Abstract
Given the dynamic, complex, and highly demanding project environment, construction professionals are particularly likely to experience a high level of work–family conflict. Taking an emotional resource perspective and on the basis of affective events theory, this study tested negative affect and emotional exhaustion as sequential mediators between two directions of work–family conflict and workplace well-being or deviance behavior. The theoretical model was examined using data collected at two time points from 143 construction professionals through regression analysis and bootstrapping. The results indicate that work–family conflict was positively related to deviant behavior and negatively related to workplace well-being. The findings demonstrate that the mediation effects of emotional exhaustion between work–family conflict and workplace well-being or deviant behavior were significant and that the sequential mediating effects of negative affect and emotional exhaustion in the relationship between work–family conflict and workplace well-being or deviant behavior were significant. Moreover, different impacts of work interference with family and family interference with work on job-related attitudes and behavior were observed. These findings highlight the importance of emotional experience to understand the negative impact of work–family conflict in the temporary project context.
Highlights
Construction project work is characterized by complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity [1,2].Project managers and construction professionals experience long working hours and must complete complex tasks to meet the requirements of project goals [3,4], which result in high levels of work–family conflict (WFC) [5]
Multiple goodness-of-fit indices, including the ration of chi-squared and degree of freedom (χ2 /df ), root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), standardized root-mean-square residual (SRMR), comparative fit index (CFA), and Tucker–Lewis index (TLI), were applied to assess different aspects of model fit in this study. χ2 /df and SRMR provide the examples of absolute fit; RMSEA provides an example of parsimony fit; CFI and TLI demonstrate the comparative fit [80]
The estimate of the indirect effect of WIF on workplace deviant behavior via negative affect and emotional exhaustion was significant (0.030, p < 0.05, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.011; 0.071], Model 6), and the indirect effect of FIW on workplace deviant behavior was significant (0.019, p < 0.05, 95% CI [0.006; 0.052], Model 6). These findings suggest that negative affect and emotional exhaustion mediate the effect of work interference with family or family interference with work on workplace deviant behavior
Summary
Project managers and construction professionals experience long working hours and must complete complex tasks to meet the requirements of project goals [3,4], which result in high levels of work–family conflict (WFC) [5]. WFC refers to a form of inter-role conflict [6], that occurs when the demands of functioning in the work and family domains are incompatible [7]. This conflict can manifest itself in either of two directions: work can interfere with family life (work-to-family conflict, WIF) and family life can interfere with the workplace (family-to-work conflict, FIW) [8,9]. Public Health 2020, 17, 6883; doi:10.3390/ijerph17186883 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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