Was that Zinger Supposed to Sting? The Interaction Between Humor Use and Abusive Supervision

We investigate how a leader’s use of humor might change the perceptions of that leader’s feedback, which then influences perceptions of leader-member exchange (LMX). Additionally, we explore how employee coping humor and situational attributions impact this relationship. A 2 (Leader Behavior: Abusive, Supportive) × 2 (Leader Humor: Present, Not Present) between-subjects experimental design was utilized ( N = 467). Participants read a vignette describing an interaction between a leader and a subordinate and imagined themselves as the subordinate. Leader feedback interacted with both humor condition and employee coping humor to predict abusive supervision (AS). Furthermore, these behaviors indirectly affected LMX through AS. Both injury attributions and performance attributions moderated the relationship between abusive supervision and LMX. We discuss the interplay of leader behaviors, humor use, and coping humor as employee job resources. There is evidence of a potential harmful effect of humor use by leaders on employee AS perceptions and subsequently on LMX perceptions, specifically in situations without abusive behaviors. Leader use of humor is not always positive when providing feedback to employees. If leaders provide positive feedback and then joke with employees, they can be perceived as abusive.