Examining the linkages between relationship conflict, performance and turnover intentions: Role of job burnout as a mediator

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to offer insights regarding the consequences of relationship conflict among employees in terms of their task performance, contextual performance and turnover intentions. Utilizing a resource depletion approach in the backdrop of Conservation of Resources theory, it is hypothesized that the three-dimension burnout (exhaustion, cynicism and interpersonal strain) play a mediating role in influencing the linkages between relationship conflict and outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 306 telecom engineers and their supervisors and analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the interrelationships among the study constructs.

Findings

Results indicated that relationship conflict is negatively related to task performance and contextual performance and positively relates to turnover intentions, and that the three dimensions of job burnout, i.e. exhaustion, cynicism and interpersonal strain at work, distinctively mediate the linkages between relationship conflict, task and contextual performance and turnover intentions.

Originality/value

This study explores how relationship conflict transmits its effect to job performance and turnover intentions through mediation of burnout. All in all, the findings have important practical as well as theoretical implications for managers and academicians alike.

Citation

Shaukat, R., Yousaf, A. and Sanders, K. (2017), "Examining the linkages between relationship conflict, performance and turnover intentions: Role of job burnout as a mediator", International Journal of Conflict Management, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 4-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCMA-08-2015-0051