HOW DOES LEADER HUMOR PROMOTE EMPLOYEES’ CONSTRUCTIVE DEVIANCE? EXPLORING THE KEY ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL
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Abstract
This study mainly explores the impact of leadership humor on employees’ constructive deviant behavior. From the perspective of the Affective Events Theory (AET), in the normal interaction between employees and leaders, this study regards leadership humor as an emotional event and further analyzes its impact process. The research subjects were working people with work experience and organizational leadership, and the number of valid samples was 501. Through multiple regression analysis, the results of this study show that different types of humorous leadership have various effects on employees: 1) affiliative (aggressive) leadership humor has a positive (negative) impact on employees’ psychological capital, 2) psychological capital has a positive effect on employees’ constructive deviant behavior, 3) future work self-salience, as employees’ intrinsic motivation, enhances the positive impact of affiliative leadership humor and employees’ psychological capital, and expands the impact of employees’ psychological capital on constructive deviant behavior, and 4) employees’ work spirit weakens the impact of aggressive leadership humor and employees’ psychological capital. At the same time, it also enhances the impact of psychological capital on employees’ constructive deviant behavior. In other words, the higher the work spirit of an employee, the better he or she can resist an adverse working environment. If employees are passionate and energetic about their work and have high psychological capital, they will be more likely to engage in constructive deviant behavior. This study constructed a theoretical model of leadership humor and constructive deviant behavior and obtained empirical support. In practice, organizational training can strengthen leaders’ rational use of humor, cultivate employees’ work spirit and career planning abilities, and promote employees to engage in constructive deviant behavior.
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