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•Construction professionals’ work-life conflict experience is bi-directional in nature.•Work demands affect work-to-family conflict both directly, and indirectly through role blurring.•Construction professionals are more susceptible to work demands compared to family demands.•Construction professionals’ work-family conflict experience varies according to job position and work authority.
The demanding work environment of the construction industry has spawned many studies on construction professionals’ experiences of work-to-family conflict. Relatively less attention has been placed on family-to-work conflict. Many employees in modern organizations play a role in both work and family domains and juggle between work and family responsibilities, underscoring the need to holistically understand work-family experiences of construction professionals. This study considered the bi-directional nature of work-family conflict and proposed an integrated research model to examine the work-family interface among South African construction professionals. Data (n = 864) were collected through an online survey administered to construction professionals registered with their respective statutory councils. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to test the research hypotheses. Within the work domain, work demands (i.e., work pressure and work hours) affect work-to-family conflict, both directly and indirectly, through the boundary-spanning demand of role blurring. Regarding workplace social support, only co-worker support is negatively associated with work-to-family conflict but not supervisor support. Within the family domain, the number of young children living at home and household task demands are positively associated with family-to-work conflict, while partner support is negatively associated with family-to-work conflict. Work-to-family conflict positively affects family-to-work conflict, but not the reverse. Work demands and role blurring experienced by professionals are likely to be affected by their job position and level of work authority. The findings suggest that organizations in the construction industry should protect their employees from experiencing excessive work-family conflict through creating a socially-supportive workplace environment, providing work-family programmes that foster greater boundary flexibility, and implementing effective work design characterised by reasonable workloads and work hours.