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While integrating resource drain theory with ego depletion theory, this paper aims to understand the mechanism underlying the relationship between research supervisors’ interrole conflicts and their supervisees’ reactions. Specifically, this paper makes a case for supervisors’ ego depletion and supervisees’ perception of abusive supervision to mediate the relationship between supervisors’ work and family conflicts and supervisees’ satisfaction with research supervision.

The study uses data collected in three waves from 306 research supervisees (Level 1) nested in 100 research supervisors (Level 2), involved in MS/PhD research theses at different Pakistani universities.

Based on multilevel modeling, the study finds that supervisors’ interrole conflicts negatively predict supervisees’ satisfaction with supervision. Moreover, supervisors’ ego depletion and supervisees’ perception of abusive supervision mediate the above relationship, both singly and serially. Notably, supervisors’ family–work conflict predicts supervisees’ satisfaction with supervision more negatively than work–family conflict.

This study is unique in that unlike previous research studies on abusive supervision which used victimization approach the present study uses the perpetration approach.