Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors Moderate Associations between Work Stress and Exhaustion: Testing the Job Demands-Resources Model in Academic Staff at an Austrian Medical University

Abstract

The time-intensive work of publishing in scientific journals is an important indicator of job performance that is given much weight during promotion procedures for academic positions. The current study applied the job demands-resources model and analyzed whether family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) moderated associations between work stress and feelings of exhaustion as a job resource and whether feelings of exhaustion ultimately mediated the link between work stress and academic employees' publication activity. The current online cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted in 133 academic employees (65.4% women, 34.6% men; M_age = 41.9, SD = 10.1) at an Austrian medical university and assessed employees' numbers of publications, H-index, work stress, feelings of exhaustion, FSSB, and work-family services used. Manifest path models revealed that FSSB moderated the link between experiencing high levels of work stress and strong feelings of exhaustion, especially in employees who had at least one child below the age of 18. Part-time employment was most strongly linked with lower numbers of publications and lower H-index levels. The finding that FSSB acted as a job resource mostly for employees with at least one child below 18 underlines the fact that FSSB is different from other forms of supervisor support. The current study supports recommendations to increase the amount of work-family services and to change organizational norms to be supportive of the successful management of family and work obligations.

Keywords: academic career; job demands–resources model; publication activity; superior family support; work–family services.

Figure 1

Part of the Job Demands–Resources Model Considered in the Current Study. Based on the Job Demands–Resources Model, it was tested whether work stress (X) would be associated with feelings of exhaustion (M) and, consequently, be linked to academic employees’ publication activity (Y; H1). Family supportive supervisor behaviors (W) were tested as a moderator of the association between work stress and feelings of exhaustion (H2). Finally, it was tested whether family supportive supervisor behaviors would moderate the association between work stress and feelings of exhaustion, especially in employees with children younger than 18 (Z; H3). Arrows represent associations between variables. Higher scores in one variable were expected to go along with higher scores in another variable (“+”) or with a lower score in another variable (“−“).

Figure 2

Interaction Stress × Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors × Child. Dotted lines show employees who, on average, do not perceive family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB). Solid lines show employees who, on average, perceive FSSB. Strong work stress was associated with strong feelings of exhaustion. On average, employees who perceived FSSB experienced weaker feelings of exhaustion than did employees who did not perceive FSSB. FSSB more strongly moderated the association between stress at work and the experience of exhaustion in employees with children below the age of 18. In employees with children younger than 18, the association between work stress and exhaustion was weaker for employees who perceived FSSB than for employees who did not perceive FSSB.