Understanding the Work–Family Conflict–Employee Engagement Relationship

Prior research has established that work–family conflict (WFC) undermines employee engagement, but the mechanisms through which this occurs, and the conditions under which they operate, remain underspecified. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this study proposes and tests a moderated-mediation model in which emotional exhaustion transmits the effect of WFC onto engagement, with cultural orientation and organizational support acting as boundary conditions on this indirect pathway. Data were collected from 287 full-time employees across education, retail/services, information technology, and public-sector organizations. Results confirm that emotional exhaustion significantly mediates the WFC–engagement relationship (indirect effect ab = -.24, 95% CI [-.33, -.16]), and that this indirect effect is stronger among employees with a collectivistic cultural orientation and weaker among those reporting high organizational support. The direct effect of WFC on engagement remained significant but was substantially reduced once exhaustion was included, indicating partial mediation....