Rallying the troops or beating the horses?

In today's 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. To understand this process, we develop a model and associated propositions linking a project manager's cognitive appraisal of project-related demands to high-performance work practices versus abusive supervision behaviors--both of which impact three project outcomes: stakeholder relationships, people-related project success factors, and employee well-being. We propose that the choice between high performance work practices and abusive supervision behaviors is moderated by a project manager's personal resources (psychological capital, emotional intelligence, and dark triad personality).