Project demands can lead to either high-performance or abusive supervision

What is it about?

In today’s high-pressure work environment, project managers are often forced to “do more with less.” We argue that this imperative can lead project managers to engage in either high-performance or abusive supervision behaviors, deepening on how the project manager thinks about the project. Key factors are stakeholder relationships, people-related project success factors, employee well-being, and the project manager’s personal resources (psychological capital, emotional intelligence, and dark triad personality).

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Why is it important?

In today’s economic environment, and particularly since the 2009 global financial crisis, employers have been under pressure to cut costs, usually by cutting staff. Following such cuts, “survivors” are inevitably placed under increasing pressure to “do more with less” and their supervisors are under increased pressure to maintain or increase productivity This increased pressure to perform can result in supervisors engaging in over-zealous supervision practices that can be interpreted by employees as abusive. We focus on how supervisors deal with such situations within the specific context of project-oriented organizations.

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