Trickle-down effects of supervisors’ family-to-work enrichment and conflict: the roles of supervisor support and dyadic similarity

Drawing upon the Conservation of Resources theory and Relational Demography Theory, we examine the crossover of supervisor family experiences to subordinates in the workplace. We posit that supervisor family-to-work enrichment and conflict influence subordinate perceptions of supervisor support for work–family, which, in turn, positively affects subordinate work engagement and job satisfaction and negatively affects subordinate turnover intentions. The effects of supervisor family-to-work enrichment and conflict on perceptions of supervisor support are respectively suggested to be strengthened and weakened by the demographic similarity between the supervisor and the subordinate.

Using a sample of 496 employees nested within 83 supervisors from China, we conducted a multilevel analysis.

Our results indicate that supervisor family-to-work conflict and supervisor family-to-work enrichment have negative and positive effects (respectively) on subordinates’ perceptions of supervisor work–family support, and this effect is moderated by low, rather than high, similarity in the supervisor–subordinate dyad. An overall indirect effect of supervisor family-to-work enrichment and family-to-work conflict on subordinate work engagement, job satisfaction and turnover intentions through the mediator of perceived supervisor work–family support is also confirmed.

From a practical standpoint, our research emphasizes the importance for organizations to support supervisors in achieving work–family balance in order to promote positive employee work-related outcomes.

Our study contributes to work–family literature by unraveling how and when resources may travel through supervisors to affect the generation of new resources (i.e. supervisor support for work–family) and ultimately affect subordinate outcomes in the workplace.