I’ll stand by you: how supervisors can leverage spillover to support employee wellbeing

Introduction: The objective of this study was to investigate how supervisor support influences employee wellbeing. Specifically, we examined whether positive work–home spillover helps explain the relationship between supervisor support and wellbeing, and whether affective trust in the supervisor strengthens this relationship.

Materials and methods: We used a two-wave time-lagged quantitative survey design to test a moderated mediation model. Data were collected from 179 UK respondents (54.2% male; average age = 49.94 years). Supervisor support, affective trust in the supervisor, and demographic control variables were collected in Wave 1. Positive spillover, employee wellbeing, and additional control variables were collected in Wave 2. The data were analyzed using the PROCESS macro.

Results: Supervisor support was positively associated with positive spillover (r = 0.293, p < 0.01). Positive spillover mediated the relationship between supervisor support and employee wellbeing (b = 0.058, 95% CI (0.026, 0.102)). Affective trust in the supervisor moderated the relationship between supervisor support and positive spillover (b = 0.043, 95% CI (0.002, 0.129)). The index of moderated mediation was significant (b = 0.023, 95% CI (0.001, 0.051)), indicating that the indirect effect of supervisor support on wellbeing through positive spillover was stronger when affective trust in the supervisor was high.

Conclusions: This study shows that supervisor support can improve employee wellbeing by encouraging positive work–home spillover, especially when employees have high affective trust in their supervisor. The findings highlight the importance of supportive management, trust-building, and work–life integration practices in promoting employee wellbeing.