The more available, the more work they do: Influences of supervisors’ stereotype of single employees

While the nonwork needs of married employees have received the most attention in work-family studies, the nonwork needs of single employees are often overlooked in existing research. Drawing on social role theory, we contend that supervisors often expect their single employees to perform more organizational citizenship behaviors at work than they expect of married employees, and this unrealistic expectation is detrimental to the work-life balance of single employees. This negative influence is especially profound among those employees with a strong single identity. To empirically examine this notion, we first developed scales for the stereotype of single (creating new measurement items) and for single identity (adapting from an existing scale). Then, using supervisor-subordinate dyadic data, we tested a moderated mediation model. Data supported a positive indirect effect by supervisors’ stereotype of single employees and single employees’ work-life conflict through compulsory organizational citizenship behaviors and citizenship fatigue, with single identity acting as a moderator. This research contributes to the literature on the work-family interface and organizational citizenship behavior in several ways, supporting the argument that organizations should pay equal attention to the nonwork needs of all employees.