The state of research on leader humor

Abstract

During the past two decades, the burgeoning literature on leader humor has documented various ways that humor enables leadership effectiveness. Yet there are problems of construct clarity and measurement associated with leader humor, as well as unanswered questions related to the theoretical frameworks and predictive value of leader humor. We provide a systematic review on leader humor, in which we address the issues of constructs—trait humor versus (behavioral) humor expression—and associated measures, discuss the main and emerging theoretical frameworks, assess the empirical literature via a meta-analysis and path analyses, and offer directions for future research. Our review not only offers theoretical insights for this research area, but also presents empirical gaps and opportunities through a quantitative summary.