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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1523812
This article is part of the Research Topic Exploring Heavy Work Investment: Multidimensional Constructs and Work Outcome Variance View all 5 articles

How Does Leader's Workaholism Affect Employee Work Fatigue: The Roles of Emotional Exhaustion and Family Support

Provisionally accepted
Wenjie Qiu Wenjie Qiu 1Shuang Song Shuang Song 2*Guangya Ma Guangya Ma 1Siwei Sun Siwei Sun 3
  • 1 Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College,, Yiwu, China
  • 2 School of Business, Macau University of Science and technology, Taipa, Macau Region, China
  • 3 The University of Auckland, Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study examined the links between leader's workaholism and employee work fatigue using a sample of 408 employed adults from 79 teams in China. Data were gathered at three time points over a three-month period. Drawing on conservation of resources theory and social support buffering model, this study aims to deepen our understanding of how leader's workaholism affects employee work fatigue. As, expected, leader's workaholism was found to positively predict employee work fatigue through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, family support emerged as an important moderator, buffering both the direct impact of emotional exhaustion on work fatigue and the indirect effect of leader's workaholism on employee work fatigue via emotional exhaustion.Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

    Keywords: Workaholism, Emotional exhaustion, family support, Work fatigue, Conservation of resources theory (COR)

    Received: 06 Nov 2024; Accepted: 10 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Qiu, Song, Ma and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Shuang Song, School of Business, Macau University of Science and technology, Taipa, 999078, Macau Region, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.