Crossing Boundaries: Integrative Effects of Supervision, Gender and Boundary Control on Work Engagement and Work-to-family Positive Spillover

This article focuses on the mechanism and conditions under which a positive spillover between work and family may occur. Based on the dual-process model of work-home interference, it is expected that family supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB) as an individual job resource can create work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS) effects, largely through supervisors? ability to stimulate employee engagement. Further, in a moderated mediation model it is tested whether individual effects of gender and boundary control influence these relationships. Survey data in a German IT company supports most of the study hypotheses. Work engagement was found to fully mediate the relationship between FSSB and instrumental WFPS but not for affective WFPS. Gender moderated the relationship between FSSB and work engagement, with men reciprocating FSSB with higher levels of work engagement than women. Control over boundary permeability was found to influence the relationship between work engagement and instrumental WFPS for men and women differently, with women being more in need of control over boundary permeability than men. Practical implications for understanding the conditions under which a positive spillover between work and family may occur are discussed.