Cross-Boundary Contact, Work-Family Conflict, Antecedents, and Consequences: Testing an Integrated Model for Construction Professionals
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 146, Issue 3
Abstract
Despite the bidirectional nature of work-family conflict, existing studies have focused mainly on work-to-family conflict. This study addresses that shortcoming through proposing an integrated work-family conflict model and testing the model on South African construction professionals. The model considered cross-boundary relationships between the work and family domains and the bidirectional nature of work-family conflict. Data were collected by means of an online questionnaire survey administered to construction professionals registered with their respective statutory councils. A total of 695 valid responses were subject to data analysis. The research results indicate that construction professionals’ experiences of work-to-family conflict are positively associated with work pressure while negatively associated with job autonomy and schedule control. Work pressure can negatively spill over to the family domain through the boundary-spanning activity of work contact (i.e., after-hours, work-related contact), which then leads to work-to-family conflict. Construction professionals’ experiences of family-to-work conflict are predicted by household tasks and childcare demands. Partner support is a useful family-domain resource in alleviating family-to-work conflict. Childcare demands can interfere with the work domain through family contact (i.e., being contacted by family to deal with family matters while at work), which then results in family-to-work conflict. Work-to-family conflict predicts family-to-work contact, but not the reverse. In terms of consequences, work-family conflict in both directions directly predicts psychological distress. Both work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict are also associated with sleep problems and alcohol use but through different pathways. This study highlights the important roles of an effective work design and useful boundary management tactics in protecting construction professionals from experiencing excessive work-family conflict.
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Data Availability Statement
Data generated or analyzed during the study are available from the corresponding author by request. Information about the Journal’s data-sharing policy can be found here: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001263.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their appreciation to the participants and to Scott Schieman for providing us with a copy of the original survey questionnaire and for responding to our queries. This work is based on research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant No. 85376). The Grantholder acknowledges that opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in any publication generated by the NRF supported research are those of the author(s), and that the NRF accepts no liability whatsoever in this regard.
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Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 146 • Issue 3 • March 2020
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©2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 28, 2019
Accepted: Aug 16, 2019
Published online: Jan 8, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Jun 8, 2020
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