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Humorous yet safe: the contrasting moderating effects of leader integrity and leader humor differentiation on the linkage between leader humor and team creativity

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Abstract

Although leader humor has been widely advocated in the workplace, the influence of leader humor on team creative outcomes remains to be explored. Drawing on social information processing theory and the superiority theory of humor, we proposed that leader humor, as the origin of relevant and significant information for team members, could nurture team psychological safety and subsequent team creativity. Moreover, due to the ambiguity nature of leader humor as well as the duality function of leader humor, leader behavioral integrity and leader humor differentiation act as the boundary conditions for the utility of leader humor in teams. Specifically, leader behavioral integrity strengthened, but leader humor differentiation weakened the positive relationship between leader humor and team psychological safety, as well as the positive indirect relationship between leader humor and team creativity through team psychological safety. Using a sample of 380 members and 110 team leaders, we found support for the first-stage moderated mediation model. Theoretical and managerial implications about leader humor are discussed.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72002056) and the Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education Planning Fund in China (Grant No. 18YJA630149).

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  1. School of Business Administration, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang, China

    Yajun Zhang & Lu Lu

  2. School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China

    Junwei Zhang

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Correspondence to Lu Lu.

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Zhang, Y., Lu, L. & Zhang, J. Humorous yet safe: the contrasting moderating effects of leader integrity and leader humor differentiation on the linkage between leader humor and team creativity. Curr Psychol 43, 234–247 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-04156-x

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