"What about Gender and Power? Family-Unsupportive Supervision, Exhaustion, and Work-Life Conflict"

Abstract

Using conservation of resources theory, this study examines the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between family responsibility discrimination from one’s supervisor and work- life conflict. Using a national employee sample and two time periods, results show that the positive relationship between family responsibility discrimination from one’s supervisor and work-life conflict is indirectly mediated by emotional exhaustion. Drawing from conservation of resources (COR) theory we extend work-life research by examining family responsibility discrimination as a demand on personal resources and examine how individual characteristics moderate the relationship between family responsibility discrimination from one’s supervisor and emotional exhaustion. Findings reveal that those low on power distance and males are least likely to experience the resource draining effects of family responsibility discrimination from one’s supervisor on emotional exhaustion, which in turn affects work/life conflict. We extend conservation of resources theory, work-life conflict, and discrimination literatures by showing who experiences the greatest drain on personal resources from family responsibility discrimination and why.