The Buffering Effect of Perceived Organizational Support on the Relationships Among Workload, Work-Family Interference, and Affective Commitment: A Study on Nurses

Background: Minimal research has been conducted to explore the associations among workload, work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, support, and affective commitment. Purpose: This study was designed to explore the moderating role of perceived organizational support on the mediating effects of work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict in perceived workload, and affective commitment linkage. Methods: The data were collected using a self-report survey from 164 nurses working at two public hospitals. The hypothesized model was tested using PROCESS macro. Results: Perceived organizational support was found to influence the mediating effect of work-to-family conflict on the linkage between workload and affective commitment, yet not to moderate the mediating effect of family-to-work conflict. The results revealed that workload predicts affective commitment negatively and work-to-family conflict positively. However, perceived organizational support was found to change the effect that workload has on affective commitment. The negative effect of workload on affective commitment was found to be weaker for nurses with adequate organizational support. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Perceived organizational support was found to have both main and buffering effects on the emotional attachment of nurses toward their organizations. The findings support the importance of creating supportive work settings to alleviate the adverse effects on nurses of workload and work-family interference.