Abstract
Drawing from the work-home resources model and the social support literature, the present study investigated how organizational engagement climate influences employees’ work-to-family conflict by examining resource generation and resource depletion mechanisms. Using a sample comprised of 2415 employees from 280 Chinese organizations, we found that organizational engagement climate was negatively related to employees’ work-to-family conflict via work engagement, and simultaneously, positively related to employees’ work-to-family conflict via work time. Additionally, our findings suggested that high level of supervisory support strengthened the organizational engagement climate-work engagement relationship. We discussed the theoretical and practical implications, as well as the limitations and suggestions for future research.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.


References
Adkins, C. L., & Premeaux, S. F. (2012). Spending time: The impact of hours worked on work–family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 80(2), 380–389.
Albrecht, S. L. (2014). A climate for engagement: some theory, models, measures, research, and practical applications. The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Climate and Culture, pp., 400–414.
Albrecht, S. L., & Su, M. J. (2012). Job resources and employee engagement in a Chinese context: the mediating role of job meaningfulness, felt obligation and positive mood. International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, 4(4), 277.
Albrecht, S. L., Bakker, A. B., Gruman, J. A., Macey, W. H., & Saks, A. M. (2015). Employee engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), 7–35.
Albrecht, S., Breidahl, E., & Marty, A. (2018). Organizational resources, organizational engagement climate, and employee engagement. Career Development International, 23(1), 67–85.
Alfes, K., Shantz, A. D., Truss, C., & Soane, E. C. (2013). The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(2), 330–351.
Anderson, S. E., Coffey, B. S., & Byerly, R. T. (2002). Formal organizational initiatives and informal workplace practices: Links to work-family conflict and job-related outcomes. Journal of Management, 28(6), 787–810.
Bagger, J., & Li, A. (2014). How does supervisory family support influence employees’ attitudes and behaviors? A social exchange perspective. Journal of Management, 40(4), 1123–1150.
Bakker, A. B., Hakanen, J. J., Demerouti, E., & Xanthopoulou, D. (2007). Job resources boost work engagement, particularly when job demands are high. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 274–272.
Bakker, A. B., Albrecht, S. L., & Leiter, M. P. (2011). Key questions regarding work engagement. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 20(1), 4–28.
Barrick, M. R., Thurgood, G. R., Smith, T. A., & Courtright, S. H. (2015). Collective organizational engagement: Linking motivational antecedents, strategic implementation, and firm performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(1), 111–135.
Bhave, D. P., & Lefter, A. M. (2018). The Other Side: Occupational Interactional Requirements and Work–Home Enrichment. Academy of Management Journal, 61(1), 139–164.
Bliese, P.D. (2000), “Within-group agreement, non-independence, and reliability: Implications for data aggregation and analysis.”, Jossey-Bass.
Carvalho, V. S., & Chambel, M. J. (2014). Work-to-family enrichment and employees’ well-being: High performance work system and job characteristics. Social Indicators Research, 119(1), 373–387.
Crawford, E. R., LePine, J. A., & Rich, B. L. (2010). Linking job demands and resources to employee engagement and burnout: a theoretical extension and meta-analytic test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(5), 834.
Day, A., Crown, S. N., & Ivany, M. (2017). Organisational change and employee burnout: The moderating effects of support and job control. Safety Science, Elsevier, 100, 4–12.
Demerouti, E., Mostert, K., & Bakker, A. B. (2010). Burnout and work engagement: a thorough investigation of the independency of both constructs. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 15(3), 209.
Edmondson, D. R., & Boyer, S. L. (2013). The moderating effect of the boundary spanning role on perceived supervisory support: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Business Research, 66(11), 2186–2192.
Edwards, J. R., & Rothbard, N. P. (2000). Mechanisms linking work and family: Clarifying the relationship between work and family constructs. Academy of Management Review, 25(1), 178–199.
Goh, Z., Ilies, R., & Wilson, K. S. (2015). Supportive supervisors improve employees’ daily lives: The role supervisors play in the impact of daily workload on life satisfaction via work–family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, Elsevier, 89, 65–73.
Greenhaus, J. H., & Powell, G. N. (2006). When work and family are allies: A theory of work-family enrichment. Academy of Management Review, 31(1), 72–92.
Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., & Hayes, T. L. (2002). Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(2), 268.
Ilies, R., Liu, X.-Y., Liu, Y., & Zheng, X. (2017). Why do employees have better family lives when they are highly engaged at work? Journal of Applied Psychology, American Psychological Association, 102(6), 956.
James, L. R., Demaree, R. G., & Wolf, G. (1984). Estimating within groups interrater reliability with and without response bias. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 85–98.
Jiang, H., & Shen, H. (2018). Supportive organizational environment, work-life enrichment, trust and turnover intention: A national survey of PRSA membership. Public Relations Review, 44(5), 681–689.
Jones, P. S., Lee, J. W., Phillips, L. R., Zhang, X. E., & Jaceldo, K. B. (2001). An adaptation of Brislin’s translation model for cross-cultural research. Nursing Research, 50(5), 300–304.
Judge, T. A., & Colquitt, J. A. (2004). Organizational justice and stress: the mediating role of work-family conflict. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(3), 395.
Karatepe, O. M. (2009). An investigation of the joint effects of organisational tenure and supervisor support on work–family conflict and turnover intentions. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 16(1), 73–81.
Karatepe, O. M., & Karadas, G. (2014). The effect of psychological capital on conflicts in the work–family interface, turnover and absence intentions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 43, 132–143.
Kim, S. L., Lee, S., Park, E., & Yun, S. (2015). Knowledge sharing, work–family conflict and supervisor support: Investigating a three-way effect. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(19), 2434–2452.
Kossek, E. E., & Lautsch, B. A. (2012). Work–family boundary management styles in organizations: A cross-level model. Organizational Psychology Review, 2(2), 152–171.
Kuenzi, M., & Schminke, M. (2009). Assembling fragments into a lens: A review, critique, and proposed research agenda for the organizational work climate literature. Journal of Management, 35(3), 634–717.
Lapierre, L.M. and McMullan, A.D. (2016), “A review of methodological and measurement approaches to the study of work and family”, The Oxford Handbook of Work and Family, pp. 349–361.
Li, A., Butler, A., & Bagger, J. (2018). Depletion or expansion? Understanding the effects of support policy use on employee work and family outcomes. Human Resource Management Journal, 28(2), 216–234.
Lin, K. J., Ilies, R., Pluut, H., & Pan, S.-Y. (2017). You are a helpful co-worker, but do you support your spouse? A resource-based work-family model of helping and support provision. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 138, 45–58.
Major, V. S., Klein, K. J., & Ehrhart, M. G. (2002). Work time, work interference with family, and psychological distress. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(3), 427.
McCarthy, A., Cleveland, J. N., Hunter, S., Darcy, C., & Grady, G. (2013). Employee work–life balance outcomes in Ireland: a multilevel investigation of supervisory support and perceived organizational support. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(6), 1257–1276.
Michel, J. S., Kotrba, L. M., Mitchelson, J. K., Clark, M. A., & Baltes, B. B. (2011). Antecedents of work–family conflict: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(5), 689–725.
Netemeyer, R. G., Boles, J. S., & McMurrian, R. (1996). Development and validation of work–family conflict and family–work conflict scales. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(4), 400.
Peterson, D. K. (2002). Deviant workplace behavior and the organization’s ethical climate. Journal of Business and Psychology, 17(1), 47–61.
Pluut, H., Ilies, R., Curşeu, P. L., & Liu, Y. (2018). Social support at work and at home: Dual-buffering effects in the work-family conflict process. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 146, 1–13.
Rhoades, L., Eisenberger, R., & Armeli, S. (2001). Affective commitment to the organization: The contribution of perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(5), 825.
Rich, B. L., Lepine, J. A., & Crawford, E. R. (2010). Job engagement: Antecedents and effects on job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 617–635.
Rodríguez-Muñoz, A., Sanz-Vergel, A. I., Demerouti, E., & Bakker, A. B. (2014). Engaged at work and happy at home: A spillover–crossover model. Journal of Happiness Studies, 15(2), 271–283.
Rotondo, D. M., Carlson, D. S., & Kincaid, J. F. (2003). Coping with multiple dimensions of work-family conflict. Personnel Review, 32(3), 275–296.
Russo, J. A., & Waters, L. E. (2006). Workaholic worker type differences in work-family conflict: The moderating role of supervisor support and flexible work scheduling. Career Development International, 11(5), 418–439.
Schaller, T. K., Patil, A., & Malhotra, N. K. (2015). Alternative techniques for assessing common method variance: an analysis of the theory of planned behavior research. Organizational Research Methods, 18(2), 177–206.
Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The measurement of engagement and burnout: A two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3(1), 71–92.
Schaufeli, W. B., Maassen, G. H., Bakker, A. B., & Sixma, H. J. (2011). Stability and change in burnout: A 10-year follow-up study among primary care physicians. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 84(2), 248–267.
Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2013). Organizational climate and culture. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 361–388.
Schriesheim, C. A., & DeNisi, A. S. (1981). Task dimensions as moderators of the effects of instrumental leadership: a two-sample replicated test of path–goal leadership theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 66(5), 589.
Selig, J.P. and Preacher, K.J. (2008), “Monte Carlo method for assessing mediation: An interactive tool for creating confidence intervals for indirect effects”.
Siu, O., Lu, J., Brough, P., Lu, C., Bakker, A. B., Kalliath, T., O’Driscoll, M., et al. (2010). Role resources and work–family enrichment: The role of work engagement. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(3), 470–480.
Sonnentag, S., Mojza, E. J., Binnewies, C., & Scholl, A. (2008). Being engaged at work and detached at home: A week-level study on work engagement, psychological detachment, and affect. Work & Stress, 22(3), 257–276.
Strauser, D. R., O’Sullivan, D., & Wong, A. W. K. (2010). The relationship between contextual work behaviours self-efficacy and work personality: an exploratory analysis. Disability and Rehabilitation, 32(24), 1999–2008.
Ten Brummelhuis, L. L., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). A resource perspective on the work–home interface: the work–home resources model. American Psychologist, (67, 7), 545.
Tsai, W. C., & Chen, H. Y. (2017). A multilevel investigation of antecedents of employee positive affective displays: the roles of customer negative affective displays and employee perceived supervisory support. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26(3), 385–398.
Van Daalen, G., Willemsen, T. M., & Sanders, K. (2006). Reducing work–family conflict through different sources of social support. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(3), 462–476.
Vera, M., Martínez, I. M., Lorente, L., & Chambel, M. J. (2016). The role of co-worker and supervisor support in the relationship between job autonomy and work engagement among Portuguese nurses: A multilevel study. Social Indicators Research, 126(3), 1143–1156.
Wang, Y., Liu, L., Wang, J. and Wang, L. (2012), “Work-family conflict and burnout among Chinese doctors: the mediating role of psychological capital”. Journal of Occupational Health, p. 1204130247.
Watson, D. (2000). Mood and temperament. New York: Guildford Press.
Wihler, A., Blickle, G., Ellen III, B. P., Hochwarter, W. A., & Ferris, G. R. (2017). Personal initiative and job performance evaluations: Role of political skill in opportunity recognition and capitalization. Journal of Management, 43(5), 1388–1420.
Xue, Y., Bradley, J., & Liang, H. (2011). Team climate, empowering leadership, and knowledge sharing. Journal of Knowledge Management, 15(2), 299–312.
Zhang, Y. W., & Gan, Y. Q. (2005). Utrecht revision of the utrecht work engagement scale (UWES). China Clinical Psychology Magazine, 13(3), 268–270.
Zhang, H., Kwong Kwan, H., Everett, A. M., & Jian, Z. (2012). Servant leadership, organizational identification, and work-to-family enrichment: The moderating role of work climate for sharing family concerns. Human Resource Management, 51(5), 747–767.
Zhang, M., Foley, S., & Yang, B. (2013). Work–family conflict among Chinese married couples: Testing spillover and crossover effects. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 24(17), 3213–3231.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project NO. 71422014).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors, Yifan Jiang, Qiong Wang, and Qingxiong Weng declare that there is no conflict of interest to disclose.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jiang, Y., Wang, Q. & Weng, Q. Contextual resource or demand? The effects of organizational engagement climate on employees’ work-to-family conflict. Curr Psychol 41, 1868–1880 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00689-1
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00689-1
Keywords
- Organizational Engagement Climate
- Work-to-Family Conflict
- Work Engagement
- Supervisory Support
- the Work-Home Resources Model