Does a family-supportive supervisor reduce the effect of work-family conflict on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions? A moderated mediation model

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to answer how family-supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB) reduces work–family conflict (WFC), family–work conflict (FWC) and employee turnover intention. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the direct and indirect effects of emotional exhaustion between WFC/FWC and turnover intention. Moreover, this study explores FSSB moderated the role relationship between WFC/FWC and emotional exhaustion. Design/methodology/approach This study draws time-lagged data from two phases of a survey of health-care workers working in Chinese hospitals. In the first phase, data on WFC/FWC and turnover were collected from 407 workers. In second round, 387 employees express their feeling about emotional exhaustion and supportive supervisor behavior toward support family members. The data was collected from health-care workers, and a moderated mediation technique was tested using structural equation model-AMOS. Findings The findings of this study show that the positive relation between WFC/FWC and emotional exhaustion is high for employees with lower family-supportive supervisors than those with higher family-supportive supervisors. This finding provides further insight into the mechanism of how family and work conflicts impact turnover intention. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study based on the conservation of resources theory, the relationship between WFC/FWC and turnover intention, considering the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effects of FSSB. This paper proposes that FSSB can reduce WFCs, addressing a significant research gap in the literature.

Consequences of workplace bullying on hotel employees: a three-wave longitudinal approach

“…First, our study presents evidence concerning the alliance of bullying and emotional exhaustion, with work alienation mediating their relationship. These findings are in agreement with past research that has examined the connection between bullying and work alienation (Kerse and Babadag, 2019), bullying and emotional exhaustion (Escartín et al , 2021) and work alienation and emotional exhaustion (Guo et al , 2021). Globally, the hospitality and tourism industry has also been critiqued for its stressful service conditions, high dependence on supervisors and power imbalance (Anasori et al , 2020; Wal et al , 2021).…”

“…Second, responding to the frequent calls (Nielsen and Einarsen, 2018; Power et al , 2013; Salin and Notelaers, 2017) concerning the examination of likely underlying mechanisms between bullying and exit intentions, this study has made the first attempt of asserting work alienation and emotional exhaustion as sequential mediators in the bullying – exit intentions relationship. Research in varied settings (Yu et al , 2021; Guo et al , 2021), has affirmed the work alienation-emotional exhaustion linkage. For instance, Guo et al (2021) affirmed this linkage while examining the reasons for knowledge hiding.…”

“…Emotional exhaustion represents a psychological condition marked by fatigue coupled with emotional overstretching wherein employees experience a diminution of emotional resources (Grobelna, 2021;Gull et al, 2023;Maslach et al, 2001;Wright and Cropanzano, 1998). Emotionally exhausted employees often question their employment, show lower allegiance and are more prone to leaving their organization (Li et al, 2020).…”

“…Both, work alienation and emotional exhaustion, are critical psychological conditions influencing employee well-being and burnout and have independently been empirically linked to several negative outcomes (Bayighomog et al, 2021;Grobelna, 2021;Li et al, 2020;Yu et al, 2021). Recent studies have examined emotional exhaustion as a mediator between -incivility and turnover intentions (Gull et al, 2023;Moon and Morais, 2022), bullying and turnover intentions (Srivastava and Agarwal, 2020) and work alienation and knowledge hiding (Guo et al, 2021). Researchers have also found that work alienation mediates the association between authoritarian leadership and employees' unsafe behaviors (Jiang et al, 2019) and laissez-faire leadership and burnout (Usman et al, 2020).…”

“…Researchers have documented how work alienation adversely influences several positive work-associated employee outcomes like performance, affective commitment and altruistic behaviors (Usman et al, 2020;Valentine et al, 2021;Vukeli c et al, 2019). Additionally, emotional exhaustion has also been regarded as an important element of burnout with critical negative consequences such as reduced mental well-being, commitment, job performance and heightened exit intentions (Anasori et al, 2020;Bayighomog et al, 2021;Gull et al, 2023;Yu et al, 2021).…”