Compassion fatigue, which results from empathy, is associated with many negative consequences. However, limited attention has been devoted to the compassion fatigue of employees in the tourism and hospitality sector, particularly within the context of service failures. To mitigate the potential negative impact of compassion fatigue on employees, this research reveals how leader humor alleviates employees' compassion fatigue via three scenario-based experiments. Findings show that leader humor affects employees' compassion fatigue through the mediating effect of perceived organizational support. Additionally, this research uncovers the moderating roles of leader hypocrisy and power distance beliefs. Results expand the literature on compassion fatigue and leader humor. This study also offers suggestions to guide tourism and hospitality organizations in using leader humor wisely to minimize employees’ compassion fatigue, particularly among staff with low power distance beliefs and in cases of low leader hypocrisy.

中文翻译：

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一笑而过：领导者的幽默如何缓解员工在服务失败时的同情心疲劳？


由同理心引起的同情疲劳会带来许多负面后果。然而，人们对旅游和酒店业员工的同情疲劳的关注有限，特别是在服务失败的情况下。为了减轻同情疲劳对员工的潜在负面影响，这项研究通过三个基于场景的实验揭示了领导者幽默如何减轻员工的同情疲劳。研究结果表明，领导者的幽默感通过感知组织支持的中介作用影响员工的同情心疲劳。此外，这项研究还揭示了领导者虚伪和权力距离信念的调节作用。结果扩展了有关同情疲劳和领导者幽默的文献。这项研究还提供了建议，指导旅游和酒店组织明智地利用领导者的幽默感，最大限度地减少员工的同情疲劳，特别是在权力距离信念较低的员工和领导者虚伪程度较低的情况下。