Does a family-supportive supervisor reduce the effect of work-family conflict on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions? A moderated mediation model

Purpose This study aims to answer how family-supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB) reduces work–family conflict (WFC), family–work conflict (FWC) and employee turnover intention. Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study examines the direct and indirect effects of emotional exhaustion between WFC/FWC and turnover intention. Moreover, this study explores FSSB moderated the role relationship between WFC/FWC and emotional exhaustion. Design/methodology/approach This study draws time-lagged data from two phases of a survey of health-care workers working in Chinese hospitals. In the first phase, data on WFC/FWC and turnover were collected from 407 workers. In second round, 387 employees express their feeling about emotional exhaustion and supportive supervisor behavior toward support family members. The data was collected from health-care workers, and a moderated mediation technique was tested using structural equation model-AMOS. Findings The findings of this study show that the positive relation between WFC/FWC and emotional exhaustion is high for employees with lower family-supportive supervisors than those with higher family-supportive supervisors. This finding provides further insight into the mechanism of how family and work conflicts impact turnover intention. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study based on the conservation of resources theory, the relationship between WFC/FWC and turnover intention, considering the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effects of FSSB. This paper proposes that FSSB can reduce WFCs, addressing a significant research gap in the literature.