【Abstract】Workplace humor is ubiquitous, yet scholars know little about how it affects employees' behaviors in organizations. We draw on an emerging psychological theory of humor—benign violation theory—to suggest that a leader's sense of humor often conveys counter-normative social information in organizations. We integrate this theory with social information processing theory to develop hypotheses about the effects of a leader's sense of humor on follower behavior. We suggest that although a leader's sense of humor is positively associated with leader member exchange and ultimately work engagement, it can also signal to followers the acceptability of norm violation at work. These perceptions in turn are positively associated with followers' deviance. Furthermore, we propose that these indirect effects are moderated by leader aggressive humor. Data from two three-wave field studies in China and the United States provide support for our hypotheses. Taken together, our results suggest that a leader's sense of humor can be a mixed blessing and elicit unforeseen negative behaviors from their followers.
【Keywords】 benign violation theory; leader sense of humor; deviance; norm violations; work engagement
作者：Kai Chi Yam, Michael Christian, Wu Wei*, Zhenyu Liao, Jared Nai. 卫武为本文的通讯作者。
该文于2018年2月发表于Academy of Management Journal，2018, Vol. 61, No. 1, 348–369.该杂志为美国管理学会(AOM)会刊，是美国管理学会(AOM)旗舰期刊，是国际管理类的UT24种期刊之一，国际公认的最顶级的管理领域期刊，2016年5年影响因子为11.901，属于我院管理领域英文A类期刊，卫武教授是国内本土博士中为数不多在此期刊上发表论文的学者之一。
