Does work-family conflict lead to abusive supervision in the construction projects? : the role of project commitment and psychological resilience

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the study aimed to investigate the relationship between work-family conflict (time-based, strain-based and behavior-based) and project manager abusive supervision in the presence of mediating mechanism and boundary condition. Time-lagged data were collected from 235 respondents working on construction projects to examine the proposed relationships by utilizing regression analysis. Findings indicated that the dimensions of work-family conflict had a positive significant relationship with abusive supervision and negative relationship with project commitment. Additionally, project commitment mediated the relationships and psychological resilience were found to alleviate the negative influence of work-family conflict on project commitment. Surprisingly, the results delineated that strain-based work-family conflict have more pronounced influence in instigating abusive supervision. This study is unique as it broadens the empirical research on work-family conflict and more particularly negative supervisor behavior in the project context.