Social Support and Job Satisfaction: Elaborating the Mediating Role of Work-Family Interface

Social support is a key resource to predict job satisfaction. Yet little research has examined learned benefits in the process of receiving social support from work domain. Drawing from the role conflict and accumulation framework, we propose social support from domain can increase job satisfaction by (1) providing resources that can attenuate work-to-family conflict and (2) activating employees to learn from received support that can enhance work-to-family facilitation. To test the proposed theoretical model, we collected empirical data from 171 full-time employees in China. The empirical results partially supported our two mediator model. As predicted, social support increases job satisfaction through enhancing work-to-family facilitation. However, work-to-family conflict can not mediate the relationships between social support and job satisfaction. Contrasting effect analysis indicated the mediating effect of work-to-family conflict is significantly weaker than that of work-to-family facilitation between social support and job satisfaction. We discuss the implications for designing support systems in organizations.