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

Yue Yuan (), Qi Zhang () and Mengxi Yang ()
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Yue Yuan: Tsinghua University
Qi Zhang: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Mengxi Yang: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Asian Business & Management, 2023, vol. 22, issue 2, No 3, 529-548

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Leader humor; Incivility; Psychological safety; Leader moral identity; Signaling theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1057/s41291-022-00180-8

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