From “haha” το “aha” moments in the workplace: Workplace humour on creativity, the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of gender

This study examines how workplace humor climate relates to employee involvement in creative work within organizational settings, focusing on the mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of gender. Drawing on research on workplace climate and creativity, we propose that humor climates shape creative engagement through employees’ perceptions of interpersonal safety, with effects that vary across gendered workplace experiences. Using a moderated mediation analytic approach, two parallel moderated mediation models were tested in a sample of 397 employees in Greece, one examining positive humor climate and one examining negative humor climate as the independent variable. In both models, perceived psychological safety was specified as a mediator and gender as a moderator of the direct relationship between humor climate and creative involvement. Results indicate that positive humor climate is associated with higher levels of psychological safety, which in turn relate to greater involvement in creative work, with gender differentiating the strength of the direct association. In contrast, negative humor climate is associated with lower psychological safety, while also exhibiting a gender-contingent direct relationship with creative involvement. Taken together, the findings point to workplace humor climate as a context-dependent social and psychological factor shaping employee creativity through affective safety and gendered identity dynamics, underscoring the relevance of inclusive humor norms and psychologically safe environments.