Family‐supportive supervisor behaviors: A review and recommendations for research and practice

Abstract

Family-supportive supervisors empathize with employees' attempts to balance work and nonwork, while also actively facilitating employees' ability to manage work and nonwork demands. Over the last three decades, approximately 60 publications have investigated family-supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB), with one third of these appearing in just the last 3 years. Thus, as the burgeoning FSSB literature continues to develop, there is a critical need to understand this body of work in totality in order to further advance theory, expand empirical investigation of the construct, and facilitate the practical dissemination of FSSB-related information into organizational settings. We conduct the first comprehensive and systematic review of the FSSB literature to date. More specifically, we discuss early formative work establishing the construct of FSSB, existing theory, antecedents, outcomes, moderators, and interventions. Lastly, we provide a number of future directions for this subject area related to construct clarification, theory, expanding the FSSB nomological network, methodology, and interventions. KEYWORDSfamily-supportive supervisor behaviors, FSSB, social support, work-nonwork interface

FSSBs and Elderly Care: Exploring the Role of Organizational Context on Employees’ Overall Health and Work–Family Balance Satisfaction

“…First of all, our findings demonstrate that the presence of a supportive and resourceful work environment (POS) enables FSSBs, while time pressure and negative consequences of using work-family initiatives prevent the display of FSSBs (Bakker & Demerouti, 2003;Bakker & Sanz-Vergel, 2013). This finding deepens our knowledge of the antecedents of FSSBs (Crain & Stevens, 2018) and addresses the lack of empirical evidence particularly from an organizational culture perspective . Understanding what drives FSSBs is crucial in the light of the evidence that they constitute practical and relatively lesscostly interventions that organizations can capture to drive the subordinates' functioning at work (Kossek et al, 2017;Bond et al, 2006;Burch et al, 2018).…”

“…In a growing field of research, studies have mainly focused on the consequences of FSSBs, overlooking the question of what drives supervisors to engage in these behaviors (Crain & Stevens, 2018). Among the few studies that explored the triggers of FSSBs, a predominant focus has been on the characteristics of supervisors (e.g., workaholism, LMX) who engage in FSSBs.…”

“…Accordingly, our first goal is to introduce an organizational-culture perspective and explore how working in a supportive and unsupportive work environment impacts the FSSBs. Such a focus is important because FSSBs are low cost and informal practices of driving employee performance (Hammer et al, 2009;Crain & Stevens, 2018); thus, understanding the nature and characteristics of organizations that facilitate FSSBs holds strategic importance for organizations and for employees (Hammer, Kossek, Bodner, & Crain, 2013). To capture the former, we introduce a resource angle and integrate perceived organization (POS) support, which is defined as employees' general belief that their organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being (Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, & Sowa, 1986;Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002).…”

Precarious working conditions and psychosocial work stress act as a risk factor for symptoms of postpartum depression during maternity leave: results from a longitudinal cohort study

“…Previous research suggests that various family-speci c support systems, such as family friendly organizational policies and climate can reduce WPC (76). A growing body of research has investigated family-supportive supervisors, i.e., supervisors at work who promote the management of work and non-work responsibilities and acknowledge their employees private life (77,78). Facilitating family-supportive supervisors through training might be an effective approach to improve employee work, family, and health outcomes (77).…”

The Impact of Family Supportive Supervisor Behavior on Employee’s Proactive Behavior: A Study of a Moderated Mediating Effect

“…Although Chinese researchers have begun to pay attention to this field, the relevant research is not much. Although a few studies have shown that family supportive working environment can affect employees' attitudes and behaviors such as job satisfaction, job engagement, turnover tendency and job performance [8]. However, few studies have explored the influence of FSSB on employees' extra-role behaviors in the workplace.…”