High conflict, high performance? A time-lagged study on work-family conflict and family support congruence and safety performance

Numerous studies have pointed out the detrimental effects of work-family conflict on safety performance. However, we attempt to challenge common sense and focus on explaining why individuals with work-family conflict maintain a high safety performance. Drawing on the work-home resource theory, this study investigates the effects of work-family conflict and family support on safety performance and the mediating role of positive affect, to explain why and how work-family conflict coexists with high safety performance. We tested hypotheses using a time-lagged study of three waves over seven months with 378 employees by response surface analysis based on objective safety performance data. The data were collected in China from August 2022 to March 2023. This study indicates that when work-family conflict and family support are congruent, individuals experience higher positive affect and safety performance. This study also suggests that positive affect mediates the impact of the congruence of work-family conflict and family support on safety performance. The findings advance the understanding of the relationship between work-family conflict and safety performance. This study also highlights the critical role of family support on the safety performance of individuals with unavoidable high work-family conflict.