Humor of the Leader: A Source of Creativity of Employees Through Psychological Empowerment or Unethical Behavior Through Perceived Power? The Role of Self-Deprecating Behavior

Hassan Ali; Asif Mahmood; Ayyaz Ahmad; Amir Ikram

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635300

Humor of the Leader: A Source of Creativity of Employees Through Psychological Empowerment or Unethical Behavior Through Perceived Power? The Role of Self-Deprecating Behavior

Front Psychol. 2021 Sep 3:12:635300. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.635300. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Hassan Ali¹, Asif Mahmood², Ayyaz Ahmad³, Amir Ikram¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Business and Management, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.
² Department of Business Studies, Namal Institute, Mianwali, Pakistan.
³ Institute of Quality and Technology Management, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.

Abstract

Although we use humor in our daily communication, there still needs to cognize its effects on the attitudes and behavior of the employees. Based on benign violation theory (BVT), the study proposes that leader's humor (LH) conveys social information about counter norms. The BVT has been amalgamated with social information processing theory (SIPT) to develop hypotheses assuming the consequences of LH on the attitude and behavior of the employees. This study hypothesizes that even though LH is linked positively with employee creativity via leader-member exchange and psychological empowerment in sequence (blessing path), it may also send information to the employees about the acceptability of norm violation. This perception ultimately leads to power perception and, causes unethical behavior in the series (curse path). Moreover, this study also postulates that leader's self-deprecating humor (LSDH) moderates these indirect effects by enhancing the blessing and reducing the curse, which emerged from LH. Quantitative data of 630 software engineers from software houses based in Pakistan provided support to test the hypotheses. The results demonstrate that LH is a double-edge sword that enhances blessing (creativity) as well as curse (employee unethical behavior), whereas LSDH augments the blessing and throttles back the curse. Theoretical and managerial implications have also been discussed.

Keywords: employee creativity; leader's self-deprecating humor; leader's sense of humor; leader-member exchange; perceive power; psychological empowerment; unethical behavior.