This empirical study aims to investigate the effects of self-enhancing humor on two essential outcome variables, career satisfaction and positive deviance, with the mediating effect of well-being.
Data from 651 employees working in various South Asian industries were collected using self-reported questionnaires. A time-lagged study design and a purposive sampling technique were employed for data collection. The findings support the direct and indirect paths through PLS-SEM and supplementary analysis using Process Macro.
The study found that self-enhancing humor is positively associated with well-being, career satisfaction and positive deviance. The findings suggest that integrating humor into professional and personal contexts can promote psychological resilience, enhance career satisfaction and foster creativity.
This study provides practical measures for advancing the workforce’s positive deviance to achieve organizational outcomes. Crucially, maintaining an optimistic career outlook without investing in financial resources enhances the employees’ psychological/physical well-being and positive mentality. In this regard, managers must allow employees to become reasonably humorous. This study relates to the working context by exhibiting the potential ramifications of the results, both in theory and practice.
This research study has applied the theoretical lens of conservation of resource (COR) theory to investigate the outcomes of self-enhancing humor and evaluate the alignment of SDGs with employee outcomes, career satisfaction (Sustainable Development Goals 8) and positive deviance (SDG12) in the presence of the mediating role of employee well-being (SDG3).
