Missed Connections Between the Leadership and Work–Life Fields: Work–Life Supportive Leadership for a Dual Agenda

Kossek, Ellen Ernst; Perrigino, Matthew B.; Russo, Marcello; Morandin, Gabriele

doi:10.5465/annals.2021.0085

Cited by 25 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 229 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…But what is the impact of leadership in employees' achievement of WLB? Kossek et al (2023) point out that extant studies on leadership and WLB are not sufficiently integrated for determining the impact of leadership on WLB, but both constructs examine the management of employees. This article aims to align the literature on WLB and leadership to fully understand the impact of leadership on WLB.…”

Section: Work-life Balance In Briefmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The excerpts above show that a transactional leader cannot be described as what Kossek et al (2023) refer to as a "work-life supportive leader" because of their "give-and-take" nature (p. 183). Transactional leaders are task oriented and results focussed, and they are only willing to support employees' use of WLB policies and practices if it helps them achieve organisational goals.…”

Section: Work-life Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Transformational leadership is more supportive of WLB than transactional leadership because it provides employees with the support that they need to achieve a desirable balance between their work and non-work lives. In other words, a transformational leader can be described as a work-life supportive leader, defined by Kossek et al (2023) as a "leadership characteristic when leaders (1) prioritize actions to provide active support for employees" needs and preferences for managing work, family and personal life roles and (2) are experienced by subordinates as exhibiting such behaviours' (p.186). These findings show how a transformational leader can leverage individualised consideration (Bass, 1985(Bass, , 1990 to create a win-win situation in an organisationa situation in which the organisation achieves its goal (a win) and employees also achieve WLB (another win).…”

Section: Er 462mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Work–life balance: Does leadership matter?

Sani,

Adisa

2024

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThe extant literature on work–life balance (WLB) has generally overlooked the interrelationship between leadership and WLB. Does leadership have any impact on employees' use of WLB policies and practices? To answer this question, this article considers the social exchange theory as well as transformational and transactional leadership in an investigation of the impact of leadership on WLB.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs qualitative data from 32 semi-structured interviews to achieve the study’s objectives.FindingsThe research reveals that leadership does matter in WLB. The study findings reveal that both the transactional and transformational leadership styles result in the establishment of strong reciprocal relationships between leaders and employees in terms of using WLB policies and practices. Managers only sanction the use of WLB policies and practices only as a reward for excellent performance or when they are completely sure the outcome will favour the organisation. The study concludes that the desire to achieve WLB has often led many employees to go the extra mile in carrying out their work duties, which is rewarded with an approval to use WLB policies and practices. These non-contractual exchanges emphasise reciprocity and are based on trust.Research limitations/implicationsThe extent to which the findings of this research can be generalised is constrained by the size and nature of the research sample.Practical implicationsMany managers are transactional leaders, and they purposefully allow their employees to use WLB policies and practices only as a reward for meeting targets and for excellent performance. This means that employees who fall short of the required targets and expected performance are not permitted to use WLB policies and practices. This finding implies that such employees experience incessant work–family conflict, which may have negative implications for their work engagement, overall well-being and work performance.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates that leadership is relevant to WLB. It shows that transformational leadership is supportive of WLB, as it considers employees' work performance and non-work outcomes. The results and practical implications of this study aids the understanding of the non-contractual exchanges involved in manager–employee relationships, which is crucial for ensuring employees' achievement of WLB and for organisations to achieve their goals.

show abstract

Section: Work-life Balance In Briefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Work-life Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Er 462mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Work–life balance: Does leadership matter?

Sani,

Adisa

2024

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast to partner interference, we hypothesize that family supportive supervision mitigates the relationship between IPV and work withdrawal. We focus on work-family related supervisor support—defined as leadership which prioritizes actively supporting employee needs and preferences for managing personal, work, and family life roles (Kossek et al, 2023 )—for several reasons. First, support from supervisors may serve to maintain victims’ employment status.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, work-home resources theory suggests that a family supportive supervisor can help mitigate the consequences of IPV by serving as a protective contextual resource that helps to maintain personal resource levels for a victim (Hobfoll, 1989 ), as well as helping the victim cope with resource depletion caused by IPV (Coker et al, 2002 ). Evidence for this relationship may be found in the “virtuous cycle” process, conceptualized in Kossek et al’s ( 2023 ) review of the work-life support literature. The virtuous cycle describes a situation whereby family supportive supervision is a resource with positive effects on nonwork employee outcomes, which in turn circles back and reduces the potency of negative nonwork experiences on work outcomes (e.g., minimizing the negative effects of IPV on employee work withdrawal).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence, Partner Interference, and Family Supportive Supervision on Victims’ Work Withdrawal

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study investigates the link between intimate partner violence (IPV) and work withdrawal (including absence frequency, partial absenteeism, and turnover intentions) in the context of partners’ interference with victims at work and family supportive supervision of victims at work. Using the work-home resources model, we propose that (1) partner interference with victims at work will worsen the relationship between IPV and work withdrawal, and (2) family supportive supervision of victims at work will alleviate this relationship. Our analysis of a sample of 249 female employees found a three-way interaction between IPV, partner interference, and family supportive supervision on victims’ absence frequency: IPV victims whose partners interfered with their work had lower absence frequency when they received high (compared to low) levels of family supportive supervision at work. Importantly, family supportive supervision was only related to lower absence frequency when both IPV and partner interference were present. This suggests that organizations have a unique opportunity to reduce the negative effects of IPV and partner interference not only for the victim but also for other employees who are indirectly affected. Our findings have significant implications for organizations, which have ethical, legal, and practical responsibilities to create a safe working environment for all employees.

show abstract

Advancing work–life supportive contexts for the “haves” and “have nots”: Integrating supervisor training with work–life flexibility to impact exhaustion or engagement

Kossek,

Porter,

Rosokha

et al. 2024

Human Resource Management

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Employers face many dilemmas in effectively implementing work–life flexibility to support employees' personal lives. A key issue is that some employees hold jobs with limited opportunities for work–life flexibility, making them susceptible to burnout; yet most employers believe they can do little to mitigate this dynamic. Furthermore, even when employees hold jobs with greater access to work–life flexibility, some do not take advantage of their flexibility to more fully engage in work and/or home roles. These issues are further exacerbated when supervisors are unsure of their role in supporting work–life flexibility. We identify work–life supportive context as a key factor that provides solutions to these dilemmas. Drawing on job demands resources theory, we posit that, when organizations provide work–life supportive training to supervisors, it promotes a work–life supportive context (i.e., signaling that the organization is supportive of employees' managing their work–life interface), which mitigates burnout for those with limited work–life flexibility and promotes engagement in work and home roles for those with greater work–life flexibility. Results from a year‐long randomized field experiment suggest that, in contexts with trained supervisors and lower employee control over work schedules and boundaries (i.e., lower work–life flexibility), emotional exhaustion is reduced. In contexts with trained supervisors and higher employee control over work boundaries (i.e., higher work–life flexibility), family engagement increases. Surprisingly, irrespective of job access to work‐life flexibility, supervisor participation in work–life support training did not enhance employee work engagement. Implications of our findings for fostering work–life supportive contexts are considered.

show abstract

Missed Connections Between the Leadership and Work–Life Fields: Work–Life Supportive Leadership for a Dual Agenda

Cited by 25 publications

References 229 publications

Work–life balance: Does leadership matter?

Work–life balance: Does leadership matter?

Intersection of Intimate Partner Violence, Partner Interference, and Family Supportive Supervision on Victims’ Work Withdrawal

Advancing work–life supportive contexts for the “haves” and “have nots”: Integrating supervisor training with work–life flexibility to impact exhaustion or engagement

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About