Two-instance moderating dilemma between responsible leadership and family-supportive supervisor behavior on women’s career sustainability

Female workers are ineluctable contributors to development in emerging economies. However, they generally face work–family balance conflict (WFBC) because of their greater level of family engagement compared to that of their male counterparts. Given that WFBC is detrimental to women’s career sustainability (CS), this research aims to explore how responsible leadership (RL) and family-supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB) establish a buffer for WFBC-CS challenges. Cross-cultural data collected from Chinese companies operating in Ghana were used to probe the interactive moderating effect of RL and FSSB on women’s CS. The PROCESS and MEMORE techniques of additive and multiplicative two-instance moderation were adopted to obtain more comprehensible moderation models. The twofold study results reveal that, individually, RL and FSSB significantly moderate the negative WFBC–CS relationship; however, their interaction terms eventually dampen their individual impacts. RL is instrumental in remedying the adverse effects of WFBC on women’s career development. However, its interaction with other equally positive leadership styles, such as FSSB, could conflict, thus disrupting women’s career objectives. This research provides novel insights by coupling RL with FSSB to moderate the WFBC–CS mechanism of women workers in emerging economies. The originality of this research lies in the assignment of RL in the midst of related leadership ideologies in the career development contest to provide novel perspectives and enrich the literature on career management.