The Influence of Humorous Work Climate on Employee Innovative Work Behavior: Evidence from Russia

Innovative work behavior (IWB) is the process of generating, developing, and implementing novel ideas that further result in innovation. To foster IWB, humorous work climate could be used as a motivation mechanism. Hence, this study aims to investigate the influence of humorous climate on employee IWB in Russian banking industry and determine the role of individual differences in this relations. An electronic survey was distributed among back-office workers of a bank. In total, 104 employees participated in the study. Collected data was analyzed in SPSS, using correlation and regression analysis. The results indicate that humorous climate explains approximately 30% of employee IWB. Moreover, employee position is significant, while gender, education, and job tenure are not significant regarding the demonstration of IWB. Therefore, organizational leaders should create and maintain a humorous climate to stimulate workers’ IWB. HR managers should also adjust hiring and T&D processes to ensure the use of humor in the workplace.