Humor as a Relationship Lubricant: The Implications of Leader Humor on Transformational Leadership Perceptions and Team Performance

Abstract

In this article, drawing on leader categorization theory, we examined the influencing processes of team leaders’ humor on their teams’ performance. Using a time-lagged study, including 244 leaders and 815 followers in a manufacturing firm in Northern China, we found that leaders’ humor is positively related to subordinates’ perceptions of transformational leadership, which in turn, has a positive effect on the team’s performance. In addition, we found that the relationship conflict between a team leader and his or her team members moderates the positive, indirect effect of leader humor on team performance through subordinates’ transformational leadership perceptions. When the relationship conflict between the leader and his or her team members is high, leader’s humor becomes more relevant to subordinates’ perceptions of leader’s transformational leadership, and therefore exerts a stronger positive influence on team performance. The model developed in this study furthered the current understandings on leader humor and its usefulness in practical settings.