Work-Family Balance and Thriving at Work: The Joint Influence of Supervisor Support, Family Support, and Family Motivation

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Abstract: Individual employees face a variety of demands and utilize a range of resources in multiple life domains, and achieving work-life balance can be an especially important and challenging endeavor. When individuals do attain a satisfactory work-life balance, they feel a sense of alignment between their own personal values and their role demands. In the present study, it is posited that when role support conies from the workplace, the family, and from within the individual, employees will feel satisfaction with work-family balance and experience increased thriving at work. Results of a two-part online study of 554 working adults in the United States provide some empirical support for the hypotheses. Specifically, as predicted, supervisor support and family motivation were both strongly related with work-life balance satisfaction, which in turn was significantly related with higher levels of workplace thriving. In contrast, family support was not related to work-life balance satisfaction. The indirect effects of support on workplace thriving through work-life balance were significant for supervisor support and marginally significant for family motivation. The findings are then discussed in relation to the conservation of resources theory and highlight implications for future research and practice.

Keywords: Work-family balance, thriving at work, family-supportive supervisor behaviors, family motivation. Organizational behavior.

At the end of the day, individuals leave the workplace and return to their personal lives. The various life domains and personal circumstances that employees face are potentially highly unique to each individual, with each domain coming with its own demands, challenges, and resources. With demands coming from both work and non-work, it is especially important to find balance in one's life (e.g., Kurtzleben, 2013). One key challenge that employees typically face is finding a balance between the demands of their families and the demands of their work (Valcour, 2007). When a balance between different roles is achieved, individuals feel satisfied with work, life, and family (Casper et al., 2018).

Despite the importance and benefits that can come from balancing family and work demands, there exist many differences in how the construct is defined (Casper et al., 2018; Greenhaus and Allen, 2011). The construct of balance has been defined in terms of having no conflict, having both low conflict and high enrichment, and a feeling of contentment resulting from success...