Workplace Mentoring : The Roles of Humor Style Agreement, Humor Frequency, and Positive Mentor Humor Style

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the roles of humor style agreement, humor frequency, and positive mentor humor style in workplace mentoring relationships. The author hypothesizes that the aforementioned humor variables contribute to mentoring satisfaction, which subsequently affects four work-related outcomes including: (1) Job satisfaction, (2) affective commitment, (3) work stress, and (4) turnover intentions. Path analysis was used to test a series of nine hypotheses in order to determine the fit of the hypothesized model (N = 54). The results of the path analysis revealed significantly positive path coefficients for all three humor variables on mentoring satisfaction (H1, H2, and H3), mentoring satisfaction on affective commitment and job satisfaction (H4 and H5), and job satisfaction on affective commitment (H6). Additionally, the results revealed a significantly negative path coefficient for affective commitment on turnover intentions (H7). The remaining two hypothesized negative paths including job satisfaction on turnover intentions (H8) and work stress on job satisfaction (H9) were not statistically significant. Several fit indices were employed including RMSEA (0.00), SRMR (0.06), CFI (1.00), and TLI (1.01), which unanimously indicated excellent fit of the model with the data. The implications of the study include: (1) The precedent for humor variables as antecedents of mentoring satisfaction, (2) the support for humor as an important work-related variable, and (3) increased knowledge regarding the effectiveness of workplace mentoring.