Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Such a high cost: the positive effect of leader humor on employee incivility via psychological safety

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Asian Business & Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Unlike prior studies, which have focused on the positive outcomes of leader humor, the current study seeks to understand why and when leader humor produces negative results such as employee incivility. This study creates a cross-level second-stage moderated mediation model and tested it with multi-time and multi-source data from 290 employees in China. The results show that employee psychological safety mediated the relationship between leader humor and employee incivility. Leader moral identity is found to negatively moderate the relationship between employee psychological safety and incivility and negatively moderate the mediating effect of employee psychological safety between leader humor and employee incivility. These findings enrich the theoretical research on leader humor and incivility and provide guidance to help organizations effectively control employee incivility in the workplace.

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.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aguinis, H., Gottfredson, R. K., & Culpepper, S. A. (2013). Best-practice recommendations for estimating cross-level interaction effects using multilevel modeling. Journal of Management, 39(6), 1490–1528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersson, L., & Pearson, C. M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiralling effect of incivility in the workplace. Academy of Management Review, 24(3), 452–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aquino, K., Freeman, D., Reed, A., II., Lim, V. K. G., & Felps, W. (2009). Testing a social-cognitive model of moral behavior: The interactive influence of situations and moral identity centrality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(1), 123–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aquino, K., & Reed, A. (2002). The self-importance of moral identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1423–1440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aryee, S., & Chen, Z. X. (2006). Leader-member exchange in a Chinese context: Antecedents, the mediating role of psychological empowerment and outcomes. Journal of Business Research, 59(7), 793–801.

    Article  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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bavik, A., & Bavik, Y. L. (2015). Effect of employee incivility on customer retaliation through psychological contract breach: The moderating role of moral identity. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 50, 66–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bippus, A. M., Young, S. L., & Dunbar, N. E. (2011). Humor in conflict discussions: Comparing partners’ perceptions. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, 24(3), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blasi, A. (1983). Moral cognition and moral action: A theoretical perspective. Developmental Review, 3(2), 178–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blau, G., & Andersson, L. (2005). Testing a measure of instigated workplace incivility. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 78(4), 595–614.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brislin, R. W. (1980). In: H. C. Triandis, & J. W. Berry, (Eds.), Translation and content analysis of oral and written material, Vol. 2. Translation and content analysis of oral and written material (pp. 389–444). Allyn & Bacon.

  • Butler, E. A., Lee, T. L., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Emotion regulation and culture: Are the social consequences of emotion suppression culture-specific? Emotion, 7(1), 30–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cann, A., Cann, A. T., & Jordan, J. A. (2016). Understanding the effects of exposure to humor expressing affiliative and aggressive motivations. Motivation and Emotion, 40(2), 258–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carmeli, A., Reiterpalmon, R., & Ziv, E. (2010). Inclusive leadership and employee involvement in creative tasks in the workplace: The mediating role of psychological safety. Creativity Research Journal, 22(3), 250–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connelly, B. L., Certo, S. T., Ireland, R. D., & Reutzel, C. R. (2011). Signaling theory: A review and assessment. Journal of Management, 37(1), 39–67.

    Article  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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cortina, L. M., Magley, V. J., Williams, J. H., & Langhout, R. D. (2001). Incivility in the workplace: Incidence and impact. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6(1), 64–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Detert, J. R., & Burris, E. R. (2007). Leadership behavior and employee voice: Is the door really open? Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 869–884.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrhardt, K., Miller, J. S., Freeman, S. J., & Hom, P. W. (2014). Examining project commitment in cross-functional teams: Antecedents and relationship with team performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(3), 443–461.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez, K., Tillman, C. J., & Holmes, J. J. (2019). Coming home: Why veterans with disabilities withhold workplace accommodation requests. Human Relations, 73(10), 1439–1466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hannah, S. T., Thompson, R. L., & Herbst, K. C. (2020). Moral identity complexity: Situated morality within and across work and social roles. Journal of Management, 46(5), 726–757.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harold, C. M., & Holtz, B. C. (2015). The effects of passive leadership on workplace incivility. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(1), 16–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, W., & Luo, J. (2020). Leader humor and employee creativity: A model integrating pragmatic and affective roles. Asian Business & Management. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-020-00105-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, Y., Zhu, L., Zhou, M., Li, J., Maguire, P., Sun, H., & Wang, D. (2018). Exploring the influence of ethical leadership on voice behavior: How leader-member exchange, psychological safety and psychological empowerment influence employees’ willingness to speak out. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01718

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huo, Y., Lam, W., & Chen, Z. (2012). Am I the only one this supervisor is laughing at? Effects of aggressive humor on employee strain and addictive behaviors. Personnel Psychology, 65(4), 859–885.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, J. M., Cole, M. S., & Rubin, R. S. (2019). Predicting retail shrink from performance pressure, ethical leader behavior, and store-level incivility. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(6), 723–739.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, R., & Lin, X. (2021). Trickle-down effect of moral leadership on unethical employee behavior: A cross-level moderated mediation model. Personnel Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-04-2020-0257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joosten, A., van Dijke, M., Van Hiel, A., & De Cremer, D. (2014). Being “in control” may make you lose control: The role of self-regulation in unethical leadership behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(1), 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karakowsky, L., Podolsky, M., & Elangovan, A. R. (2020). Signaling trustworthiness: The effect of leader humor on feedback-seeking behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 160(2), 170–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, T.-Y., Lee, D.-R., & Wong, N. Y. S. (2016). Supervisor humor and employee outcomes: The role of social distance and affective trust in supervisor. Journal of Business and Psychology, 31(1), 125–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LePine, M. A., Zhang, Y., Crawford, E. R., & Rich, B. L. (2016). Turning their pain to gain: Charismatic leader influence on follower stress appraisal and job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), 1036–1059.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, J., Farh, C. I. C., & Farh, J.-L. (2012). Psychological antecedents of promotive and prohibitive voice: A two-wave examination. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1), 71–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim, S., & Lee, A. (2011). Work and nonwork outcomes of workplace incivility: Does family support help? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(1), 95–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., Wang, M., Chang, C.-H., Shi, J., Zhou, L., & Shao, R. (2015). Work-family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and displaced aggression toward others: The moderating roles of workplace interpersonal conflict and perceived managerial family support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 793–808.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mao, J., Chiang, J. T., Zhang, Y., & Gao, M. (2017). Humor as a relationship lubricant: The implications of leader humor on transformational leadership perceptions and team performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(4), 494–506.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milam, A. C., Spitzmueller, C., & Penney, L. M. (2009). Investigating individual differences among targets of workplace incivility. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 14(1), 58–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muldoon, J., Singh, S., & Vidyarthi, P. R. (2019). Casting a long shadow: Leader-leader relationship and employee citizenship behavior. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 26(1), 60–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, A., Donohue, R., & Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521–535.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogunfowora, B., Stackhouse, M., & Oh, W.-Y. (2018). Media depictions of CEO ethics and stakeholder support of CSR initiatives: The mediating roles of CSR motive attributions and cynicism. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(2), 525–540.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearsall, M. J., & Ellis, A. P. J. (2011). Thick as thieves: The effects of ethical orientation and psychological safety on unethical team behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(2), 401–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Piccolo, R. F., & Colquitt, J. A. (2006). Transformational leadership and job behaviors: The mediating role of core job characteristics. Academy of Management Journal, 49(2), 327–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff, P. M., Mackenzie, S. B., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Porath, C. L., & Pearson, C. M. (2013). The price of incivility. Harvard Business Review, 91(1), 114–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pundt, A. (2015). The relationship between humorous leadership and innovative behavior. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 30(8), 878–893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pundt, A., & Herrmann, F. (2015). Affiliative and aggressive humour in leadership and their relationship to leader–member exchange. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 88(1), 108–125.

    Article  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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed, A., & Aquino, K. (2003). Moral identity and the expanding circle of moral regard toward out-groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(6), 1270–1286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robert, C., Dunne, T., & Iun, J. (2016). The impact of leader humor on subordinate job satisfaction: The crucial role of leader–subordinate relationship quality. Group & Organization Management, 41(3), 375–406.

    Article  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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robert, C., & Yan, W. (2007). The case for developing new research on humor and culture in organizations: Toward a higher grade of manure. In Research in personnel and human resources management: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

  • Rosen, C. C., Koopman, J., Gabriel, A. S., & Johnson, R. E. (2016). Who strikes back? A daily investigation of when and why incivility begets incivility. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(11), 1620–1634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanders, S., Wisse, B., Van Yperen, N. W., & Rus, D. (2018). On ethically solvent leaders: The roles of pride and moral identity in predicting leader ethical behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(3), 631–645.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scandura, T. A., & Graen, G. B. (1984). Moderating effects of initial leader-member exchange status on the effects of a leadership intervention. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(3), 428–436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schilpzand, P., de Pater, I. E., & Erez, A. (2016). Workplace incivility: A review of the literature and agenda for future research. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37, S57–S88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, D., & Mishra, M. (2021). Family incivility and instigated workplace incivility: How and when does rudeness spill over from family to work? Asia Pacific Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-021-09764-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spence, M. (1973). Job market signaling. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87(3), 355–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suazo, M. M., Martinez, P. G., & Sandoval, R. (2009). Creating psychological and legal contracts through human resource practices: A signaling theory perspective. Human Resource Management Review, 19(2), 154–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taheri, F., Asarian, M., & Shahhosseini, P. (2021). Workaholism and workplace incivility: The role of work-family enrichment. Management Decision, 59(2), 372–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tremblay, M. (2017). Humor in teams: Multilevel relationships between humor climate, inclusion, trust, and citizenship behaviors. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(4), 363–378.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unler, E., & Caliskan, S. (2019). Individual and managerial predictors of the different forms of employee voice. Journal of Management Development, 38(7), 582–603.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, B. M., Lee, J., Jensen, J. M., Mcgonagle, A. K., & Samnani, A. (2018). Positive leader behaviors and workplace incivility: The mediating role of perceived norms for respect. Journal of Business and Psychology, 33(4), 495–508.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, R., Chan, D. K. S., Goh, Y. W., Penfold, M., Harper, T., & Weltewitz, T. (2018). Humor and workplace stress: A longitudinal comparison between Australian and Chinese employees. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 56(2), 175–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilhelmy, A., Kleinmann, M., Melchers, K. G., & Lievens, F. (2019). What do consistency and personableness in the interview signal to applicants? Investigating indirect effects on organizational attractiveness through symbolic organizational attributes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 34(5), 671–684.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, M., Qin, X., Dust, S. B., & DiRenzo, M. S. (2019). Supervisor-subordinate proactive personality congruence and psychological safety: A signaling theory approach to employee voice behavior. Leadership Quarterly, 30(4), 440–453.

    Article  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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yan, J., & Sorenson, R. (2006). The effect of Confucian values on succession in family business. Family Business Review, 19(3), 235–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yao, J., Lim, S., Guo, C. Y., Ou, A. Y., & Ng, J. W. X. (2021). Experienced incivility in the workplace: A meta-analytical review of its construct validity and nomological network. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(2), 193–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, X., Liang, L., Tian, G., & Tian, Y. (2020). Heroes or villains? The dark side of charismatic leadership and unethical pro-organizational behavior. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(15), 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng, X., Qin, X., Liu, X., & Liao, H. (2019). Will creative employees always make trouble? Investigating the roles of moral identity and moral disengagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 157(3), 653–672.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, Y. (2015). The role of Qing (positive emotions) and Li (1) (rationality) in Chinese entrepreneurial decision making: A Confucian Ren-Yi wisdom perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(4), 613–630.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the editor (Tomoki Sekiguchi) and all reviewers for very helpful comments on this paper.

Funding

This work has been supported by Grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Number 71421061 and 72102220).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing, 100084, China

    Yue Yuan

  2. Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai, 200030, China

    Qi Zhang

  3. School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing, 100190, China

    Mengxi Yang

  4. MOE Social Science Laboratory of Digital Economic Forecasts and Policy Simulation at UCAS, Beijing, China

    Mengxi Yang

Authors
  1. Yue Yuan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Qi Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mengxi Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

YY contributed to designing, writing, reviewing, and editing the final manuscript. QZ contributed to analyzing data, writing, reviewing, and approving the final manuscript. MY contributed to reviewing and collecting data for this manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qi Zhang or Mengxi Yang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent to publish

The author affirms that human research participants provided informed consent for the publication of this study.

Ethical approval

This study was carried out following the recommendations of the ethics committee of Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences with written informed consent from all subjects. We introduced the research purpose, goals, and plans to each employee and asked their permission to participate in this research.

Availability of data and material

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

Additional information

Publisher's Note

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

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yuan, Y., Zhang, Q. & Yang, M. Such a high cost: the positive effect of leader humor on employee incivility via psychological safety. Asian Bus Manage 22, 529–548 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-022-00180-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41291-022-00180-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation