In a context where employees find it increasingly difficult to juggle work and family demands, increasing attention has been paid to Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (i.e., FSSBs), as informal and low costly ways of retaining and keeping talented employees in organizations. We expand and contribute by providing a fit perspective to research on FSSBs, arguing that such behaviours improve employees’ perceptions of their jobs, with consequential positive impact on their work (proactive skill development) and non-work (sleep quality lives) outcomes. Furthermore, we argue that the associations between FSSBs and employee outcomes are not linear. We argue that for employees high on Protean Career Orientation (i.e., PCO), the consequences of FSSBs are more significant and positive on both a) employees’ perceived job fits and b) on their work as well as non-work outcomes. Drawing on two key tenets of Conservation of Resource Theory and integrating recent research on FSSBs, we test our hypotheses with multi-level, longitudinal data collected in Spain, Colombia and Chile. Our results demonstrate the key role of FSSBs in enabling employees perceive better fit with their jobs. For HR managers and practitioners, results show that keeping protean-oriented employees is a promising strategy.
Key words: FSSBs, protean careers, proactive skill development, fit, sleep quality, multi-level