领导幽默风格对团队内部学习的影响

Leader’s Humor Styles and Their Affect on Local Group Learning

采用幽默风格量表(HSQ)、领导成员交换量表(LMX-16)和团队内部学习问卷,以325名事业单位员工为调查对象,研究了领导幽默风格和团队内部学习、领导成员交换的关系。结果发现:(1)亲和型领导幽默和自强型领导幽默正向影响团队内部学习,嘲讽型领导幽默和自贬型领导幽默负向影响团队内部学习。(2)亲和型领导幽默和嘲讽型领导幽默对团队内部学习的影响完全通过领导成员交换起作用,自强型领导幽默对团队内部学习的影响部分通过领导成员交换起作用。(3)自强型领导幽默与嘲讽型领导幽默通过领导成员交换对团队内部学习的影响都大于亲和型领导幽默。

Humor is divided into four styles(affiliative humor, self-enhancing humor, aggressive humor and self-defeating humor) based on whether it is positive or negative and whether it points to oneself or others(Martin, 2003). Local group learning refers to knowledge acquisition, sharing, and combination activities happened in the group(Wong, 2004). Leader-Member Exchange(LMX) means bidirectional social exchange for leaders and members.It shows that leader’s style have effect on sharing behaviors in group(Robert & Wilbanks, 2012). However, the studies exploring the relationship between leader’s humor styles and local group learning are limited. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between leader’s humor style and local group learning and the mediating role of LMX. The differences of the mediating effects among four humor styles are explored as well.Based on humor style model and LMX model, a mediating model was established. Totally 325 employees from different companies were asked to respond Humor Style Questionnaire(HSQ), 16-item Leader-Member Exchange Questionnaire(LMX-16) and Local Group Learning Questionnaire. The data was analyzed by SPSS 17.0 and Mplus 7.0.The results indicated that(1) Leader’s affiliative humor and leader’s self-enhancing humor had positive effects on local group learning, while leader’s aggressive humor and leader’s self-defeating humor had negative effects on local group learning.(2) LMX completely mediated the relationship between leader’s affiliative humor and local group learning(a1 b =.077, p <.01;c1’ =-.043, p =.438). LMX partly mediated the relationship between leader’s self-enhancing humor and local group learning(a2 b =.075, p <.001;c2’ =-.241, p <.01). LMX completely mediated the relationship between leader’s aggressive humor and local group learning(a3 b =-.157, p <.001;c3’ =.018, p =.788).(3) Leader’s self-defeating humor had a negative but insignificant effect on local group learning(a4 b =.016, p =.523;c4’ =.099, p =.085). The mediating effect between leader’s selfenhancing humor and local group learning was stronger than the one between leader’s affiliative humor and local group learning(|a1 b|-|a2 b| =-.134, p <.01). The mediating effect between leader’s aggressive humor and local group learning was stronger than the one between leader’s affiliative humor and local group learning(|a1 b|-|a3 b| =-.095, p <.05).The study compared four leader’s humor styles in one model and explored different mechanisms between them and local group learning, and confirmed the mediating role of LMX as well. Besides, it was the first time to discuss the effect of the leader’s self-defeating humor on local group learning. All these findings have great influence on humor theories and further studies of leader’s humor styles. Besides, the conclusion of this article provides several suggestions for companies and leaders. For example, leaders should learn to use positive humor rather than negative humor to enhance local group learning. Self-enhancing humor is the most effective humor to enhance local group learning than the others, which could be a training topic for leaders.