The influence of leader humor on employee constructive deviance: a multi-method approach

This study employed a multi-method approach to explore the relationship between leader humor and employee constructive deviance. We first carried out a scenario-based experiment to examine the causal relationship between antecedents (leader humor, LMX and proactive personality) and constructive deviance. We then carried out a two-wave questionnaire survey to replicate the results of study 1 and to unveil the underlying mechanism between leader humor and employee constructive deviance and its boundary condition. In addition, we applied the fsQCA method to explore the combined effects of the three antecedents and three demographic variables (gender, age, and educational level). The results show that: (1) leader humor promotes employee constructive deviance; (2) LMX mediates the relationship between individual-level leader humor and employee constructive deviance; (2) employee proactive personality is positively related to constructive deviance; (3) proactive personality moderates the mediation effect of individual-level leader humor on constructive deviance through LMX; (4) there are three equifinal pathways to constructive deviance, with leader humor and proactive personality emerging as primary enablers. LMX-driven constructive deviance is more prevalent among younger employees, whereas proactive personality-driven constructive deviance predominates among those with lower education level.