The Relationship between Workers’ Tenure and Social Relationship: Conflict Management as a Mediator or Moderator?

Abstract

Previous studies on the relationship between workers’ tenure and social relationship have yet to provide definitive answers. This study was designed to survey the non-linear relationship between workers’ tenure and social relationship; the linear relationships investigated included workers’ tenure and conflict management, conflict management and social relationship, and the mediating and moderating effects of conflict management. This study collected 209 questionnaires from 43 Taiwanese technology companies, and hierarchical regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. The results show that there was a curvilinear relationship (inverted S-shaped) between workers’ tenure and social relationship and that conflict management positively influenced social relationship. This curvilinear relationship was mediated by conflict management, but the moderating effect was not significant. In terms of theoretical implications, this study considered that the appropriate period to perform conflict management was from 5.52 to 19.38 years of employees’ tenure. The implications of the present findings for research and managerial practice, along with directions for future research, are analyzed and discussed. The main contribution of this study is the exploration of the curvilinear relationship between workers’ tenure and social relationship, confirming that conflict management plays a mediating or moderating role in this curvilinear relationship.

Keywords: Conflict management, Social relationship, Workers’ tenure.