The Effects of Humor Behavior on Adaptive Performance and Contribution to Team Members’ Adaptive Performance: The Mediating Effects of Burnout

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of humor behavior on adaptive performance and contribution to team members‘ adaptive performance. This study also investigated the mediating role of burnout on the relationships between humor behavior and individual adaptive performance & contribution to team members’ adaptive performance based on the theory of psychological resources. The study conducted a survey research to 152 employees in various organizations who work with their team members. Because this study measured adaptive performance and contribution to team members’ adaptive performance using peer-report method, 118 data collected from the sample were appropriate for analysis. The results of this study showed that affiliative humor behavior was negatively related to burnout while aggressive humor behavior was positively related to burnout. Burnout was negatively related to adaptive performance and contribution to team members’ adaptive performance. In addition, the effects of humor behavior on adaptive performance and contribution to team members’ adaptive performance were fully mediated by the burnout. Finally, the implications and the limitations of this study were discussed, suggesting the directions for future research.