Abstract Based on person-environment fit theory and conservation of resources theory, from a bilateral leader-subordinate perspective, through 291 leader-subordinate pairing data, this study explored the impact of subordinates’ receiving and needing leader humor fit on their job performance, as well as the mediating role of subordinates’ emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of leader political skill, using polynomial regression and response surface analysis methods. The results show that: the more misfit of subordinates’ receiving and needing for leader humor, the more subordinates’ emotional exhaustion will result; in the case of leader humor misfit, the level of subordinates’ emotional exhaustion is higher when there is excessive humor compared to insufficient humor; leader humor fit received and needed by subordinates affects their job performance through subordinates’ emotional exhaustion; leader political skill act as a moderator between leader humor fit and subordinates’ emotional exhaustion. The higher the political skill of the leader, the weaker the emotional exhaustion caused by leader humor incongruence.
QIU Xunjie,YU Guilan. The Effect and Mechanism of Subordinates’ Receiving and Needing Leader Humor Fit on Their Job Performance[J]. Chinese Journal of Management, 2023, 20(2): 200-.
