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How does abusive supervision differentiation affect employee work-family conflict? A moderated chain mediation model

Lanxia Zhang (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China)
Jia-Min Li (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China)
Mengyu Mao (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China)
Lijie Na (School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China)

International Journal of Conflict Management

ISSN: 1044-4068

Article publication date: 25 January 2024

Issue publication date: 29 October 2024

395

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the mechanism of abusive supervision differentiation on employee work-family conflict, and examine the chain mediating role of work-related rumination and organizational citizenship behavior/deviant workplace behavior, as well as the moderating role of work-family boundary segmentation preference.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors designed two studies: Study 1 was a scenario experiment with 120 Master of Business Administration students. To further explore this finding, the authors conducted a multiwave survey in Study 2 with 345 employees from various organizations.

Findings

The results of Study 1 showed that abusive supervision differentiation had a positive effect on work-related rumination, and work-related rumination mediated the relationship between differentiated abusive supervision and organizational citizenship behavior/deviant workplace behavior. The results of Study 2 not only confirmed the conclusions of Study 1 but also revealed that organizational citizenship behavior/deviant workplace behavior significantly affected work-family conflict. Abusive supervision differentiation had a positive effect on work-family conflict through work-related rumination and organizational citizenship behavior/deviant workplace behavior. In addition, work-family boundary segmentation preference negatively moderated the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and work-family conflict.

Originality/value

First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first paper to test the spillover effect of abusive supervision differentiation on the family domain through a chain mediation model. It extends the research on abusive supervision differentiation from the work domain to the family domain. Second, previous research has highlighted role conflict or role insufficiency as significant factors contributing to work-family conflict. However, this study suggests that abusive supervision differentiation from workplace managers can also trigger work-family conflict, providing a new perspective in the study of precursors to work-family conflict.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding: This work was supported by the National College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of China [grant number: CY2023002], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 72172032], the National Social Science Fund of China [grant number: 23BGL239] and the Natural Science foundation of Hebei Province [grant number: G2021501006].

Citation

Zhang, L., Li, J.-M., Mao, M. and Na, L. (2024), "How does abusive supervision differentiation affect employee work-family conflict? A moderated chain mediation model", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 35 No. 5, pp. 918-943. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-07-2023-0138

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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