Is negative workplace humor really all that "negative"? Workplace humor and hospitality employees' job embeddedness

Abstract

The hospitality industry is known to have a relatively higher turnover rate. Job embeddedness (JE) was identified as an effective solution of voluntary turnover. Building on the Social Exchange Theory, the current study investigates the relationships among hospitality employees’ workplace humor, perceived workplace fun and organizational JE. Two studies using two different samples were conducted to examine the proposed relationships. Structural Equation Modeling was employed for hypotheses testing. Both studies suggested that hospitality employees’ use of affiliative humor and aggressive humor at workplace were positively associated with their perception of supervisor support for fun as well as coworker socializing. Furthermore, perceived supervisor support for fun was positively related to hospitality employees’ organizational JE. Only full-time hospitality employees’ perceived coworker socializing was positively associated with their organizational JE. The research provided useful human resource management practices for hospitality businesses in the U.S.