Does Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviour Affect Organisational Commitment? The Effect of Geographical Factors in the Resort Sector of the Maldives

Abstract

This study intends to explore the effect of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on organisational commitment and to analyse the effect of geographical factors (Frequency of family visits, Distance to the residence, Transportation facility and Nationality) on this relationship. This survey was conducted using an online questionnaire for the resorts of the Maldives and 250 valid responses were collected from permanent employees with work experience of more than one year in the current resort. Structural Equation Modelling was done to check the association between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment and multigroup analysis was carried out to check the moderation analysis of geographical factors. The results show that family-supportive supervisor behaviour positively affects organisational commitment and geographical factors (Frequency of family visits, Transportation facility and Nationality) moderate this relationship. Thus, in the selection and hiring process of managerial posts, resort management can check for Family-supportive supervisor behaviours, training on family-supportive supervisor behaviour can be provided to supervisory-level staff and geographical factors need to be considered to strengthen the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment.

Keywords

Family-supportive supervisor behaviour organisational commitment geographical factors resort islands family visits distance to the residence transportation facility and nationality

Introduction

The hospitality and tourism industry relies heavily on labour-intensive services. Thus, employees are very important as their service is what makes the success of the hotels. However, this sector has a bad image in terms of permanent employment and career advancement (Barron, 2008). Employee turnover intentions are affected by busy workloads, inflexible working hours, irregular holidays and low wages in the hospitality industry (Brien et al., 2015; Lee et al., 2012). Besides geographical isolation, cultural clashes, lack of social engagement, less supervisor support, work-family conflict, inappropriate staff facilities, and work environment are some of the problems faced by employees of the resorts of the Maldives. According to Hamdi (2021), although visitors consider the Maldives a paradise, for resort workers, it may not always be the same as many workers face challenges including isolation, cultural differences, and feeling like second-class residents. In addition, he further added that staff have constrained living conditions in the resorts and they are frequently trapped by geographical barriers, cultural norms, and religious taboos. Saeed (2022) mentions that employees living on the resort islands face several challenges as they stay away from their families, and this increases their tension and therefore behaviour that is supportive of good mental health needs to be promoted within the resort management team and overt cultural manifestations. The resort staff living on an island are hidden in the centre of the island and they do not have social engagement (Khmeka, 2021, as cited in Hamdi, 2021). These factors may affect their turnover intention. It has been confirmed from the extant literature that organisational commitment can reduce the turnover intention of employees and encourage desired organisational behaviours (Chen & Francesco, 2003; Faldetta et al., 2013; Guzeller & Celiker, 2020). Accordingly, it is crucial to study organisational commitment and the factors that affect employees’ organisational commitment. Organisational commitment is defined as a psychological attachment to and identification within the organisation (Meyer & Allen, 1991).

According to social exchange theory, when a management-supportive environment exists, employees benefit from the support of their managers and feel obligated to the organisation. As a result, they stay with the organisation rather than look for a job elsewhere. Supervisors exhibit family-supportive supervisor behaviour when they are supportive and are involved in employees’ family roles (Hammer et al., 2013). The turnover intention of employees can be reduced when supervisors exhibit family-supportive supervisor behaviour (Alshutwi, 2016; Hammer et al., 2009). Likewise, family-supportive supervisor behaviour can enhance employees’ organisational commitment. In the hospitality industry, family-supportive supervisor behaviour has gained increased attention over the past years (Kong, 2013; Pan, 2018) and revealed several benefits of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on subordinates’ outcomes. However, the outcome of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on organisational commitment was under-researched.

The Maldives is an island nation in South Asia that lies southwest of the Indian sub-continent and shares borders with India and Sri Lanka. Tourism began in Maldives in the year 1972, with the opening of two resort islands in Kaafu Atoll with a bed capacity of 280 beds. Today, there are four main categories of accommodation facilities available for tourists; resorts, hotels, guesthouses and safari vessels. The unique geography of the Maldives makes resorts unique in that one island is considered as one resort or a hotel. This concept has made it a top luxury travel destination for tourists. As a result, the tourism industry contributes 26% of the GDP of the country. At the end of 2022, there were 164 resorts/marinas in operation (MOT, 2022).

In order to retain the success of the tourism industry, the employee retention rate must be increased as it is evident from the resort sector that the turnover rate is high. Thereby, increasing the cost of hiring and training new employees. Proximity to the home island, social isolation and family issues are factors that affect employee retention in the resort sector of the Maldives (Netthasinghe, 2016).

The industry is one of the leading sources of employment, especially for young people and several island communities are relying on the tourism sector for their livelihoods. As these resorts are geographically isolated by the sea and from the local community, employees live in these resorts and are socially isolated. The majority of the workforce (89%) resides at the resort (MBS, 2020). Most of the employees tend to visit their family once every 3 months or 6 months or once a year. Even if they want to visit their family often, geographical factors become a challenge. Transportation facility is usually provided by the resort management from the resorts to the capital city or some of the nearby islands. Transportation is costly and it may not be affordable for the employees to travel once a month. Hence, they stay at the resort on their off days too. While staying at the resort for quite a long time their life away from home and family, family-supportive supervisor behaviour is crucial in resolving work-and-family-related issues. According to Yang et al. (2020), family-supportive supervisor behaviour helps people adapt to coping behaviours concerning home demands. Supervisor support is crucial to managing work-family conflict and turnover intention, and research has identified several benefits of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on employees’ overall well-being (Hammer et al., 2011). Moreover, family-supportive supervisor behaviour encourages employees to effectively manage their obligations at work and at home (Alshutwi, 2016). Industry experts from the resort sector of the Maldives have highlighted geographical factors as one of the challenges in hiring and retaining local employees in an interview given to Hotelier Maldives (Moosa, 2016; Netthasinghe, 2016; Robles et al., 2016). None of the studies in the literature examined the effect of geographical factors on the link between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment.

Therefore, a thorough understanding of the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment and the effect of geographical factors on this relationship would benefit the industry in understanding the problem at hand. In addition, this research fills the gap in the literature in relation to the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment.

Hence, the objective of the study is to analyse the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment and to investigate the moderation effect of geographical factors (Frequency of family visits, Distance between the resort and the resident island, Transportation facility, and Nationality) on this relationship.

Theory and Hypotheses

According to the social exchange theory, employees choose the social connections that are most beneficial to them in their daily lives. It describes the behavioural interaction between people and how their behaviour reinforces the other’s behaviour where this exchange is based on the assumption that both parties stand to gain from it (Zoller & Muldoon, 2019). Based on this theory when supervisors exhibit family-supportive supervisor behaviour, employees get psychological and instrumental support from their supervisors to cope with stressors, leading to improved organisational commitment.

The organisational commitment which is crucial for the organisation is created upon the alignment and accomplishment of individual and organisational goals (Tuna & Aslan, 2018). organisational commitment is the connection experienced by employees with their working organisations and how they identify themselves within the organisation (Meyer & Allen 1991; Meyer & Herscovitch, 2001). According to Meyer and Allen (1991), organisational commitment is a multi-dimensional construct and includes three different components: Affective, Normative, and Continuance Commitment. Affective Commitment is defined as the emotional attachment or the desire to stay in the organisation. Normative Commitment is the obligation felt by the employees and they remain employed because they believe it is the right thing to do. Continuance Commitment is the cost incurred if employees are to leave the organisation. Among these forms of commitment, Affective Commitment was found to be the most significant component of organisational commitment (Chen & Francesco, 2003). Employees who are committed to their organisation consider themselves as an important part of the organisation and are more productive and accept the values of the organisation .

Supervisors are essential resources for assisting employees in juggling the responsibilities of work and personal life (Hammer et al., 2007). Family-supportive supervisor behaviour is considered as the support provided by the supervisor who understands the dual agenda of work at the office and family relations. Family-supportive supervisor behaviour is about showing concern for the employees’ well-being by assisting them in handling organisational work and obligations of the family and resolving any disputes (Hammer et al., 2009). Hammer et al. (2009) define family-supportive supervisor behaviour as a construct that consists of several dimensions and is thus considered multi-dimensional. There are four dimensions in this construct: emotional support, role modelling behaviours, instrumental support and creative work-family management. Emotional support is the care given to employees and making them comfortable communicating with the supervisor. It is about understanding subordinates’ personal life obligations and their family. Role modelling is supervisors showing through their behaviour, how to balance job and family. Instrumental support is the support given to employees in their daily routines to manage organisational work and the roles of their families. The fourth subordinate construct, creative work-family management is proactively planning and facilitating both on-and off-the-job success for employees (Hammer et al., 2009). When supervisors exhibit family-supportive supervisor behaviour, both employees and organisations are benefitted (Marescaux et al., 2020).

Geography is about how geographical features and environments can affect the behaviour of people (National Geographic Society, 2011). Geography has been narrowed down to four main specialities such as physical geography, human geography, geographical techniques and regional geography (National Geographic Society, 2011). This study explores factors related to human geography and regional geography. The distribution and interactions with people and cultures are the focus of human geography whereas regional geography is interested in regional features. Geographical factors such as frequency of family visits, proximity to the residence, transportation facility and nationality may affect the organisational commitment of employees in the resort sector of Maldives. Nationality was considered a geographical factor in this study as human population and settlements, social traditions, human migrations and religion are part of human geography (Pidwirny & Jones, 2006). In addition, the study of how groups of people and their cultures are spread across the Earth’s surface is known as human geography (National Geographic Society, 2011). Pertaining to a specific nation will have its own cultures, traditions and values that may affect organisational commitment. These geographical factors have never been researched in the field of family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Thus, this study expands the literature.

Leaders who demonstrate family-supportive supervisor behaviour make adjustments to address work-family conflicts, and as a result, employees are more dedicated to their jobs and willingly exchange values that rely on mutual trust between them over time. Furthermore, when leaders exhibit family-supportive supervisor behaviour, employees gain both instrumental and psychological support from them in managing stressors, which in turn enhances organisational commitment. This continues the reciprocal relationship according to the social exchange theory that postulates social behaviour as the result of an exchange process.

Social exchange theory posits that social behaviour is the result of an exchange process, aiming to maximise benefits and minimise costs. In the context of the employer-employee relationship, actions by one party that are perceived as beneficial by the other lead to reciprocal positive actions, fostering a cycle of mutual support and benefit. Employees with access to better transportation facilities provided by their organisation are more likely to be committed, as they can visit family more frequently. This support is perceived as a sign of organisational care, fostering a reciprocal positive attitude. Regular family visits reduce social isolation and enhance mutual support, benefiting both the employee and the organisation. The farther an employee’s home is from their workplace, the less frequent these visits are, potentially affecting their commitment. This indicates that employees will have to stay on the island for a long time which may create work-family conflict and other behavioural issues that may affect the work such as anger issues. Saeed (2022) mentioned that anger issues are common in the resorts. This could lead to a decrease in organisational commitment and hence the reciprocal process may not continue. Employees consider relationships that are most helpful to them while being socially isolated and hidden from the community. Employee commitment may vary between local and foreign workers based on perceived organisational support and the reciprocal benefits provided by the employer, as outlined in social exchange theory. This variation stems from differing expectations and cultural backgrounds. Foreign employees, for example, may value relocation assistance or language training that directly addresses their unique challenges, while local workers might prioritise other forms of support. When these specific needs are met, employees feel valued and are likely to reciprocate with increased loyalty and commitment.

The principle of reciprocity plays a crucial role, where employees return positive actions from their employers with heightened commitment. Foreign workers, in particular, may respond with higher loyalty when employers address their distinctive challenges, while local employees appreciate fair and equitable treatment. Overall, meeting the specific needs of both local and foreign workers fosters a stronger sense of support and commitment, enhancing the employee-employer relationship in diverse workplace environments.

Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviour and Organisational Commitment

Various research has been conducted in the field of organisational commitment and found several factors that affect organisational commitment. In the extant literature of the hospitality and tourism industry, organisational commitment has been widely studied. Several factors such as job satisfaction, the job itself, human resources management practices, group cohesiveness, compensation, working conditions, career development, and communication with colleagues were found as contributing factors to organisational commitment (Kusluvan et al., 2010). Numerous studies have explored the antecedents of organisational commitment such as tourism involvement (Yeh, 2019), transformational leadership and procedural justice (Luo et al., 2017), work and demographic characteristics (Adanse et al., 2017) and employee trust (Yao et al., 2019). Guzeller and Celiker (2020) examined the association between organisational commitment and turnover intention and found a negative relationship.

None of the studies explores how family-supportive supervisor behaviour affects organisational commitment. Hence the link between these two variables is not very clear. However, the literature shows a relationship between supervisor support and organisational commitment (Althobaiti & Muhammad, 2021; Rabbani et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2019). Supervisor support is a broad notion that includes family-supportive supervisor behaviour. When supervisors support employees, their organisational commitment can be enhanced leading to a decrease in turnover (Althobaiti & Muhammad, 2021).

The family-supportive supervisor behaviour’s emotional support dimension focuses on communicating with subordinates and getting to know their responsibilities in their personal and family lives. This can be related to the affective component of organisational commitment which is the emotional attachment of employees to their organisation. When employees can discuss comfortably with their supervisors their affective commitment may rise as their expectation matches self-fulfilment and success within the organisation. In addition, creative work-family management can also be linked to organisational commitment as the supervisors strategically plan the work to help balance work and non-work spheres, employees would consider it as a benefit and this may lead to an increase in organisational commitment. In the day-to-day management of employees’ organisational work and family demands, supervisors give assistance and that may affect the organisational commitment of employees. Thus, instrumental support can also be related to organisational commitment. Based on this, it is presumed that when supervisors help employees to manage work and family demands, the organisational commitment would increase. Hence, the following hypothesis is developed.

H₁: Family-supportive supervisor behaviour is positively related to organisational commitment.

Geographical Factors, Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviour and Organisational Commitment

The unique features of Maldives resorts make geographic factors an important role in determining organisational commitment. Since employees live and stay in in-house accommodation provided by the resorts and usually spend almost 3 months without travelling back to their family is challenging for the employees to balance work-family life. According to an interview given to Hotelier Maldives by several industry experts, geographical factors become a challenge in hiring employees to the resorts (Moosa 2016; Nettasinghe, 2016; Robles et al., 2016). These features have never been studied in the context of organisational behaviour. Given the distinct geographic context of the resort islands, it is essential to investigate whether the effectiveness of family-supportive supervisor behaviour in enhancing resort employees’ organisational commitment differs across several geographic factors. Geographical factors such as frequency of family visits, distance to the residence, transportation facility and nationality play an important role in employees’ life in the resorts. It is expected that when these geographical factors are enhanced in the employees, the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment can be strengthened. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed to bridge the knowledge gap on these geographical factors.

H₂: Geographical factors moderate the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment.

Frequency of Family Visits

Due to insufficient employment opportunities in the inhabited islands, a high percentage of men work in resorts that are geographically isolated by the sea from these inhabited islands. Most of their family are depending on the remittances sent by them (National Bureau of Statistics, 2019). Family life is a crucial part of one’s life in a community environment. Employees live in these resorts and are unable to visit their families frequently which may create innumerable social problems. Especially if their home island is far from the resort, their visits are fewer. This may lead to work and family-related conflicts. Work-family conflict is found to have a negative effect on organisational commitment (Hidayati et al., 2019). One of the reasons for employees quitting resort jobs was found to be family problems (MOT, 2008). Thus, when supervisors exhibit family-supportive supervisor behaviour, work and family-related issues can be managed which may further lead to an increase in organisational commitment. Family-supportive supervisor behaviour ensures that employees can visit their families which affects their attachment to the organisation. With the support from the supervisor, employees can visit their families often. The organisational commitment of employees can be affected by the number of times employees visit their families. For different employees, the number of times they want to visit may differ. For instance, an employee who is not married and has no children may not want to visit their family once every week. However, employees who are married and have kids will want to visit their families more often. Hence, it is assumed that depending on the number of times employees visit their families, the influence on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment differs. Past studies have not analysed the influence of family visits on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Therefore, there is a need to know the impact of the frequency of family visits on the relationship among family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Hence, the following hypothesis has been proposed.

H_2a: Frequency of family visits has an effect on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment such that there is a difference among the groups of frequency of family visits.

Distance to the Residence

Distance to the residence is considered as the distance between the resort island and the employees’ home island. Though resorts are scattered across the country, most of the resorts are in the central region of the country. According to the Ministry of Tourism (2022), 60.4% of the resorts are in the central region, 31.8% are in the northern region and 7.8% are in the southern region. Hence, not all resorts are close to the capital city and most of the employees reside in the islands. The majority of the resort employees are from Seenu Atoll (9%) which is in the southern area followed by Raa Atoll (8%) and Baa Atoll (8%) (Maldives Bureau of Statistics, 2020). This distance to the resident island becomes a factor affecting employee retention in the resorts (Netthasinghe, 2016; Robles et al., 2016). According to the Maldives Bureau of Statistics (2020), only 11% of employees commute daily to the resorts and the remaining employees reside at the resorts. Proximity to the resident island was a factor that motivated local employees and employees liked to work at resorts close to their home island so they could see their relatives (Ministry of Tourism, 2008). According to the National Bureau of Statistics (2019), it is imperative to provide job opportunities to the locals near the resort island. It is anticipated that when the distance between the resort island and the resident island is less, employees can visit their family more often which in turn affects the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. It is the supervisors that help and arrange ways for employees to visit their families. Hence, it is essential to investigate the effect of distance to the residence on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Henceforth, the following hypothesis is developed.

H_2b: Distance to the residence has an effect on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment such that when the distance between the resort and the resident island is less, employees’ organisational commitment will be greater.

Transportation Facility

Due to the geography of the small island nation and the unavailability of a transportation network within the country, transportation is a major issue for the employees in the resort sector (Hotelier Maldives, 2014). The ‘One island one resort’ concept means that these resorts are separated by sea and from the local community. This makes employees to be socially isolated from the community for a long time period. For most inhabited islands, transportation facilities are from the capital city to the islands. Thus, travelling hinders the frequency of family visits of resort employees. If their resident island is in close proximity to the resorts, they can travel often. They can even commute daily to the resorts. But, if it is further away from the resort, they tend to stay on their off days and travel once every 3 months or 6 months or sometimes once a year. The majority of resort management has strict rules for sending workers back to their home islands on a daily basis (Corporate Maldives, 2020). According to law number 2/2008, section 34, employers must not force employees to stay in a specific place after work. However, the resort management is not bound to provide transportation facilities to staff. Employees must arrange transportation on their own if they want to return home. Agada and Zeb-Obip (2018), discovered that social infrastructures, such as transportation facilities, are effective instruments for fostering and maintaining employee commitment. When employees are provided with good transportation facilities, they can be more committed to the organisation. Supervisors having family-supportive supervisor behaviour characteristics will arrange transportation for the employees to visit their families and therefore it may affect their commitment. Thus, there is a need to study the effect of transportation facilities on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Hence, the below hypothesis is developed.

H_2c: Transportation Facility has an effect on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment such that when employees are more satisfied with the transportation facility, their organisational commitment is high.

Nationality

Identity with a certain group or country is referred to as nationality (Juškevičienė, 2014). This identity is based on beliefs, culture, ethnocentrism and national heritage. People’s commitment differs based on this. The fragmentation of the workforce in the resort sector shows 42% accounted for locals and 58% were foreign workers (Maldives Bureau of Statistics, 2020). Foreign employees’ nationalities include Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Nationality was discovered as a factor that affects organisational commitment (Yaghi & Aljaidi, 2014) and the level of organisational commitment differs among locals and expatriates (Alnajjar, 1999). The nationality plays a significant role since it helps to create an environment where management can speculate about which nationality is more committed (Yavas et al., 2007). According to Shaw et al. (2003), local employees’ dedication and performance were substantially connected with their nationality, but not with that of expatriates. The effect of nationality is not clear in past studies on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed.

H_2d: Nationality has an effect on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment such that there is a difference between the organisational commitment of locals and foreigners.

Methodology

Conceptual Model

The conceptual model presented in Figure 1 encapsulates the theoretical framework and the hypotheses formulated earlier in the study.

Figure 1.

Source: Rabbani et al. (2017); Yang et al. (2019); Althobaiti & Muhammad (2021).

Sample

The study sample includes 250 employees selected using a simple random sampling technique and they are from the Maldives resorts with a bed capacity of more than 450 beds across all the regions. This includes only full-time employees who have work experience of more than one year at the resort and those who are residing at the resorts. Employees are from several departments of the resorts: accommodation, food and beverage, transportation, recreation, administrative works and other work areas such as marine-related works. However, if the work has been outsourced, those employees are excluded from this study. In addition, those employees who commute daily to the resorts are also excluded. With the help of resort management, data collection was done using an online Google form as it is not possible to visit these resort islands. Communication was done via phone calls to the management of the resorts and the management shared the link to the Google form with the employees who met the criteria of the study. Valid 250 responses were collected, and the response rate was 87.4%.

Research Method

Taking into consideration the difficulty of travelling to the resorts, a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional method was adopted. The research strategy is a case study and uses a deductive approach. This choice is supported by the case study’s extensive usage in the social science community (Amaratunga et al., 2002; Flyvbjerg, 2006). Additionally, it enabled a more comprehensive approach to the research and helped make sense of some circumstances (Acquah, 2019).

Measures

Organisational Commitment

The organisational commitment was measured using the TCM Employee Commitment Survey by Meyer et al. (1993). Four items of organisational commitment were ‘reversed-keyed’ items and were re-coded. All items were measured using a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). An example of an item in organisational commitment includes ‘I would be very happy to spend the rest of my career with this organization’. Past studies have shown acceptable reliability for both the TCM Employee Commitment Survey and family-supportive supervisor behaviour Short-Form. Zeleke and Yeshitila (2015), found a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.75 for organisational commitment using the scale by Meyer et al. (1993). Abasilim et al. (2019) found a reliability coefficient of 0.78 for organisational commitment. These values are within the acceptable range to justify the reliability of the instrument.

Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviour

Family-supportive supervisor behaviour was measured with four items from the family-supportive supervisor behaviour Short-Form developed by Hammer et al. (2013). All four items were measured on a response scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). A sample item from family-supportive supervisor behaviour is ‘My supervisor makes me feel comfortable talking to him/her about my conflicts between work and non-work’ (Hammer et al., 2013). By using the scale developed by Hammer et al. (2013), a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.82 was found by Marescaux et al. (2020) in their study. Hammer et al. (2013) also found 0.82 for Cronbach’s Alpha value. This indicates that the instrument is valid and reliable.

Geographic Factors

Since there is no existing tool to measure the geographical factors examined in this study, the researcher created custom questions. These questions are not scale items and are quite similar to demographic factors. To assess satisfaction with the transportation facility, employees were asked to rate their satisfaction on a scale from very satisfied to very dissatisfied (1–5) with the question, ‘How satisfied are you with the transportation facility of the resort?’. To determine the distance, the question was, ‘What is the approximate duration or distance to travel to your resident island from your working resort by a speedboat?’. To gauge the frequency of family visits, employees were asked, ‘How frequently can you visit your family?’. Lastly, they were asked about their nationality.

Sample Description

The majority of the participants are male (90%), age group of 31–40 (46.4%), married (66.4%), have basic education (29.6%) and have 1–2 years of service (42.8%). These statistics reflect a true representation of gender in the resort industry of the Maldives (National Bureau of Statistics, 2019). The majority of the respondents (42.8%) having 1–2 years of work experience in the current resort reflects the high turnover rate in the sector.

Controls

In this study, years of service were controlled as only those who have worked in a resort for more than one year and reside at the resort can participate in this study. Other controlled factors include geographical factors such as the frequency of family visits (1 = Once every month, 2 = Once every 3 months, 3 = Once every 6 months, 4 = Once every 12 months and 5 = Others), distance to the residence (1 = 14 Km and less, 2 = 15 – 56 Km, 3 = 57 – 112 Km, 4 = 113 – 168 Km, 5 = 169 – 224 Km, 6 = 225 Km and more and 7 = Residence not in Maldives), transportation facility (1 = Very Dissatisfied, 2 = Dissatisfied, 3 = Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied, 4 = Satisfied and 5 = Very Satisfied) and nationality (1 = Locals and 2 = Foreigners).

Data Analysis

The questionnaire consists of four parts other than the researcher’s information and the consent for participation in the study. Part A was the demographic questions, Part B was geographic questions, Part C includes family-supportive supervisor behaviour questions and Part D includes organisational commitment questions. The education level of resort staff, particularly lower-level employees, is another limitation. The questionnaire has been translated into Dhivehi and is bilingual in Dhivehi and English as most of the lower-level employee’s education level is not up to the standard of understanding English well. For family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment, the Reliability test, Factor analysis, Normality test using P-P plots, Standardised Residual Histogram, Skewness and Kurtosis, Tolerance and VIF, Mahalanobis Distance and Scatter Plot were done and all values are within the acceptable threshold. The data was examined using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software and AMOS Software (version 24). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted for family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment to see the factor structure within the Maldivian context. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out to check the validity of the measurement model and to analyse the distinctiveness of the variables studied as well as the convergence of these variables. Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability were checked to test the model’s reliability. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was conducted to check the association between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment and moderation analysis with the categorical moderator using multigroup analysis (Collier, 2020). The multigroup analysis allows checking whether estimates of group-specific parameters differ significantly across pre-defined data groups. In AMOS, after running the SEM model, subgroups were created for each geographical factor, with parameters labelled across the groups. Using multigroup analysis, AMOS generated models that constrained different aspects across these groups, compared to the unconstrained model. A new constraint model has been created to compare the results to the unconstrained model and check if the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment significantly differs across the categories of geographical factors. Chi-square difference tests were used to determine if the moderator (geographical factor) was significant, while regression coefficients were examined to understand how the moderator influenced the relationship (Latif, 2021).

Ethical Consideration

Before beginning the survey, participants received a brief explanation of the study’s goals and provided their consent. Also, they were made aware of voluntary involvement and the option to discontinue at any moment. Their name, email address and the name of the resort were not collected as it is personal information.

Results

Validity and Reliability Analysis

The measurement tool included family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment scales. The final model includes six items of organisational commitment and four items of family-supportive supervisor behaviour. The results of the CFA revealed a statistically good model fit (χ²/df = 2.066, CFI = .975, RMSEA = .065).

As shown in Table 1, convergent validity has been achieved. All factor loadings are above the threshold of 0.5, AVE values are almost and above 0.5 and values of composite reliability are greater than 0.7 (Hair et al., 2006).

Table 1.

Standard Loading, Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and Composite Reliability (CR).

Construct and Item	Standardised Loading	AVE	Composite Reliability
Family-supportive supervisor behaviour		0.76	0.92
ES	.774
RMB	.900
IS	.939
CWFM	.873
Organisational commitment		0.47	0.81
AC1	.720
AC2	.703
AC6	.753
NC3	.534
NC4	.660
NC6	.554

In order to statistically confirm the discriminant validity, the square root of the value of AVE for each construct is calculated and compared with the correlation estimate of the constructs. This correlation estimate must be less than the squared AVE (Hair et al., 2006). Table 2, demonstrates that the correlation values are below the corresponding square root of its AVE. Hence, discriminant validity is achieved.

Table 2.

Discriminant Validity of Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviour (FSSB) and Organisational Commitment (OC).

Latent Variable	FSSB	OC
FSSB	0.871
OC	0.685	0.687

Results of Hypotheses Testing

Table 3 shows the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. As hypothesised, a positive relationship can be seen between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment (b = .682, t = 9.182, p < .05). This result supported H₁.

Table 3.

SEM Results of Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviour (FSSB) on Organisational Commitment (OC).

			Standardised Estimate	t-value	p Value	Results
OC	←	FSSB	.682	9.182	***	Significant

Note: ***p < .01.

Moderation Analysis

Frequency of Family Visits on the Relationship Between Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviour and Organisational Commitment

Table 4 shows the results of analysing the model comparison of the constraint models for each of the geographical factors. The results of the test (Constraint_1) show a chi-square difference across the groups of frequency of family visits for the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment as 14.109, which is significant p = .007. This shows that the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment is different between the groups of frequency of family visits. Hence, the moderation of the ‘frequency of family visits’ on the family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment relationship is significant thereby supporting H_2a.

Table 4.

Model Comparison Across the Groups of Each of the Geographical Factors.

Geographical Factors	Model	CMIN	DF	p
Frequency of family visits	Constraint_1	14.109	4	.007
Distance to the residence	Constraint_2	6.887	6	.331
Transportation facility	Constraint_3	16.957	4	.002
Nationality	Constraint_4	5.246	1	.022

Note: p < .05.

To examine the strength of the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment in each group of geographical factors, the regression coefficients of each group are examined and can be seen in Table 5. The relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment is significant in all the groups of frequency of family visits except for the group ‘once every month’. The regression weight is highest in the ‘once every 12 months’ group (b = .790) followed by once every 3 months (b = .706) and once every 6 months (.705).

Table 5.

Analysis of How Family-supportive Supervisor Behaviour Influences Organisational Commitment Across the Groups of Geographic Factors.

Geographical Factors	Groups	Standardised Estimate	t-value	p Value	Results
Frequency of family visits	Once every month	.388	1.132	.258	Not significant
	Once every 3 months	.706	5.963	***	Significant
	Once every 6 months	.705	4.830	***	Significant
	Once every 12 months	.790	4.853	***	Significant
	Others	1.102	5.802	***	Significant
Transportation facility	Very dissatisfied	.347	1.217	.223	Not significant
	Dissatisfied	.597	1.825	.068	Not significant
	Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied	.794	4.476	***	Significant
	Satisfied	.595	4.964	***	Significant
	Very satisfied	.680	4.853	***	Significant
Nationality	Locals	.642	8.110	***	Significant
	Foreigners	.998	4.543	***	Significant

Note: p < .05, ***p < .01.

Distance to the Residence on the Relationship Between Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviour and Organisational Commitment

The results of the ‘Constraint_2’ model as seen in Table 4 show that the chi-square difference is 6.887, which is not significant as the p value is greater than .05 (p = .331). This means that the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment is not significantly different across different groups of ‘distance to the residence’. Hence, the moderation effect of ‘distance to the residence’ on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment is not present. Therefore, H_2b is not supported.

Transportation Facility on the Relationship Between Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviour and Organisational Commitment

As per Table 4, the ‘Constraint_3’ model shows a chi-square difference of 16.957 which is significant at a p value less than .05 (p = .002). This confirms that the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment is significantly different across the groups of ‘transportation facility’. Thus, ‘transportation facility’ moderates the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. This result supports H_2c.

According to Table 5, the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment is not significant for the groups ‘very dissatisfied’ and ‘dissatisfied’. All other groups show a significant relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Among the groups, the ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’ group (b = .794) shows the strongest influence of family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment followed by the ‘very satisfied’ group (b = .680), and the ‘satisfied’ group (b = .595).

‘Nationality’ on the Relationship Between Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviour and Organisational Commitment

The ‘Contraint_4’ model in Table 4 shows a chi-square difference of 5.246 which is significant p = .022. This p value is less than .05. Hence, there is a significant difference across the groups of ‘Nationality’ in the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. This reveals that ‘Nationality’ moderates the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Therefore, H_2c is supported.

The results of regression weight in Table 5 show both groups of Nationality, ‘locals and foreigners’ have a significant relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. However, the regression coefficient is much stronger in the ‘foreigners’ group (b = .998) than in locals (b = .642).

Discussion

This research analysed the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment and the moderating effect of geographical factors (frequency of family visits, distance to the residence, transportation facility and nationality) on this relationship. The sample size of 250 was substantial compared to the number of predictors utilised in this research (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2013). To identify small effects and increase statistical power, a large number of samples is required (Field, 2009). The above analysis demonstrates that family-supportive supervisor behaviour is positively related to organisational commitment. This finding is somewhat consistent with the results of several researchers that there is a positive relationship between supervisor support and organisational commitment (Althobaiti & Muhammad, 2021; Rabbani et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2019). Family-supportive supervisor behaviour is part of supervisor support. This reveals that when supervisors exhibit family-supportive supervisor behaviour by being more considerate about subordinates’ family-related issues, subordinates are more devoted and their organisational commitment increases. This could decrease the turnover intention of employees thereby decreasing the cost of hiring. When organisational commitment is high, employee turnover intention is less (Guzeller & Celiker, 2020). Therefore, emotional support, role modelling behaviours, instrumental support and creative work-family management provided by family-supportive supervisors (Hammer et al., 2009) promote organisational commitment by helping employees to overcome work and family-related issues.

The results of this study revealed that geographical factors (frequency of family visits, transportation facility and nationality) moderate the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Among the groups of ‘frequency of family visits’, when employees can visit their family ‘once every month’, the influence of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on organisational commitment is not significant. This shows that if employees can visit their families once a month, they do not require family support from their supervisors to affect their organisational commitment. This could be because family-related issues are not affecting their work. All other groups of ‘frequency of family visits’ show a significant relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. When employees can visit their families ‘once every 12 months’, a stronger influence of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on organisational commitment can be observed compared to other groups. This could be because the majority of the foreigners are in this group and most of the employees in this group are not married. To confirm this, cross-tabulation has been conducted using SPSS and the results show that 69.8% of the people in the ‘once every 12 months’ group are unmarried. When the time of family visits is ‘once a year’, they need more family support from their supervisors to stay in the resorts and to manage work-family conflicts. Following this group, the next highest influence of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on organisational commitment can be observed in the ‘once every 3 months’ group followed by ‘once every 6 months’. The majority of the Maldivians are in the ‘once every 3 months’ group (98% of this group) and the majority of the married people are also in this group. Hence, ‘once every 3 months’ is an ideal time period to send Maldivian employees back to their families and they need support from their supervisor to manage work and family-related issues that affect their organisational commitment. The least influential group in family-supportive supervisor behaviour to organisational commitment is the ‘others’ group which includes visiting their family every week or less than a month period. Because they can visit more often, they need less family-supportive supervisor behaviour from their supervisors to increase their organisational commitment.

In the transportation facility, it can be seen a strong influence of family-supportive supervisor behaviour to organisational commitment in the group ‘neither satisfied nor dissatisfied’ than other groups. This shows that in situations like employees being in chaos where employees are not sure whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the transportation facility, showing care and being supportive of the family by supervisors increases their organisational commitment. It is apparent from the findings that when employees are satisfied with the transportation facility, a higher influence of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on organisational commitment is present. When employees are dissatisfied with the transportation facility means they are unable to travel and meet their family often. Thus, family-supportive supervisor behaviour to organisational commitment is not significant in this situation.

The geographical factor of Nationality reveals that the influence of foreigners in the family-supportive supervisor behaviour to organisational commitment relationship is stronger than locals. This could be due to the fact that foreigners’ residences are not in the Maldives and may not demand often to travel to their families. Usually, they take leave once a year. Hence, while staying in the resort for a long time they need more support from their supervisors.

The geographical factor ‘distance to the residence’ does not moderate the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. This indicates that the distance between the working resort and the residence is not a factor that affects family-supportive supervisor behaviour to organisational commitment.

Theoretical and Practical Implications

The present study adds to the knowledge of research exploring the outcomes of family-supportive supervisor behaviour and antecedents of organisational commitment and the effect of geographical factors on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment, especially in hospitality and tourism in isolated and small island settings. Although several studies examined the antecedents of organisational commitment in the tourism and hospitality industry (Adanse et al., 2017; Luo et al., 2017; Yao et al., 2019; Yeh, 2019), none of the studies analysed the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. The significant positive influence of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on organisational commitment and the moderating effect of geographical factors (frequency of family visits, transportation facility and nationality) revealed from this study contribute to theory and have practical implications for island resorts. This study provides in-depth knowledge of the extant literature on geographical factors in the organisational behaviour context. Moreover, the results of this study support the social exchange theory which is about a reciprocal relationship that benefits both parties. Social Exchange Theory posits that employees prioritise relationships that offer them the most benefit, leading to mutual advantages for both the employees and the organisation through their commitment. Family-supportive supervisor behaviour makes employees cope with stressors related to work and family making them more attached to the organisation. Employees who encounter issues related to their family life are more likely to discuss with a leader who possesses family-supportive supervisor behaviour, and when these leaders provide support, it enhances employees’ organisational commitment. Both the organisation and employees are benefitted. Employees get psychological and instrumental support when their supervisors show family-supportive supervisor behaviour and the organisation benefits by having more committed employees. This exchange fosters trustworthy relationships over time. Furthermore, when the resort offers good transportation services that enable employees to visit their families more frequently, it facilitates a voluntary exchange of values based on mutual trust that develops over time. The inclusion of geographical factors in this study enriches social exchange theory as geographical factors are under-researched using this theory and therefore this study marks a novel approach not previously explored.

From a managerial perspective, since family-supportive supervisor behaviour was found to have a strong positive relationship with organisational commitment, the management can check for family-supportive supervisor behaviour during the selection process when hiring supervisor-level staff. Moreover, training related to family-supportive supervisor behaviour can be given to managerial-level staff to increase employee organisational commitment. To make the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment stronger, geographical factors such as frequency of family visits, transportation facility and nationality must be considered accordingly. As such, the frequency of family visits can be set to once every 3 months for Maldivians and once a year for foreigners, transportation facilities must be at a satisfactory level, and foreigners must be considered.

Limitations and Future Research

This research has various limitations.

First, this research limits the employees to those who have a permanent employment contract with the resort management have experience in the current working resort for more than one year and reside at the resorts. Furthermore, this study is limited to the island resorts separated by sea with a bed capacity of more than 450 beds. Future research can focus on similar studies in other resorts and other types of hospitality and tourism industries such as hotels and safaris and other industries as well. Moreover, the data were collected after the reopening of the resorts due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, there were fewer employees who met the inclusion criteria of work experience in the current resort for more than one year. Thus, this research can be replicated to see the difference. Another limitation was the absence of research and reference materials in the tourism and hospitality sector in the Maldives. The education level of resort staff, particularly lower-level employees, is another limitation. The questionnaire has therefore been translated into Dhivehi and is bilingual in Dhivehi and English. This study used cross-sectional data that avoids drawing conclusions about causality. However, a theoretical approach was used to formulate the hypotheses. Since, he measurement of family-supportive supervisor behaviour was only from the subordinates and thus this study reflects only their perception. Further studies may include the supervisor’s viewpoints and how they actually use family-supportive supervisor behaviour to influence organisational commitment and organisational-level studies. In addition, the relationship between geographical factors and organisational commitment and the effect of family-supportive supervisor behaviour on these relationships in the island resort concept can also be examined. Alternatively, researchers could investigate whether supervisors can adapt their family-supportive supervisor behaviour to satisfy employees’ demands or do supervisors have the authority to adopt family-supportive supervisor behaviour. Also, the factors that affect supervisors to adapt to family-supportive supervisor behaviour can be studied.

Conclusion

This research analysed the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment and the effect of geographical factors (Frequency of family visits, Distance to the residence, Transportation facility and Nationality) on this relationship. The findings of the study discovered a statistically significant positive relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. Among the geographical factors, Frequency of family visits, Transportation facility and Nationality were revealed to have a significant impact on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment. This would be the first study to analyse the effect of geographical factors in the context of organisational commitment. This study contributes knowledge on the relationship between family-supportive supervisor behaviour and organisational commitment and the geographical factors to be considered to enhance the organisational commitment of employees in the resort sector of the Maldives. The results of the study support the social exchange theory. Resort management can utilise the findings of this study to increase employees’ organisational commitment and resolve the high turnover rate in the sector.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Aishath Azdha

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