Affiliative and aggressive humor in leadership and their effects on employee voice: a serial mediation model

Abstract

Drawing on social exchange theory and social identity theory, we examine the effects of leader affiliative and aggressive humor on employee voice and propose leader–member exchange (LMX) and organizational identification (OID) as two mediators. Analysis of data from 391 employees revealed that leader affiliative humor had a positive indirect effect on employee voice through LMX and subsequently through OID, while leader aggressive humor had a negative indirect effect on employee voice through LMX and subsequently through OID. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.