Humor and Leader-Member Exchange : how can a leader use different types of humor to create in-groups and out-groups?

Leader Member Exchange theory has significance describing the dyadic relationship between leaders and members, but it fails to explain what communicative acts a leader can use to create high-quality exchanges with members. Humor is a communicative act that can elicit positive responses from others and has many positive consequences in organizational life. This study looks at how four different humor styles correlate with the quality of exchanges between leaders and members. The results indicate that positive humor styles are associated with high-quality exchanges between leaders and members. Humor styles that can elicit negative responses were found to be inversely associated with the quality of exchanges. This research contributes to the literature on LMX by illuminating a potential method that creates high-quality exchanges in the leader-member dyad. This study also adds to the literature on humor by providing an additional outcome or benefit to organizational life.