The relationship between organizational sense of humor, job stress and affective commitment: Mediating role of communication satisfaction

One of the most important factors of employee satisfaction is the quality of the level of communication in the workplace. As employees express their opinions and feel that they are understood their satisfaction level increases. One of the ways to increase communication satisfaction is by utilizing "sense of humor" in organizations. Humor is an essential component of organizational communication. If it is used correctly, it can be a functional tool to develop organizational communication, decrease job stress and improve affective commitment. The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between organizational sense of humor, communication satisfaction, job stress and affective commitment. 223 participants from various industries which were both white and blue collar workers, from different positions, took part in the research. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between supervisory sense of humor and communication satisfaction while job stress is negatively correlated with affective commitment and communication satisfaction. Furthermore, communication satisfaction mediates the relationship between job stress and affective commitment. Additionally, organizational sense of humor explains the majority of the variance in the affective commitment. This study intends to provide further contribution to the organizational behavior literature by pointing out managerial implications of the organizational humor, communication satisfaction, job stress and affective commitment, and the relationships among them. This is one of the pioneering studies exploring the relationships between these concepts. Key Words: Humor, communication, affective commitment, stress