Type A/B personality, work-family, and family-work conflict: The moderating effects of emotional intelligence

Many employees experience work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC), multidimensional states of resource depletion. In this paper, we conceptualize Type A and B personality as resource depletion and resource gain scenarios that have implications for perceptions of WFC and FWC. We draw on conservation of resources (COR) theory to examine the resource loss and gain resulting respectively from Type A and B personality and the resource-generating role of ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) on multiple dimensions of WFC and FWC. Utilizing a sample of 305 managers for 15 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) organizations in India, we uncover a fine-grained pattern of results indicating that Type A personality represents resource loss while Type B personality represents resource gain in the context of time, strain and behavior based WFC and FWC. We also found that ability-based EI performed restorative and additive resource functions as a moderator in the context of these relationships. The key outcome of the study is that ability-based EI performs an important role in the context of different types of WFC and FWC because it generates resources to address these conflicts.