Drivers of Work Engagement in the Private Sector: The Mediating Role of Work–Life Balance and Behavioural Work-Life Conflict

This study examines how key organizational resources shape work–life balance (WLB), behavioural work–life conflict (BWLC), and work engagement (WE) among employees in the private sector. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model and the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we test an integrated framework in which leader support, co-worker support, and family-friendly policies predict WLB and BWLC, which in turn influence work engagement. Data collected from employees in Slovenian private-sector organizations were analyzed using structural equation modelling. The results show that leader support, co-worker support, and family-friendly policies significantly enhance WLB, with leader support demonstrating the strongest effect. BWLC is negatively associated with WLB, confirming that behavioural spillover between domains diminishes employees’ perceived balance. Leader support is the only organizational resource that significantly reduces BWLC, while co-worker support and family-friendly policies show no direct effect. Furthermore, WLB is a strong positive predictor of work engagement, whereas BWLC does not directly predict WE. These findings highlight the importance of work–life balance for understanding the relationship between organizational resources and work engagement, and they underscore the crucial role of leader behaviour in shaping boundary management. The findings should be interpreted within the context of Slovenian private-sector organizations and comparable regulated labour-market settings.