics & Management, 2014, 36(2): 55-64.
[3] Cooper C D, Kong D T, Crossley C D. Leader humor as an interpersonal resource: Integrating three theoretical perspectives[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2018, 61(2): 769-796.
[4] Curseu P L, Fodor O C. Humor and group atmosphere: Development of a short scale for evaluating affiliative and aggressive humor in groups[J]. Team Performance Management, 2016, 22(7-8): 370-382.
[5] Gkorezis P, Bellou V. The relationship between leader self-deprecating humor and perceived effectiveness: Trust in leader as a mediator[J]. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 2016, 37(7): 882-898.
[6] Goswami A, Nair P, Beehr T, et al. The relationship of leaders’ humor and employees’ work engagement mediated by positive emotions: Moderating effect of leaders’ transformational leadership style[J]. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 2016, 37(8): 1083-1099.
[7] Hu X R, Zhang G, Wang L, et al. How does leader humor expression influence follower outcomes? Exploring the dual process model[J]. Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, 2017, (1): 12834.
[8] Kai C Y, Christian M S, Wei W, et al. The mixed blessing of leader sense of humor: Examining costs and benefits[J]. Academy of Management Journal, 2018, 61(1): 348-369.
[9] Kim T Y, Lee D R, Wong N Y S. Supervisor humor and employee outcomes: The role of social distance and affective trust in supervisor[J]. Journal of Business and Psychology, 2016, 31(1): 125-139.
[10] Lin Z T. The influence of perceived leader humor on subordinate’s voice behavior: A study under Chinese background[J]. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2016, 4(4): 174-178.
[11] Mao J Y, Chiang T J, Zhang Y, et al. Humor as a relationship lubricant: The implications of leader humor on transformational leadership perceptions and team performance[J]. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2017, 24(4): 494-506.
[12] Promsri C. Relationship between the use of humor styles and innovative behavior of executives in a real estate company[J]. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2017, 7(9): 342-351.
[13] Pundt A, Venz L. Personal need for structure as a boundary condition for humor in leadership[J]. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 2017, 38(1): 87-107.
[14] Pundt A, Fröhlich R, Nerdinger F W. Humor makes them want to stay: The relationship between humor in leadership, follower cynicism, and turnover intentions[J]. Zeitschrift für Arbeits-und Organisationspsychologie, 2017, 61(3): 105-122.
[15] Tremblay M, Gibson M. The role of humor in the relationship between transactional leadership behavior, perceived supervisor support, and citizenship behavior[J]. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2016, 23(1): 39-54.
[16] Tremblay M. Humor in teams: Multilevel relationships between humor climate, inclusion, trust, and citizenship behaviors[J]. Journal of Business and Psychology, 2017, 32(4): 363-378.
[17] Wang R, Chan D K S, Goh Y W, et al. Humor and workplace stress: A longitudinal comparison between Australian and Chinese employees[J]. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 2018, 56(2): 175-195.
[18] Wijewardena N, Härtel C E J, Samaratunge R. Using humor and boosting emotions: An affect-based study of managerial humor, employees’ emotions and psychological capital[J]. Human Relations, 2017, 70(11): 1316-1341.
[19] Yang I, Kitchen P J, Bacouel-Jentjens S. How to promote relationship-building leadership at work? A comparative exploration of leader humor behavior between North America and China[J]. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 2017, 28(10): 1454-1474.
Cite this article
Jing Baofeng, Zhou Xia. A Literature Review of Leadership Humor and Prospects[J]. Foreign Economics & Management, 2019, 41(3): 70-84.
Export Citations as:
For
