Effect of social identification on ego depletion of project managers: The role of project tasks and project complexity

The interorganizational context of construction projects offers project managers multiple social identifications (i.e., project identification and organizational identification) and different tasks (i.e., interorganizational tasks and intraorganizational tasks), which may lead to ego depletion of project managers and impair project performance. Drawing on social identity theory and ego depletion theory, this study examines the effect of social identification on ego depletion of project managers via interorganizational and intraorganizational tasks. Using survey data from 432 construction project managers, the results show that project managers with strong project identification undertake more interorganizational tasks and less intraorganizational tasks, which increases their ego depletion. Conversely, project managers with strong organizational identification undertake more intraorganizational tasks and less interorganizational tasks, which decreases their ego depletion. The results also provide evidence that the effect of social identification on ego depletion is stronger when project complexity is high and weaker when project complexity is low. This study contributes to the understanding of ego depletion mechanism of project managers associated with the trade-off process between different identifications and project tasks. The findings advance the psychological underpinnings of organizational behavior in project organizations and can help project managers handle their ego depletion to achieve higher individual performance and project performance.