Gendered or Not? The Role of Managerial Aspirations in Public Employees' Responses to Family-Supportive Supervisors

• In Event: Gender in Labor Market, Business Network, Managerial Aspiration, and Financial Literacy

Abstract

With significant shifts in workforce demographics and increasing prevalence of diverse family structures, addressing work-life interface of employees has become crucial in public management. Notably, dual-earning households and eldercare responsibilities have risen sharply, elevating employees' need to manage complex work-life demands effectively. In response, organizations have adopted family-friendly policies (Kim & Wiggins, 2011) and nurtured family-supportive cultures (Wadsworth & Owens, 2007).

Extending this line of work, the present study underscores the importance of family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB; Hammer et al., 2009), an informal supervisory support targeted to help subordinates juggle various work and life responsibilities. In many cases, supervisors are given great authority over the final allocation of employees’ workload or approval of scheduling and policy use, indicating an essential role that supervisors play across formal and informal practices of the organization. Thus, the impact of leaders’ family-supportive activities (or lack thereof) on employees may be more proximal and idiosyncratic compared to an organizational-level policy adoption or culture. Grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll et al., 2018) and social role theory (Anglin et al., 2022; Eagly, 1987), this research investigates how FSSB, as a resource, influence employee outcomes, particularly organizational commitment and citizenship behaviors, and more importantly, how FSSB varies in its effect depending on employees’ gender and managerial aspirations.

Across two studies using panel data over a 10-year timeframe (N = 7,755) and a field survey at public organizations in South Korea (N = 327), this paper shows nuanced findings. Specifically, women with high managerial aspirations significantly benefit from FSSB, as it may alleviate conflict between their strong professional drive and societal expectations emphasizing family roles (Eagly & Wood, 2012). Conversely, for men, those with low managerial aspirations may gain more from FSSB, potentially reducing tensions arising from societal expectations of work centrality conflicting with their lower personal desire for managerial advancement (Powell et al., 2019). By capturing these within-gender variance, this research challenges oversimplified views of gender roles and highlights that individual differences, such as managerial aspirations, shape how resources such as FSSB are valued.

This study overall demonstrates the need to refine theory and practice in public administration by moving beyond the gendered dichotomy of work and family, and by considering the unique needs and aspirations of employees to better support their work-life interface. Theoretically, the findings extend the nomological network surrounding FSSB (Crain & Stevens, 2018; Hammer et al., 2007) and enriches COR theory by highlighting how individual differences shape the utility of resources (Halbesleben et al., 2014). Practically, it offers public-sector organizations a more refined framework to tailor family-supportive strategies, especially focusing on the role of daily supervisory behaviors in addressing employees' distinct work-life balance needs.

Author

• Seo-Young Byun, The Ohio State University
  Presenting Author