Childcare demands and employee performance : The moderating influence of team support

Purpose – This study aims to investigate the effect of childcare demands on the work performance of mothers. It examines the moderating influence of team support on the relationship between childcare demands and employee performance. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 217 working mothers in various companies in Ghana. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to estimate the research model. Findings – The results indicate that childcare demands negatively relate to performance of working mothers at workplace. Further, team support moderates the negative relationship between childcare demands and employee performance such that the relationship is positive and significant. Research limitations/implications – The study adopted a cross-sectional data collection method that prevented casual inferences among the variables. Longitudinal research design will be more beneficial in future research endeavours. Further research should test the influence of personality characteristics of individuals in the moderating influence of team support on the relationship between childcare demands and employee performance. Practical implications – The study suggests that when team support is well taken care of in organisations, managers can turn the negative effect of childcare demands on employee performance into improved performance outcomes. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first in Sub-Saharan Africa to examine the moderating influence of team support on the childcare demands – employee performance linkage.