The Effects of Supervisor Work-Family Support on Indigenous Employees: A Study of Job and Health Outcomes

Abstract

Support from work and non-work sources is highly important for employee well-being and job outcomes. However, few studies have explored social support from both domains. Furthermore, workplace studies on indigenous employees are severely under researched. Based on survey data from 260 Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) employees, we conducted analysis using structural equation modeling, to test supervisor work-family support (SWFS) and whānau (extended family) support towards well-being and job outcomes. Overall, findings show that SWFS and whānau support both predict job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion, while SWFS also directly predicts turnover intentions. In turn, job satisfaction significantly predicts all outcomes: our study shows that it mediates the influence of support on outcomes. Findings indicate that support from both work and home (extended family) is likely to be highly beneficial towards the broad range of job outcomes investigated for Māori employees, especially through enhancing job satisfaction.