Introduction. Work-family conflict arises when demands from work and family roles interfere, and is a known antecedent of burnout. Supervisors can buffer or amplify these effects, yet the role of supervisor gender remains unclear.
Purpose. We examined whether the gender of the direct supervisor moderates associations between two directions of work-family conflict—work-to-family and family-to-work—and multiple burnout dimensions.
Method. A two-wave longitudinal survey (three-month interval) was completed online by 327 employed adults with immediate supervision and ≥6 months of experience. Burnout dimensions included exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive and emotional impairment, and psychological/psychosomatic symptoms. Structural models showed acceptable fit (RMSEA=.063, CFI=.983, TLI=.965, SRMR=.065).
Results. Moderator analyses revealed distinct patterns. With a male supervisor, work-to-family conflict positively predicted exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive impairment, emotional impairment, and psychological symptoms; family-to-work conflict showed no significant links to burnout. With a female supervisor, work-to-family conflict positively predicted exhaustion, whereas family-to-work conflict was negatively associated with exhaustion and psychosomatic symptoms.
Conclusions. Supervisor gender appears to shape how different directions of work-family conflict translate into burnout. Our results underscore the value of distinguishing both conflict directions and multiple burnout dimensions and encourage organisations to reduce work-family interference and adopt burnout-mitigation practices. Promoting women's leadership may contribute to healthier workplaces, potentially through greater recognition and empathetic handling of role conflict, thereby lessening its adverse consequences for employees and organizations.