Healthy Lifestyle as a Coping Mechanism for Role Stress in Public Accounting

Abstract

In this study, we examine the effects of healthy lifestyle for professionals in public accounting as a coping mechanism for role stress and resultant job outcomes. Prior research indicates that professionals in public accounting endure considerable stress, particularly during busy season, and as a result, many capable professionals leave public accounting. We collected data from accounting professionals in a large U.S. national public accounting firm and analyzed the causal relationships of role stressors and healthy lifestyle on job outcomes using a multidisciplinary research model. We found that role stress, mediated by job burnout and its effect on psychological well-being, has a negative impact on job outcomes. However, the negative effects of role stress and job burnout can be mitigated by a healthy lifestyle, mediated by its effect on vitality and psychological well-being.

Does Work-Family Conflict Affect the Auditor’s Performance?: Examining the Mediating Roles of Emotional Exhaustion and Job Satisfaction

“…Unlike stress which may have a positive influence on productivity, job burnout (represented by emotional exhaustion) produces exclusively negative outcomes for both the employee and the organization (Jones et al 2010). Therefore, the level of fatigue also often determines the quality of the individual's working life.…”

“…Emotional exhaustion is always associated with fatigue and feelings of being emotionally drained, due to exaggerated psychoemotional demands (Fogarty et al 2000;Karatepe 2013). Exhaustion differs from stress, which has a positive influence for work-related outcomes, as it produces only negative consequences for employees and the organization (Jones et al 2010). Thus, when individuals fail to manage the demands of their work and family roles, they are emotionally exhausted, and as a result they will be dissatisfied with their job, intend to leave the job, not be able to perform their responsibilities, and be less committed to the organization (Cordes and Dougherty 1993).…”

“…This outcome has been frequently investigated in various occupations for several years, such as the accounting profession (Fogarty et al 2000;Fisher 2001;Chen and Silverthorne 2008;Jones et al 2010), frontline employees (Choi and Kim 2012;Karatepe 2013), and bank employees (Springer 2011). One occupation may possess different performance characteristics to other occupations (Springer 2011).…”

“…Combining work-family conflict research and job burnout research, this study expects that job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion can act as mediating variables with the following considerations: They can stand as a consequence of exhaustion (Cordes andDougherty 1993;Fogarty, et al 2000;Jones et al 2010;Karatepe 2012) and an antecedent of performance (Al-Ahmadi 2009;Choi and Kim 2012;Barakat et al 2015). Early studies (e.g.…”

“…Auditors can work for more than ten hours a day during that period and encounter highly demanding deadlines which force them to sacrifice their family and leisure time. Auditors even have to bring their work-related duties home, which leads to interpersonal stress (Jones et al 2010). This condition, if continuously ignored, will potentially have a negative effect on audit quality (Lopez and Peters 2012).…”