Humor cuts both ways: Moderating effect of humor styles in the organizations

Humor plays a crucial role in the workplace communication. Even though leaders might not consider humorous leadership as an essential condition for company's success, it is important for building effectively performing team. Participants of this study included 955 employees in Taiwan. The main goal of the study was to explore moderating effect of leader's humor styles on the relationship between leader-member relationship quality and team performance. Results showed that leader-member relationship quality has a significantly positive influence on team performance. As for different humor styles that leaders use, while affiliative humor has a significantly positive influence on team performance, self-defeating humor has a negative effect on team performance. In addition, affiliative humor has a moderating effect on the relationship between leader-member relationship quality and team performance. The results may serve as suggestions for leaders how to apply humor.