Why and When Employee Perceptions of Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviours Enrich Partner Relationship Satisfaction and Affective Wellbeing

Abstract

The management of employee work-family experience has become an important strategic human resource management topic for organisations. With the increasing emphasis of employee work-family interaction, senior management begin to examine how a leader can create positive work-family impact through practicing family-supportive behaviour. This study extends the utility of the work-home resource model and hypothesises family-supportive supervisor behaviours predict employee work-family balance satisfaction at work and social emotion to partner, which ultimately lead to partner relationship satisfaction and affective wellbeing at home. This study also draws on the social information processing theory and Lazarus transaction model of stress to examine the moderating roles of manager behaviour integrity and employee workload pressure in between family supportive supervisor behaviours and employee work-family balance satisfaction at home. Based on 133 employee-partner dyads data from a 10-day quantitative diary study design, this study reveals that family supportive supervisor behaviours improve employees’ work-family balance satisfaction at work and subsequently shape partner relationship satisfaction and affective wellbeing at home. This study also revealed that manager behaviour integrity and employee workload pressure are critical in determining the effectiveness of family supportive supervisor behaviours at work. The findings contribute to the family supportive supervisor behaviours literature by demonstrating how family supportive supervisor behaviours shape the employee family outcomes effectively and provide insight to manager to develop strategic human resources management practises in the organisation.