Workaholism and work–family conflict: a moderated mediation model of psychological detachment from work and family-supportive supervisor behavior

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the workaholism on work–family conflict via the mediator of psychological detachment from work and the moderator of family-supportive supervisor behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

To avoid common method bias, the authors adopted a three-wave data collection with a one-month lagged design. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed and 322 usable questionnaires were collected. The PROCESS macro for SPSS was applied to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

Findings demonstrated that workaholism is positively related to work–family conflict; psychological detachment from work mediates the relationship between workaholism and work–family conflict. Moreover, family-supportive supervisor behavior moderates the relationship between workaholism and work–family conflict and between workaholism and psychological detachment from work, respectively. Finally, family-supportive supervisor behavior moderates the indirect effect of workaholism and work–family conflict via psychological detachment from work, such that the indirect effect was weaker when family-supportive supervisor behavior was high.

Practical implications

The study suggests that it is necessary for organizations to be responsible for employee well-being in different domains because the impact of workaholism on physical and mental health may bring unexpected consequences because of the lack of recovery and the loss of resources. This study not only shows the importance for individuals to look for ways to disengage from workplace but addresses the significance of supervisory support from organizational aspects.

Originality/value

This study includes psychological detachment from work as mediator and family-supportive supervisor behavior as moderator to investigate the moderated mediation relationship in the current highly demanding workplace. By applying conservation of resource and role scarcity hypothesis regarding individual resource allocation, the results may shed lights on facilitating individuals distancing from obsessively and excessively working mentality and behaviors that further lessen incompatibility in both work and family domains.

Citation

Chang, P.-C., Gao, X., Wu, T. and Lin, Y.-Y. (2023), "Workaholism and work–family conflict: a moderated mediation model of psychological detachment from work and family-supportive supervisor behavior", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 770-786. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-09-2021-0380