A distinct look at a transcendental phenomenon: The grounded theory model of leader humor

Abstract Humor is an important quality and a key factor in communication. This qualitative study aims to design a sense of humor model for university leaders by adopting grounded theory and an interpretive paradigm. The study population was 24 Iranian university professors who were selected via targeted sampling until theoretical saturation was reached. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The axial category was named “leader humorous behavior” and the main attributes of humor were “benign violation” and “moderation.” This study is the first to highlight the importance of moderation in humorous behavior (frequency and repetition) as an important attribute of leader humor rather than benign violation, which can have negative and unwanted outcomes for both leader and followers despite positive and constructive content. The final model identifies sense of humor as the cause of leader humorous behavior, organizational factors as the correlated cause, and the mediators, moderators, context, and consequences of the leader humorous behavior. The results show that sense of humor is the most important factor in followers’ perception and interpretation of leader humorous behavior. Moreover, the positive outcomes of leader humorous behavior increase humor expression in organizations over time, prevent misunderstandings of leader humorous behavior, and enrich leaders’ sense of humor by increasing their experience and insights into norms and appropriate situations. This study lays the foundation for a proper understanding of the different aspects of leader humorous behavior and its implementation in organizations, and introduces humor as a positive ethical behavior with potentially positive outcomes.