Good Fun or Laughingstock? How CEO Humor Affects Infomediaries’ Social Evaluations of Organizations

We theorize about how CEOs’ expressions of humor affect infomediaries’ social evaluations of their organizations. Differentiating four types of CEO humor—(1) affiliative, (2) self-enhancing, (3) self-defeating, and (4) aggressive—we propose that each type induces distinct states of mind in infomediaries as well as attributions about the CEO. As our key idea, we then propose that the ultimate impact of CEO humor results from a combination of these primary effects; their (in)congruence with infomediaries’ schemas of the CEO’s essential functions, tasks, and social position; and the unique sociocognitive nature and content of the focal social evaluation construct. We apply our framework to the three social evaluation constructs of (1) social approval, (2) organizational reputation, and (3) organizational legitimacy. Specifically, we propose that affiliative CEO humor and self-enhancing CEO humor generally strengthen approval, reputation, and legitimacy, whereas self-defeating CEO humor weakens all three, and aggressive CEO humor has mixed effects, as it weakens social approval and legitimacy but strengthens reputation. By conceptualizing the implications of CEO humor—a hitherto undertheorized, yet central, element of CEOs’ social behavior—we contribute to scholarly conversations on executive communication, social evaluations, strategic leadership, and organizational humor.