The effects of family support and work engagement on organizationally valued job outcomes

Abstract

There are calls for more empirical research about the antecedents and outcomes of work engagement in frontline service jobs in the hospitality management literature. With this realization, using the precepts of the motivational process of the Job Demands-Resources model, the present study aims to develop and test a conceptual model that examines work engagement as a mediator of the effect of family support on organizationally relevant and valued job outcomes. Turnover intentions, job performance, and extra-role customer service are the outcomes investigated in this study. Data collected from frontline employees with a time lag of two weeks in the international five-star chain hotels in Turkey were used to gauge these relationships. The results from structural equation modeling provide empirical support for all hypothesized relationships. Specifically, frontline employees who receive sufficient support in the family domain are highly engaged in their work. These employees in turn are less inclined to leave the current organization. They also display in-role and extra-role performances at elevated levels in the workplace. In short, work engagement functions as a full mediator of the impact of family support on turnover intentions, job performance, and extra-role customer service. Implications of the results and future research directions are discussed in the article.