diff --git a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtils.java b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtils.java
index 0e66f58eb2703..4d92785326199 100755
--- a/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtils.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/main/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtils.java
@@ -389,7 +389,7 @@ static String convertToString(Object o) {
             return (String) o;
         } else if (o.getClass() == Duration.class) {
             Duration duration = (Duration) o;
-            return String.format("%d ns", duration.toNanos());
+            return TimeUtils.formatWithHighestUnit(duration);
         } else if (o instanceof List) {
             return ((List<?>) o)
                     .stream()
diff --git a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationTest.java b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationTest.java
index 173d35e64fe12..14795f5d904a5 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationTest.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationTest.java
@@ -340,8 +340,7 @@ public void testToMap() {
 
         assertEquals(listValues, configuration.toMap().get(listConfigOption.key()));
         assertEquals(mapValues, configuration.toMap().get(mapConfigOption.key()));
-        assertEquals(
-                duration.toNanos() + " ns", configuration.toMap().get(durationConfigOption.key()));
+        assertEquals("3 s", configuration.toMap().get(durationConfigOption.key()));
     }
 
     enum TestEnum {
diff --git a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtilsTest.java b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtilsTest.java
index df2723d3381e6..deb89a9e0fc4a 100644
--- a/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtilsTest.java
+++ b/flink-core/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/configuration/ConfigurationUtilsTest.java
@@ -22,13 +22,17 @@
 
 import org.junit.Test;
 
+import java.time.Duration;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertThat;
 
 /** Tests for the {@link ConfigurationUtils}. */
@@ -92,4 +96,29 @@ public void testGetPrefixedKeyValuePairs() {
 
         assertThat(resultKeyValuePairs, is(equalTo(expectedKeyValuePairs)));
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testConvertToString() {
+        // String
+        assertEquals("Simple String", ConfigurationUtils.convertToString("Simple String"));
+
+        // Duration
+        assertEquals("0 ms", ConfigurationUtils.convertToString(Duration.ZERO));
+        assertEquals("123 ms", ConfigurationUtils.convertToString(Duration.ofMillis(123L)));
+        assertEquals("1234 s", ConfigurationUtils.convertToString(Duration.ofMillis(1_234_000L)));
+        assertEquals("25 h", ConfigurationUtils.convertToString(Duration.ofHours(25L)));
+
+        // List
+        final List<Object> listElements = new ArrayList<>();
+        listElements.add("Test;String");
+        listElements.add(Duration.ZERO);
+        listElements.add(42);
+        assertEquals("'Test;String';0 ms;42", ConfigurationUtils.convertToString(listElements));
+
+        // Map
+        final Map<Object, Object> mapElements = new HashMap<>();
+        mapElements.put("A:,B", "C:,D");
+        mapElements.put(10, 20);
+        assertEquals("'''A:,B'':''C:,D''',10:20", ConfigurationUtils.convertToString(mapElements));
+    }
 }
diff --git a/flink-table/flink-sql-client/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/client/config/YamlConfigUtilsTest.java b/flink-table/flink-sql-client/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/client/config/YamlConfigUtilsTest.java
index d5ef6f9469c9d..74ff9206bef9a 100644
--- a/flink-table/flink-sql-client/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/client/config/YamlConfigUtilsTest.java
+++ b/flink-table/flink-sql-client/src/test/java/org/apache/flink/table/client/config/YamlConfigUtilsTest.java
@@ -112,8 +112,8 @@ public void testExecutionEntryToConfigOption() throws Exception {
                         "parallelism.default=1",
                         "pipeline.auto-watermark-interval=99",
                         "pipeline.max-parallelism=16",
-                        "restart-strategy.failure-rate.delay=1000000000 ns",
-                        "restart-strategy.failure-rate.failure-rate-interval=99000000000 ns",
+                        "restart-strategy.failure-rate.delay=1 s",
+                        "restart-strategy.failure-rate.failure-rate-interval=99 s",
                         "restart-strategy.failure-rate.max-failures-per-interval=10",
                         "restart-strategy.fixed-delay.delay=1000",
                         "restart-strategy=failure-rate",