Relational leadership and work‒life balance: The moderated mediating role of relational energy

Work‒life balance is becoming increasingly important to employees in contemporary society, who face demands from the different roles that they play in life. Drawing on social contagion theory, this paper investigates how employees’ work‒life balance can be improved by examining relational perspectives of leadership and human energy. The findings from a three-wave survey of 431 employees demonstrate that relational leadership exerts a positive effect on employees’ work‒life balance through employees’ relational energy. Core self-evaluation strengthens the mediating effect of relational energy on the relationship between relational leadership and work‒life balance such that this mediating effect is stronger at high level of core self-evaluation. This paper offers both theoretical contributions by confirming the novel energizing pathway associated with employees’ work‒life balance and the corresponding boundary condition (i.e., employees’ core self-evaluation) and managerial implications pertaining to how employees’ work‒life balance can be enhanced through managers’ leadership practices.