The Role of Employee Trust in the Relationship Between Leaders’ Aggressive Humor and Knowledge Sharing

Abstract

Purpose– The current paper aims to examine leaders’ aggressive humor's influence on knowledge-sharing among hotel employees. EmployeeTrust is also tested as a moderator variable between this association. Design/methodology– An online questionnaire of 387 customer-contact employees of 38 five-star hotels located in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt provided data on the moderating role of trust in aggressive humor- knowledge-sharing relationships. Using the SEM by the PLS method by SmartPLS3 program, the data were analyzed, and the hypotheses were tested. Findings– Aggressive humor is negatively related to knowledge-sharing among hotel employees. Results also confirm the intervening role of trust as a moderator in the relationship between aggressive humor and knowledge-sharing. Practical implications– The results underscore the trust variable's benefits as a moderator in the relationship between aggressive humor and knowledge-sharing. Originality/value – This paper developed a model for the moderating effect of trust on the association between aggressive humor and knowledge-sharing. Thus, the study fills part of the gap dearth of studies that have examined the impact of negative humor in the workplace.