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.

Employee silence, the withholding of work-related ideas, questions, or concerns from someone who could effect change, has been proposed to hamper individual and collective learning as well as the detection of errors and unethical behaviors in many areas of the world. To facilitate cross-cultural research, we validated an instrument measuring four employee silence motives (i.e., silence based on fear, resignation, prosocial, and selfish motives) in 21 languages. Across 33 countries (N = 8,222) representing diverse cultural clusters, the instrument shows good psychometric properties (i.e., internal reliabilities, factor structure, and measurement invariance). Results further revealed similarities and differences in the prevalence of silence motives between countries, but did not necessarily support cultural stereotypes. To explore the role of culture for silence, we examined relationships of silence motives with the societal practices cultural dimensions from the GLOBE Program. We found relationships between silence motives and power distance, institutional collectivism, and KNOLL ET AL.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the impact of employee silence on performance and turnover intentions. In addition, it seeks to explore the mediating role of burnout in the link between employee silence, and three employee outcomes-supervisor-rated task/contextual performance and self-reported turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachUsing survey questionnaire design, this paper collected data from 508 telecom engineers and their immediate supervisors and analyzed the result using structural equation modeling (SEM) technique, bootstrapping.FindingsResults reveal that employee silence leads to burnout which results in debilitating employee performance, increase in withdrawal behaviors and turnover intentions; burnout mediates these direct relationships. The findings have implications for organizational behavior (OB) research. Moreover, the study found that silence has more pronounced negative effect on employee performance and positive impact on turnover intentions through mediation of job burnout.Practical implicationsThe study helps managers identify the psychological ramifications of defensive silence and the underlying mechanism that connects this to employee outcomes. It also highlights the plausible danger zones in which the employees lose self-expression and show symptoms of exhaustion and cynicism, thus ultimately affecting their performance and withdrawal behaviors.Originality/valueThe current study contributes to employee behavior literature by considering silence as an organizational loss in the backdrop of the COR theory which initiates loss process that leads to further losses in individuals.

Purpose This study aims to build on the existing research regarding workplace conflict by arguing that task conflict (TC) leads to resource gains for individuals with non-routine technical jobs, which increases individuals’ work engagement (WE) and leads to positive individual-level outcomes. Specifically, this study uses a resource investment/acquisition approach with the aim of offering insight into the consequences of group-level TC on individual-level outcomes, including task performance (TP), contextual performance and turnover intention. Design/methodology/approach Multi-rater data was collected from 508 telecom engineers and 35 supervisors working in Pakistan’s telecom sector. The engineers were divided into 31 teams and the data were analysed using confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modelling to test the interrelationships among study constructs. Findings As expected, TC was positively correlated with both TP and contextual performance, while it was negatively correlated with turnover intention; these relationships were mediated by WE. The results reveal that TC in technical jobs leads to resource gains and, through WE, facilitates task and contextual performances at the individual level. Similarly, TC mitigates individual-level turnover intention through the mediation of WE. Originality/value The current study contributes to the literature on the conflict by delineating a resource investment/acquisition process within the conservation of resources theory, whereby TC (an exchange and acquisition of cognitive resources) leads to resource investment (in the form of WE), which, in turn, leads to positive individual-level outcomes.