When Humor Heals: How Laughter Protects Against the Harm of Bad Leadership

What is it about?

This study examines how job dissatisfaction can lead to workplace deviance and how two factors—abusive leadership and adaptive humor—shape this process. It investigates whether unhappy employees are more prone to harmful behaviors such as withholding effort or breaking rules and how these effects depend on leadership style and humor use. The authors argue that dissatisfaction drains emotional resources, fueling misconduct, whereas humor helps restore energy and curb negative reactions. Using two-wave survey data from employees in Pakistani organizations, the study finds that job dissatisfaction increases deviant behavior, especially under abusive supervision or when adaptive humor is lacking. Employees mistreated by leaders experience stronger frustration and retaliatory urges, whereas those who use humor constructively are less affected. Notably, humor’s protective effect is strongest amid abusive leadership, helping employees reframe distress, ease emotional strain, and weaken the link between dissatisfaction and deviance. For organizations, these results underscore the value of fostering both healthy leadership and resilience-based personal resources. Preventing abusive behavior among supervisors is crucial to curbing workplace deviance, but so is equipping employees with adaptive coping tools like humor. Training programs that promote positive leadership and emotional adaptability can create a more respectful and psychologically safe workplace, reducing the risk that dissatisfaction turns destructive.

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Photo by Azwedo L.LC on Unsplash

Photo by Azwedo L.LC on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research is unique in linking job dissatisfaction to deviant workplace behavior through the lens of emotional resource theory, while also identifying how leadership and personal humor interact to shape this connection. It highlights humor not merely as a social trait but as a psychological buffer that helps employees manage frustration under abusive conditions. The integration of contextual and individual moderators provides a richer understanding of how emotional regulation can prevent destructive outcomes. The study is timely in light of growing global concern about toxic leadership and workplace well-being. In Pakistan and similar contexts where power hierarchies can heighten vulnerability to mistreatment, this research offers a constructive message: even when dissatisfaction and disrespect prevail, cultivating adaptive humor can help employees maintain emotional balance and protect organizations from the fallout of negative emotions.