Being a family supportive team leader: Implications for team emotional climate and performance

Abstract The impact of family‐supportive supervision at the team level has largely not been explored. Since teams are the cornerstone of organizational effectiveness, it is critical to understand how family‐supportive managers can lead teams to achieve higher performance. We develop and test a team‐level moderated mediation model that unpacks the team‐level impact of Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviours (FSSB) on team performance. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we hypothesize that a team's other‐focused emotional climate mediates the positive effects of team FSSB on team performance and that managers' relational job characteristics attenuate the positive influence of team FSSB. Results from a two‐wave, multi‐source study of 435 employees and their managers across 56 electronic retail stores support our predictions. These findings advance current multi‐level theorizing on FSSB by shedding new light on how and when family‐supportive managers can drive team performance. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.