Understanding the effects of (dis)similarity in affiliative and aggressive humor styles between supervisor and subordinate on LMX and energy

Abstract Prior studies on humor have primarily focused on the effects of either leader or subordinate humor styles and thus have neglected the influence of (dis)similarity in humor styles between supervisor and subordinate. We draw on the similarity-attraction perspective to suggest that (dis)similarity in supervisor’s and subordinate’s affiliative and aggressive humor influences workplace energy via the leader-member exchange (LMX). Results show that LMX is higher when leader and subordinate both display high-affiliative and low-aggressive humor behaviors. Furthermore, LMX is higher when a low-affiliative humor subordinate is paired with a high-affiliative humor leader and when a high-aggressive humor subordinate is paired with a low-aggressive humor leader. Our findings reveal that LMX mediated the relationship between (dis)similarity in humor styles and employee energy. Taken together, our results contribute to the understanding of the effects of similarity and dissimilarity in humor behaviors in energic relational processes.