Time pressure, emotional exhaustion and project manager abusive supervision in the construction industry: the role of psychological resilience

Abstract

Purpose

Little research has focused on abusive supervision in the context of project management, despite its prevalence and detrimental influence on the psychological health of subordinates. Therefore, drawing on affective event theory (AET), this study sought to investigate supervisor-level antecedents of abusive supervision by considering the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and moderating role of psychological resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

Utilizing a time-lagged design, data were collected through questionnaires from project managers and their immediate subordinates in construction projects. PROCESS macros were utilized to analyze a sample of 241 supervisor-subordinate dyads.

Findings

The findings revealed that time pressure and emotional exhaustion significantly predicted project manager abusive supervision. The authors also found that emotional exhaustion mediates the relationship between time pressure and project manager abusive supervision. Furthermore, the results show that highly resilient project managers become less emotionally exhausted when facing time pressure. Lastly, psychological resilience moderated the indirect effect of time pressure on project manager abusive supervision through emotional exhaustion.

Originality/value

According to Fordjour et al., abusive supervision is a critical factor that deteriorates the psychological health of subordinates in the project. Nevertheless, this phenomenon remains uninvestigated. Therefore, this research contributes to the project management literature by investigating key predictors of abusive supervision, thus filling both a theoretical and practical gap.

Citation

Rafique, M., Jaafar, M., Zafar, A. and Ahmed, S. (2023), "Time pressure, emotional exhaustion and project manager abusive supervision in the construction industry: the role of psychological resilience", International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, Vol. 26 No. 1/2, pp. 132-151. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-02-2022-0034