WORKPLACE SOCIAL SUPPORT AND WORK–FAMILY CONFLICT: A META-ANALYSIS CLARIFYING THE INFLUENCE OF GENERAL AND WORK–FAMILY-SPECIFIC SUPERVISOR AND ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT

By E. Kossek, Shaun Pichler, Todd E Bodner, Leslie B. Hammer. Personnel Psychology, 2011

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This article uses meta-analysis to develop a model integrating research on relationships between employee perceptions of general and work–family-specific supervisor and organizational support and work–family conflict. Drawing on 115 samples from 85 studies comprising 72,507 employees, we compared the relative influence of 4 types of workplace social support to work–family conflict: perceived organizational support (POS); supervisor support; perceived organizational work–family support, also known as family-supportive organizational perceptions (FSOP); and supervisor work–family support. Results show work–family-specific constructs of supervisor support and organization support are more strongly related to work–family conflict than general supervisor support and organization support, respectively. We then test a mediation model assessing the effects of all measures at once and show positive perceptions of general and work–family-specific supervisor indirectly relate to work–family conflict via organizational work–family support. These results demonstrate that work–family-specific support plays a central role in individuals’ work–family conflict experiences.

Subfields: Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3e83a969a8f2bf3f3f09a829ddbb11b54246e2bb

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Citations in the corpus

Participate or else!: The effect of participation in decision-making in meetings on employee engagement. (2015, background): “…the literature (Cowardin-Lee, & Soyalp, 2011) and the finding that employees’ perceptions of supervisors influence perceptions of the organization (Kossek et al., 2011), we believe that the relationship between PDM and employee engagement is somewhat dependent upon the environment in which…”
The Contemporary Career: A Work–Home Perspective (2014, background): “The customized career, also conceptualized as an alternative to the traditional linear career (Kossek et al. 2011a, Valcour et al. 2007), is shaped by individual choices made in response to personal and/or family circumstances.”
Family-Supportive Work Environment and Employee Work Behaviors (2013, background): “Although research has not examined the influence of POFS on control over work time, POFS has been shown to negatively influence the experience of work–family conflict, one of the indicators of lack of control over work time (Allen, 2001; Grandey et al., 2007; Kossek et al., 2011).”
Supportive supervisors improve employees' daily lives: The role supervisors play in the impact of daily workload on life satisfaction via work–family conflict (2015, background): “We propose that supervisor work–family support, defined as perceptions that one's manager or supervisor cares about individuals' work–family well-being (Kossek et al., 2011), represents one such buffer.”
Work–Family Conflict and Flexible Work Arrangements: Deconstructing Flexibility (2013, background): “During the past several decades, interest in the topic of work–family conflict and organizational policies that can alleviate it has flourished (Kossek et al., 2011).”