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

Abstract 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.