Work–Family Conflicts Experienced by Project Managers in the Chinese Construction Industry
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International Journal of Project Management 29 (2011) 117–128 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman
Work–family conflicts experienced by project managers in the Chinese construction industry
Jun Ying Liu a,*, Sui Pheng Low b a b
Department of Construction Management, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore
Received 13 December 2009; received in revised form 26 January 2010; accepted 28 January 2010
Abstract Project managers in the construction industry, play an important role in achieving project objectives. Construction involves a demanding work environment with considerable potential to interfere with their family life in the way of time, strain and behavior. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between work and family life of construction project managers. The purpose of the study is to find out whether the respondents experienced all forms of work-to-family conflict greater than in the direction from family-to-work conflict. Using a validated multi-item construct-based questionnaire, a survey was carried out on a sample of construction project managers in China. The findings showed that Chinese project managers experienced different time-based and strain-based conflicts between the work interference with family conflict (WIFC) direction and the family interference with work conflict (FIWC) direction, but the same behavior-based conflict between the WIFC direction and the FIWC direction. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Project managers; Work–family conflict; China
1. Introduction The area of work–family research has become a much investigated topic in today’s organizational behavior research as it has been shown to lead to undesirable outcomes associated with employee’s work life, family life, general health and well-being (Carlson, 2000; Bruck et al., 2002). Most research on
International Journal of Project Management 29 (2011) 117–128 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman
Work–family conflicts experienced by project managers in the Chinese construction industry
Jun Ying Liu a,*, Sui Pheng Low b a b
Department of Construction Management, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China Department of Building, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117566, Singapore
Received 13 December 2009; received in revised form 26 January 2010; accepted 28 January 2010
Abstract Project managers in the construction industry, play an important role in achieving project objectives. Construction involves a demanding work environment with considerable potential to interfere with their family life in the way of time, strain and behavior. It is therefore important to understand the relationship between work and family life of construction project managers. The purpose of the study is to find out whether the respondents experienced all forms of work-to-family conflict greater than in the direction from family-to-work conflict. Using a validated multi-item construct-based questionnaire, a survey was carried out on a sample of construction project managers in China. The findings showed that Chinese project managers experienced different time-based and strain-based conflicts between the work interference with family conflict (WIFC) direction and the family interference with work conflict (FIWC) direction, but the same behavior-based conflict between the WIFC direction and the FIWC direction. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Project managers; Work–family conflict; China
1. Introduction The area of work–family research has become a much investigated topic in today’s organizational behavior research as it has been shown to lead to undesirable outcomes associated with employee’s work life, family life, general health and well-being (Carlson, 2000; Bruck et al., 2002). Most research on
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