Predictive Power of Humor Types in Explaining Leadership Styles in Different Organizations

Özet

Purpose – Humor could act as a therapeutic agent for the employees by creating an entertaining environment. It is also considered as a valuable administrative tool to increase production and workers’ productivity. Leadership, on the other hand, is an important component of all kinds of organizations. Humor and leadership have been studied extensively in a variety of contexts. Although the relationship between humor types and leadership styles has become a topic of interest for the researchers, the predictive power of humor types in explaining leadership styles has not been studied. The aim of this study is to find out whether the subordinates’ views regarding the type of their leaders differ and the type of humor predict leadership style of the managers. Design/methodology/approach – The study employed survey research design. To this end, 225 subordinates working at different organizations in a city located in Black Sea Region, Turkey participated in the study. In order to collect data Leadership Style Scale and Humor Behavior Scale were used. Findings – The findings of the study revealed that the subordinates working for different institutions mostly think that their managers are transactional leaders. In addition, the results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that humor types predict leadership styles at different levels. Discussion – The results of this study revealed that leadership styles differ depending on the type of organization. It can be argued that most of the subordinates in the organizations where the managers are appointed believes that their managers have the qualities of a transactional leader.