Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Leader Humor Extends beyond Work: how and when Followers Have Better Family Lives

  • Published:
Applied Research in Quality of Life Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Although the consequences of leader humor on subordinates have been well documented, the important issues of how and when leader humor affects employees’ attitudes or behaviors beyond the workplace have received limited attention. We integrate the humor literature with spillover-crossover theory to address the gap regarding the implications of leader humor in the nonwork domain. By performing an experiment and two field studies involving employee-spouse dyads, we consistently find 1) a positive association between leader humor and followers’ job satisfaction, 2) a spillover effect of followers’ job satisfaction on subordinates’ work-to-family enrichment (WFE) and a crossover effect of subordinates’ WFE on their spouses’ marital satisfaction, 3) serial mediating effects of followers’ job satisfaction and WFE on the leader humor-spouses’ marital satisfaction link, and 4) a stronger positive indirect effect of leader humor on spouse’ marital satisfaction via followers’ job satisfaction and WFE when followers’ perceived organizational interpersonal harmony is low. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and suggest practical implications for developing leader humor to enhance employee well-being.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The data is available upon request from the author.

References

  • Aziri, B. (2011). Job satisfaction: A literature review. Management Research and Practice, 3(4), 77–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avolio, B. J., Howell, J. M., & Sosik, J. J. (1999). A funny thing happened on the way to the bottom line: Humor as a moderator of leadership style effects. Academy of Management Journal, 42(2), 219–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, A., & Demerouti, E. (2009). The crossover of work engagement between working couples: A closer look at the role of empathy. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24, 220–236.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Dollard, M. F. (2008). How job demands affect partners’ experience of exhaustion: Integrating work–family conflict and crossover theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 901–911.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, A. B., & Geurts, S. A. E. (2004). Toward a dual-process model of work-home interference. Work and Occupations, 31(3), 345–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bitterly, T. B., Brooks, A. W., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2017). Risky business: When humor increases and decreases status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112(3), 431–455.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bitterly, T. B., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2019). The impression management benefits of humorous self-disclosures: How humor influences perceptions of veracity. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 151, 73–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brayfield, A. H., & Rothe, H. F. (1951). An index of job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 35(5), 307–311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brislin, R. W. (1970). Back-translation for cross-cultural research. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 1(3), 185–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brummelhuis, L. L. T., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). A resource perspective on the work-home interface: The work-home resources model. American Psychologist, 67(7), 545–556.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, D. S., Kacmar, K. M., Zivnuska, S., & Ferguson, M. (2015). Do the benefits of family-to-work transitions come at too great a cost? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20, 161–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, D. S., Thompson, M. J., & Kacmar, K. M. (2019). Double crossed: The spillover and crossover effects of work demands on work outcomes through the family. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(2), 214–228.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casciaro, T., Gino, F., & Kouchaki, M. (2014). The contaminating effects of building instrumental ties: How networking can make us feel dirty. Administrative Science Quarterly, 59(4), 705–735.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, D., & Wang, L. (2014). Examining the energizing effects of humor: The influence of humor on persistence behavior. Journal of Business and Psychology, 1–14.

  • Cooper, C. D. (2008). Elucidating the bonds of workplace humor: A relational process model. Human Relations, 61(8), 1087–1115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, C. D. (2005). Just joking around? Employee humor expression as an ingratiatory behavior. Academy of Management Review, 30(4), 765–776.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, C. D., Kong, D. T., & Crossley, C. D. (2018). Leader humor as an interpersonal resource: Integrating three theoretical perspectives. Academy of Management Journal, 61(2), 769–796.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2007). Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, J. R., & Rothbard, N. P. (2000). Mechanisms linking work and family: Clarifying the relationship between work and family constructs. The Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 178–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flanagan, J. C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51(4), 327–358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleetwood, S. (2007). Why work–life balance now? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(3), 387–400.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gable, S. L., Gonzaga, G. C., & Strachman, A. (2006). Will you be there for me when things go right? Supportive responses to positive event disclosures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 904–917.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham, K. A., Dust, S. B., & Ziegert, J. C. (2018). Supervisor-employee power distance incompatibility, gender similarity, and relationship conflict: A test of interpersonal interaction theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(3), 334–346.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenhaus, J. H., & Powell, G. N. (2006). When work and family are allies: A theory of work-family enrichment. Academy of Management Review, 31(1), 72–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grzywacz, J. G., & Marks, N. F. (2000). Reconceptualizing the work-family interface: An ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 111–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haines, V. Y., Marchand, A., & Harvey, S. (2006). Crossover of workplace aggression experiences in dual-earner couples. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11, 305–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heller, D., Watson, D., & Ilies, R. (2004). The role of person versus situation in life satisfaction: A critical examination. Psychological Bulletin, 130(4), 574–600.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, L., Gino, F., & Galinsky, A. D. (2015). The highest form of intelligence: Sarcasm increases creativity for both expressers and recipients. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 131, 162–177.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge, T. A., & Ilies, R. (2004). Affect and job satisfaction: A study of their relationship at work and at home. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 661–673.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kline, R. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). NY: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lang, J. C., & Lee, C. H. (2010). Workplace humor and organizational creativity. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(1), 46–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, L. H., Lian, H., Brown, D. J., Ferris, D. L., Hanig, S., & Keeping, L. M. (2016). Why are abusive supervisors abusive? A dual-system self-control model. Academy of Management Journal, 59(4), 1385–1406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, T. D., Cunningham, W. A., Shahar, G., & Widaman, K. F. (2002). To parcel or not to parcel: Exploring the question, weighing the merits. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 151–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, C., Spector, P. E., & Shi, L. (2007). Cross-national job stress: A quantitative and qualitative study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(2), 209–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, J., Kwan, H. K., Lee, C., & Hui, C. (2013). Work-to-family spillover effects of workplace ostracism: The role of work-home segmentation preferences. Human Resource Management, 52(1), 75–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matta, F. K., Scott, B. A., Colquitt, J. A., Koopman, J., & Passantino, L. G. (2017). Is consistently unfair better than sporadically fair? An investigation of justice variability and stress. Academy of Management Journal, 60(2), 743–770.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mesmer-Magnus, J., Glew, D. J., & Viswesvaran, C. (2012). A meta-analysis of positive humor in the workplace. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27(2), 155–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, B., & Muthén, L. K. (2010). Integrating person-centered and variable-centered analyses: Growth mixture modeling with latent trajectory classes. Alcoholism-clinical & Experimental Research, 24(6), 882–891.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foo, M.-D., Uy, M. A., & Baron, R. A. (2009). How do feelings influence effort? An empirical study of entrepreneurs’ affect and venture effort. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(4), 1086–1094.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowers, B. J., & Olson, D. H. (1993). ENRICH marital satisfaction scale: A brief research and clinical tool. Journal of Family Psychology, 7, 176–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, L. W., & Avey, J. B. (2009). Transform- ing with levity: Humor, leadership, and follower attitudes. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30, 540–562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2012). Sources of method Bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539–569.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pundt, A., & Venz, L. (2017). Personal need for structure as a boundary condition for humor in leadership. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(1), 87–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qin, X., Huang, M., Johnson, R. E., Hu, Q., & Ju, D. (2018). The short-lived benefits of abusive supervisory behavior for actors: An investigation of recovery and work engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 61(5), 1951–1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robert, C., Dunne, T. C., & Iun, J. (2015). The impact of leader humor on subordinate job satisfaction. Group & Organization Management, 41(3), 375–406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robert, C., & Wilbanks, J. E. (2012). The wheel model of humor: Humor events and affect in organizations. Human Relations, 65(9), 1071–1099.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothbard, N. P., & Edwards, J. R. (2003). Investment in work and family roles: A test of identity and utilitarian motives. Personnel Psychology, 56, 699–729.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang, Y., Huang, X., & Wang, Y. (2017). Good marriage at home, creativity at work: Family-work enrichment effect on workplace creativity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(5), 749–766.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, C. A., & Prottas, D. J. (2005). Relationships among organizational family support, job autonomy, perceived control, and employee well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 11(1), 100–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Triana, M. (2011). A woman’s place and a man’s duty: How gender role incongruence in one’s family life can result in home-related spillover discrimination at work. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26, 71–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trzebiatowski, T., & Triana, M. (in press). Family responsibility discrimination, power distance, and emotional exhaustion: When and why are there gender differences in work-life conrtol? Journal of Business Ethics.

  • Tsui, A. S., Egan, T. D., & O'Reilly III, C. A. (1992). Being different: Relational demography and organizational attachment. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37(4), 549–579.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsui, A. S., Hui, W., & Xin, K. R. (2010). Organizational culture in China: An analysis of culture dimensions and culture types. Management & Organization Review, 2(3), 345–376.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vecchio, R. P., Justin, J. E., & Pearce, C. L. (2009). The influence of leader humor on relationships between leader behavior and follower outcomes. Journal of Managerial Issues, 21(2), 171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Z., Jex, S. M., Peng, Y., Liu, L., & Wang, S. (2019). Emotion regulation in supervisory interactions and marital well-being: A spillover-crossover perspective. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 24(4), 467–481.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, J., & Verma, A. (2012). Explaining organizational responsiveness to work-life balance issues: The role of business strategy and high-performance work systems. Human Resource Management, 51(3), 407–432.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(6), 1063–1070.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, N., Mayer, D. M., Ong, M., & Derue, D. S. (2016). When are do-Gooders treated badly? Legitimate power, role expectations, and reactions to moral objection in organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(6), 793–814.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westman, M. (2006). Crossover of stress and strain in the work–family context. In F. Jones, R. J. Burke, & M. Westman (Eds.), Work-life balance: A psychological perspective (pp. 163–184). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westman, M., Brough, P., & Kalliath, T. (2009). Expert commentary on work-life balance and crossover of emotions and experiences: Theoretical and practice advancements. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 30(5), 587–595.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yam, K. C., Christian, M. S., Wei, W., Liao, Z., & Nai, J. (2018). The mixed blessing of leader sense of humor: Examining costs and benefits. Academy of Management Journal, 61(1), 348–369.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Z., Zhang, H., Kwan, H. K., & Chen, S. (2018). Crossover effects of servant leadership and job social support on employee spouses: The mediating role of employee organization-based self-esteem. Journal of Business Ethics, 147(3), 595–604.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, H., Kwan, H. K., Everett, A. M., & Jian, Z. (2012). Servant leadership, organizational identification, and work-to-family enrichment: The moderating role of work climate for sharing family concerns. Human Resource Management, 51(5), 747–767.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by the grants funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71802203, and 71772184), The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities to L. T. (Grant No. 18wkpy16).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510520, Guangdong, China

    Ling Tan

  2. School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University, 135 Xingang West Road, Guangzhou, 510275, Guangdong, China

    Yongli Wang

  3. School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China

    Hailing Lu

Authors
  1. Ling Tan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yongli Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Hailing Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Ling Tan and Yongli Wang contributes to conception and design of the work, Ling Tan and Hailing Lu contributes to data collection, data analysis and interpretation, Ling Tan drafting the article.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yongli Wang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Code Availability

The code is available upon request from the author.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendices

Appendix A

Fig. 3
figure 3

Flow of procedures and the instructions of Study 1

Full size image

Appendix B

Table 8 Scale items used in Studies 1, 2 and 3 
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tan, L., Wang, Y. & Lu, H. Leader Humor Extends beyond Work: how and when Followers Have Better Family Lives. Applied Research Quality Life 17, 351–374 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09888-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09888-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation