Beyond the Bottom Line: Don’t Forget to Consider the Role of the Family

Abstract

Our work investigates the influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality (SBLM) (i.e., a one-dimensional focus on bottom-line outcomes to the exclusion of other organizational priorities) on employees’ organizational commitment via the work-family interface as well as the crossover effects of SBLM on the organizational commitment of the employees’ spouse. More specifically, we examined how SBLM contributes to work-family conflict (WFC) and impacts the experienced commitment of the dyad along three paths. We conducted two studies across three samples (Study 1, Sample A: 186 employees; Study 1, Sample B: 258 employees; Study 2: 399 employee-spouse dyads) to demonstrate the unique role of SBLM in this context and find support for the hypothesized relationships. First, the resource drain of SBLM had a spillover effect through WFC to decrease the employee’s commitment at work. Second, it crossed over to the spouse to reduce their own organizational commitment due to the employee being a source of family undermining, which subsequently influenced the spouse’s family-work conflict (FWC). Third, SBLM impacted the spouse such that it crossed back to contribute to decreased organizational commitment for the employee. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed as well as directions for future research.