Supportive supervisors improve employees' daily lives: the role supervisors play in the impact of daily workload on life satisfaction via work-family conflict

This article presents a multilevel approach that uncovers how day-to-day variations in workload influence life satisfaction by creating work-family conflict, as well as the role supportive supervisors play in influencing these daily relationships. In this experience-sampling study, 135 employees responded to 2 daily surveys (one at work and one at home) for 5. days and a one-time post-study survey. With a total of 810 surveys, hierarchical linear modeling revealed that employees' daily perceived workload positively predicted daily work-family conflict, which in turn negatively predicted daily life satisfaction. Importantly, we found support for a cross-level interaction where supervisor work-family specific support (measured once in the post-study survey) negatively moderated the relationship between daily workload and work-family conflict, attesting the importance of supervisory support in reducing daily interference between work and family.