humor in teams: multilevel relationships between humor climate, inclusion, trust, and citizenship behaviors

This study examines the cross-level influence of positive and offensive leader humor climates on employee inclusion and citizenship behaviors, and the moderating effect of trust in such relationships. we collected data from a sample of 225 respondents nested within 23 teams from a canadian financial organization. a multilevel confirmatory analysis was used to provide evidence that variables of this study are distinct and a hlm analysis to test the hypotheses. we find that employees’ perception of inclusion is influenced much more by an offensive humor climate than by a positive one. the results also suggest that the perception of inclusion plays a significant intermediary role in the influence of humor climates on citizenship behavior. finally, trust in leaders acts as an important contingent condition in the effectiveness of a humor climate. use of humor does not always pay. offensive humor by supervisor is a risky strategy that undermine the beneficial effects of positive humor climate, increase employee exclusion and weaker individual performance. our study shows the utility of using micro- and macro-approaches, and more specifically, the relevance of adopting an integrative multilevel view of the effect of a humor environment in predicting individual inclusion and citizenship behaviors.