Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process

Using experience-sampling methodology, the present study offers a within-individual test of the buffering model of social support in the daily work-family conflict process. Building on the conceptualization of social support as a volatile resource, we examine how daily fluctuations in social support...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pluut, H., Ilies, R., Curseu, P., Liu, Yukun
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69620
_version_ 1848762089041035264
author Pluut, H.
Ilies, R.
Curseu, P.
Liu, Yukun
author_facet Pluut, H.
Ilies, R.
Curseu, P.
Liu, Yukun
author_sort Pluut, H.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Using experience-sampling methodology, the present study offers a within-individual test of the buffering model of social support in the daily work-family conflict process. Building on the conceptualization of social support as a volatile resource, we examine how daily fluctuations in social support at work and at home influence the process through which work interferes with family life. A total of 112 employees participated in the study and were asked to respond to daily surveys in the work and home domains. Results showed that social support at work and at home—as volatile resources—buffered the daily work-family conflict process within their respective domains. First, a supportive supervisor mitigated the within-individual effect of workload on emotional exhaustion. Second, a supportive spouse protected the strained employee from the effect of emotional exhaustion on work-family conflict, and spousal support also moderated the indirect effect from workload to work-family conflict through emotional exhaustion. The findings suggest that enacting a dual social support system can effectively reduce the adverse effects of excessive job demands on exhaustion and work-family conflict, but buffering effects are highly dependent on the timely availability of social support.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T10:42:01Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-69620
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:42:01Z
publishDate 2018
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-696202018-10-09T01:49:09Z Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process Pluut, H. Ilies, R. Curseu, P. Liu, Yukun Using experience-sampling methodology, the present study offers a within-individual test of the buffering model of social support in the daily work-family conflict process. Building on the conceptualization of social support as a volatile resource, we examine how daily fluctuations in social support at work and at home influence the process through which work interferes with family life. A total of 112 employees participated in the study and were asked to respond to daily surveys in the work and home domains. Results showed that social support at work and at home—as volatile resources—buffered the daily work-family conflict process within their respective domains. First, a supportive supervisor mitigated the within-individual effect of workload on emotional exhaustion. Second, a supportive spouse protected the strained employee from the effect of emotional exhaustion on work-family conflict, and spousal support also moderated the indirect effect from workload to work-family conflict through emotional exhaustion. The findings suggest that enacting a dual social support system can effectively reduce the adverse effects of excessive job demands on exhaustion and work-family conflict, but buffering effects are highly dependent on the timely availability of social support. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69620 10.1016/j.obhdp.2018.02.001 fulltext
spellingShingle Pluut, H.
Ilies, R.
Curseu, P.
Liu, Yukun
Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process
title Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process
title_full Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process
title_fullStr Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process
title_full_unstemmed Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process
title_short Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process
title_sort social support at work and at home: dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/69620