Work-Family Conflict and Burnout Amid COVID-19: Exploring the Mitigating Effects of Instrumental Leadership and Social Belonging

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought disruptions to government workplaces, including abrupt transitions to remote work for many employees. Remote work can offer a physically distant environment and greater flexibility for individual employees and organizations; remote work also creates or exacerbates potential work-life balance tensions. Drawing on Job-Demands Resources theory, we propose that two organizational resources, instrumental leadership (a vertical organizational resource) and a sense of social belonging (a horizontal organizational resource), help prevent burnout by alleviating conflict between work- and family-life activities. Using survey responses from local government employees collected during the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020), we show that employees with a strong sense of social belonging experience less work-family conflict and, in turn, report lower levels of burnout. We also find that social belonging, as a horizontal organizational resource, appears more important for reducing burnout in a period characterized by disruption than the more formal, vertical resource of instrumental leadership.

The role of employee assistance programs under COVID‐19‐induced work–family conflict: Effects on service employees' work engagement and burnout

“…Our research results show that the employee assistance program has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between COVID‐19‐induced stress and WFC/FWC. From the JD‐R model, this might be explained by the EAP elevating service employees' sense of self‐resources (Allgood et al ., 2022; Bakker et al ., 2003; Demerouti et al ., 2001), and so allowing them to devote more resources and energy to the job (Bakker et al ., 2019; Sonnentag, Cheng & Parker, 2022). This creates a positive effect, decreasing WFC and reducing the tendency toward burnout.…”

“…Thus, they tend to devote more resources to their family roles, which then affects their subsequent physical and mental state at work (Lee & Tsai, 2022). Second, when an organization is able to assist employees in the work and home domains through the implementation of an employee assistance program (EAP), the resources provided by the organization allow employees to have more time and energy to deal with the tasks and responsibilities of the work and home domains (Allgood et al ., 2022). This seems to coincide with the motivational and energy‐depleting processes posited by the JD‐R model.…”

“…Such high WFC means an individual has to invest additional energy to deal with conflict both at home and at work (Pluut, Ilies, Su, Weng & Liang, 2022). This gradually erodes and finally exhausts personal resources (Bakker et al ., 2019) and results in emotional exhaustion (Allgood et al ., 2022; Shao, Fang, Wang, Chang & Wang, 2021; Tsai, 2022). For service employees, WFC (as a result, for example, of unstable and long work hours) is likely to exhaust personal resources and lead to burnout.…”

“…Adequate job resources can enhance employees' motivation, mitigate the negative states caused by resource depletion and loss, and increase work engagement and job performance (Bakker, Demerouti & Sanz‐Vergel, 2014; Demerouti & Bakker, 2011; Demerouti & Bakker, 2022). Researchers view EAPs as the resources provided to employees by organizations in the work and home domains (Allgood et al ., 2022). Therefore, from the JD‐R perspective, this study proposes to include employee assistance program as a moderating variable to explore whether the system can function as a job resource and thus mitigate the negative outcomes of perceived stress from COVID‐19.…”

A Multi-stage Dynamic Incentive Model for Construction Project Managers From the Perspective of Work-Family Conflict

“…The overall demands of the job, the amount of time required, and the stress produced make it difficult for the CPMs to fulfill obligations to family members. 35 k 2 FWC Family demands may cause CPMs to invest more resources in the family domain, which causes them to be unable to focus on their work, and reduces the CPMs' ability to complete their work. 36 β t WR The organization provides vital resources such as job autonomy.…”