Family supportive supervisor behaviours and turnover intentions: testing a multiple mediation model in the New Zealand hospitality industry

ABSTRACT

Within New Zealand, the turnover rate within the hospitality sector is high, which can be expensive in terms of performance, recruitment and training costs. However, while research asserts an employee’s immediate managers can have a strong influence on retention, less is known within the hospitality sector of New Zealand. The present study investigates how family supportive supervision behaviours (FSSB) influence employees’ turnover intentions and includes organisational trust and job satisfaction as potential mediators. Using a sample of 149 hospitality workers and the PROCESS macro, our analysis shows that FSSB is negatively related to turnover intentions and positively related to organisational trust and job satisfaction. However, both these job attitudes fully mediate the influence of FSSB and indicate that good leadership builds positive work attitudes and it is these that ultimately shape turnover intentions. Consequently, FSSB should be encouraged so leaders through positively supporting workers work and family commitments can enhance employee attitudes and in turn help retain their hospitality workforce.

KEYWORDS:

• FSSB
• turnover intentions
• hospitality sector
• job attitudes
• mediation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Le Vinh Nguyen

Le Vinh Nguyen is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Management, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. His PhD research is on leadership in the Hospitality sector and examines this in both Vietnam and New Zealand.

Jarrod Haar

Dr Jarrod Haar (PhD) is of Ngati Maniapoto/Ngati Mahuta descent and is a Professor of Human Resource Management at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. His research broadly encompasses leaders and followers, work-life balance; indigenous (Maori) issues and worker well-being. He is widely published and is on several World Class grants.

Roy Smollan

Dr Roy Smollan teaches and researches organizational behaviour and organizational change in the Department of Management at the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He has authored articles on organizational change, leadership, trust, stress and emotions at work.