Leading Interns through Humor: The Role of Humor on the Effectiveness of Leadership Behaviors

Abstract

This paper examined the effectiveness of transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership behaviors on job attitudes and behaviors of an understudied population, the interns. To better understand the drivers of interns’ work outcomes, we hypothesized that supervisor humor would interact with her/his leadership style, sending implicit messages about the organizational and supervisory relationship and thereby affecting interns’ attitudes and behaviors. Using a sample of 168 students enrolled in internship programs, this study empirically examines, through PLS modeling, the moderating effect of humor use (positive and negative) on the relationship between leadership styles and attitudes (job satisfaction and job stress) and behaviors (negligent behaviors and intention to stay). Findings suggest that leadership style was moderated by the use of humor in its relationship with intern’s attitudinal and behavioral responses, such as that different leadership behaviors interacted with different types of humor. Implications for further research on the use of humor by leaders in internship programs are discussed.