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1 – 10 of over 1000Kenneth J. Smith, David J. Emerson and Charles R. Boster
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role stress model originally developed by Fogarty et al. (2000) using more refined measures, a context-specific performance metric…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role stress model originally developed by Fogarty et al. (2000) using more refined measures, a context-specific performance metric and a targeted respondent group. The investigation uses a sample of working professional auditors to investigate the associations between job stressors, burnout and job outcomes using an industry-specific measure of job performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The analyses use structural equations modeling procedures to examine a model that postulates that burnout will mediate the relations between job stressors and job outcomes. The data for the study come from 293 survey instruments completed by auditors working at the offices of 11 public accounting firms. A parsimonious job satisfaction scale based on Churchill et al.’s (1985) 27-item scale is developed using classical test-item analysis and is incorporated into the analysis.
Findings
The results suggest three significant items of note. First, although prior research has found that burnout partially mediates relations between job stressors and job outcomes, this study shows that burnout fully mediates these associations. Second, the study provides support for the reduced audit quality practices (RAQP) scale as an audit-specific construct for job performance. Finally, results show that the 27-item job satisfaction scale can successfully be reduced to a six-item scale.
Research limitations/implications
While this study is subject to the limitations inherent to all cross-sectional studies that use self-report instruments, the results further the knowledge related to the role stress paradigm in auditor work settings.
Practical implications
This study’s findings provides a cogent argument for human resource managers at public accounting firms to monitor staff burnout levels and implement interventional strategies (Jones III et al., 2010) when these levels become excessive. Efforts to mitigate staff burnout levels may decrease the likelihood of staff engagement in dysfunctional audit practices and the associated costs to the firm and the individual(s) involved.
Originality/value
The findings also demonstrate the superiority of the RAQP scale in terms of explaining variance in auditor performance when compared to the modified performance measures utilized in prior research.
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Kenneth J. Smith, David J. Emerson, Charles R. Boster and George S. Everly, Jr
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential counteracting influence of individual resilience levels on the tendency of role stressors, stress arousal and burnout to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential counteracting influence of individual resilience levels on the tendency of role stressors, stress arousal and burnout to reduce job satisfaction and increase turnover intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study surveys 332 auditors from the offices of nine public accounting firms. The structural equations modeling procedures examine an expanded role stress model to assess the nature and extent of the role that resilience plays in reducing stress, burnout, job dissatisfaction and turnover intentions.
Findings
Resilience has a significant direct negative association with stress arousal and burnout, a significant indirect positive association with job satisfaction and a significant indirect negative association with turnover intentions.
Research limitations/implications
As a cross-sectional study that incorporates self-report instruments, no definitive statements can be made about causality. However, the results extend the extant knowledge related of the role of resilience as a coping mechanism within the role stress paradigm in auditor work settings.
Practical implications
This study’s findings suggest the potential value of resilience training programs at public accounting firms to reduce staff burnout. In turn, reduced burnout has an increased likelihood ceteris paribus of increasing job satisfaction and reducing auditor turnover intentions.
Originality/value
This study’s findings suggest that resilience training for public accounting staff to reduce burnout may provide the organizational and personal benefits associated with enhancing job satisfaction and decreasing turnover intentions.
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Kenneth J. Smith, David J. Emerson and Michael A. Schuldt
This paper aims to evaluate the efficacy of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC 10) (Campbell-Sills and Stein, 2007) for use in public accounting settings.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to evaluate the efficacy of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale 10 (CD-RISC 10) (Campbell-Sills and Stein, 2007) for use in public accounting settings.
Design/methodology/approach
The analyses include an examination of possible demographic differences in overall score, the scale’s factor structure, the invariance of its factor structure across gender and age groups, the scale’s reliability and its convergent and divergent validity.
Findings
There are significant gender and age group difference in scores, but a common univariate factor structure for the scale. The authors further find that a two-factor solution provides a superior fit to the data compared to the single factor structure used in the most prior research. Spearman–Brown reliability coefficients, item-total correlations and coefficient alphas each support the reliability of the items loading on the scale for the full sample, as well as for each of the above-referenced demographic subsamples.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations are acknowledged related to the use of self-report measures, absence of test-retest score comparisons and convergent and divergent assessments limited to the heterotrait–homomethod approach.
Practical implications
The CD-RISC 10 is an expedient resilience measure, as it can be completed and scored in just a few minutes. Human resource administrators at public accounting firms can use it as an initial screening measure to identify staff who might benefit from resilience training. The paper adds to the appreciation of what not to do in the face of crisis by the government and those in charge of large accounting organizations.
Social implications
The CD-RISC 10 can be used in research and clinical efforts to reduce voluntary turnover of audit staff and enhance the well-being of auditors in the workplace.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence that the CD-RISC 10 is a valid and reliable measure for future assessments of auditor resilience levels.
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This paper broadens and extends the idea of organizational death by arguing that certain organizational site moves, those in which employees hold a strong place attachment to the…
Abstract
This paper broadens and extends the idea of organizational death by arguing that certain organizational site moves, those in which employees hold a strong place attachment to the to be left, are a form of organizational death. It argues for the utility of viewing organizational change as involving loss and including space in studies of everyday organizational experiences. Using ethnographic research (participant‐observation and in‐depth interviews with the employees) of one such organization (the “Coffee House”) and a negotiated‐order perspective, discusses employee beliefs as to how the site move should have been managed as a means to document their understanding of the move as a loss experience and as a form of organizational death.
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Attempts to validate Rotter’s locus of control scale with a sample of religious not‐for‐profit leaders. Uses a questionnaire sent to 558 senior pastors of Arkansas Southern…
Abstract
Attempts to validate Rotter’s locus of control scale with a sample of religious not‐for‐profit leaders. Uses a questionnaire sent to 558 senior pastors of Arkansas Southern Baptist churches. Findings are consistent with other reseachers who have highlighted some deficiencies in the scale and many resppondents struggled to answer some sections. Suggests that the scale should be re‐evaluated with less items.
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This study aims to examine the changes in the correlations between stressors and performance in French chartered and accounting firms.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the changes in the correlations between stressors and performance in French chartered and accounting firms.
Design/methodology/approach
The linkages between role stressors and performance were analyzed through a quasi-longitudinal study of 476 chartered public accountants and trainee-chartered accountants surveyed before and after the busy season, using the partial least squares approach.
Findings
Only challenge appraisals are positively related to motivation before and after the 2018 busy season. Stress arousal is positively associated with burnout and physical symptoms. However, the associations between role ambiguity and conflict, and hindrance appraisals became insignificant after the busy season. The challenge appraisals–role ambiguity linkage persisted but reduced significantly. The burnout–performance association was insignificant in the two time periods.
Practical implications
A busy season with its increased challenge stressors has positive effects on performance through motivation but also negative effects through strains, which explains the observed insignificant net impact.
Originality/value
This quasi-longitudinal study first suggests the role of appraisals, motivation and physical symptoms as mediators of the effects of role stressors on performance. Then, it aids in the broad generalization of certain findings from previous studies. Finally, it demonstrates the applicability of the partial least squares approach, which has been hitherto under-used in behavioral accounting.
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
Abstract
A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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President Bill Clinton has had many opponents and enemies, most of whom come from the political right wing. Clinton supporters contend that these opponents, throughout the Clinton…
Abstract
President Bill Clinton has had many opponents and enemies, most of whom come from the political right wing. Clinton supporters contend that these opponents, throughout the Clinton presidency, systematically have sought to undermine this president with the goal of bringing down his presidency and running him out of office; and that they have sought non‐electoral means to remove him from office, including Travelgate, the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster, the Filegate controversy, and the Monica Lewinsky matter. This bibliography identifies these and other means by presenting citations about these individuals and organizations that have opposed Clinton. The bibliography is divided into five sections: General; “The conspiracy stream of conspiracy commerce”, a White House‐produced “report” presenting its view of a right‐wing conspiracy against the Clinton presidency; Funding; Conservative organizations; and Publishing/media. Many of the annotations note the links among these key players.
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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of…
Abstract
In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.
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Nancy T. Walker, Jennifer Wimmer and Thomas Bean
This article considers the current state of teacher discourse and reflection, situated in daily practice, craft knowledge, multiliteracies and new literacies. Based on studies of…
Abstract
This article considers the current state of teacher discourse and reflection, situated in daily practice, craft knowledge, multiliteracies and new literacies. Based on studies of content area teachers' use of multiple texts in social studies fields like economics, the authors profile Kenneth, an experienced teacher whose practice is grounded in craft knowledge and ideas about principled practices. In addition, Kenneth is an active proponent of new and digital literacy practices in his classroom simulations. The case example of Kenneth is then used to suggest how the process of practical argument might offer other content area teachers a useful framework for teacher reflection based on teachers’ craft knowledge and principled practices.