The Impact of Leader's Humor on Employees' Creativity: The Moderating Role of Trust in Leader

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine how leaders humor styles influence employee creativity, and the moderating effects of trust in leader on the relationships between leaders humor styles and employees creativity. The results using 316 valid leader-subordinates pairs (71 leaders and 316 subordinates) from five telecommunication companies in South Korea showed that leaderself-enhancing humor was positively associated with subordinates individual creativity, and leaders aggressive humor was negatively associated with subordinates individual creativity. In addition, trust in leader significantly moderated the relationship between self-enhancing humor and employee creativity. Specifically, the relationship between self-enhancing humor and employee creativity became stronger as trust in leader increased.