‘Negative work-family spillover: The relationship between perceived subordinates’ negative workplace gossip and supervisor family satisfaction: The role of workhome segmentation preferences’

Abstract

This study considers experienced immediate employees' negative workplace gossip as a social stressor and examines its spillover effect on the supervisor's family satisfaction. Based on the integration of work-family interface model and boundary theory, our study investigates the influence of perceived subordinates’ negative workplace gossip on supervisor’s family satisfaction through the mediation of supervisor's Work-Family Conflict (WFC) and moderation of Work-Home Segmentation Preferences (WHSP). The result from three waves (N = 326) reveal that immediate employees negative workplace gossip is negatively related to supervisor family satisfaction, and this relationship is mediated by supervisor's WFC. Additionally, the WHSP mitigate the mediating effect of WFC between subordinates’ negative workplace gossip and supervisor family satisfaction. The data hold while controlling the family role conflict, family role ambiguous, and general job stress. The theoretical, and managerial implications of these findings and future research are discussed.