Lighting the fire of wisdom following humor: How and when leader humor yields team creativity through team knowledge integration capability

•Leader humor was positively related to team knowledge integration capability.•Team knowledge integration capability was positively related to team creativity.•Team knowledge integration capability acted as a crucial mediator.•The impact of leader humor on team creativity relied on team structure. Humor is widely seen as a most promising communication tactic, but little is still known about how it works better, especially at the team level. The present study sets out to solve the question by investigating how and when leader humor enhances team creativity. Drawing upon social information processing theory, Study 1 illuminated that leader humor boosted team creativity through improved team knowledge integration capability, particularly in teams with organic structures. In Study 2, we tested the same model but strengthened its field research design by using a more specific scale of leader humor, choosing upper-level managers rather than team leaders as the raters of team creativity, and controlling for transformational leadership and participative leadership, which enables us to further replicate and extend the results of Study 1. These insights contribute to the leader humor literature and offer valuable guidance for managers.