NAME : Anissa Larasati

NIM : 20160420139

Class : IPAcc I

RESUME

BEHAVIORAL ACCOUNTING

THE EFFECTS OF FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS ON STRESSORS, BURNOUT,

AND BEHAVIORAL JOB OUTCOMES IN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING

A. BACKGROUND
Flexible work arrangements began to gain popularity as an employee benefit in the early
1970s (Sladek 1995; Sullivan and Lussier 1995). Such arrangements can take a variety of
forms from working fewer hours or days, to working the same number of hours but with
greater flexibility over when the hours will be worked. Public accounting firms have
recognized the need to offer flexible work arrangements to their employees.
The survey also reports that since an earlier AICPA study in 1993, the prevalence of
flexible work arrangements has increased significantly and over this same time period, the
percentage of new mothers returning to work on a part-time basis increased from 27 percent
to 38 percent. The increasing availability of flexible work arrangements to public accounting
professionals is consistent.
B. RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS
1. Stressors
There are competing reasons available suggesting that the job stressors experienced
by professionals working under a flexible work arrangement may either increase or a
decrease. Alternatively, reasons may be offered suggesting a decrease in job stressors
among professionals working under a flexible work arrangement. Typically
professionals working under a flexible work arrangement negotiate their job content and
expectations, which takes into account the needs of both the professional and the firm.
Rizzo et al. (1970) developed measures for role conflict and role ambiguity
applicable to those in managerial positions or those positions where the individual enjoys
 some degree of autonomy. These measures have been used extensively and shown to
exhibit acceptable psychometric properties.
2. Burnout
The term “burnout” was first used by Freudenberger (1974), and has been
extensively researched in the occupational health and applied psychology literatures (Lee
and Ashforth 1993). Burnout refers to a negative psychological response to interpersonal
stressors and contains three separate dimensions: emotional exhaustion, reduced personal
accomplishment, and depersonalization (Cordes and Dougherty 1993).
The three burnout dimensions were measured using subsets of scales drawn from the
Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) (Maslach and Jackson 1981). Each of the three
burnout dimensions was measured using three items from the MBI. For each of the
dimensions, higher scores indicate greater feelings of burnout.
3. Job Outcomes
From a public accounting firm’s perspective, flexible work arrangements are
successful if employees utilizing them are more satisfied and more likely to remain with
the firm. Research in a nonaccounting setting concluded that simply offering flexible
work arrangements to employees improves job satisfaction and organizational
commitment (Scandura and Lankau 1997).
Three of four questions drawn from Hoppock’s scale were used to measure job
satisfaction (McNichols et al. 1978). Two turnover questions developed by Harrell and
colleagues (Rasch and Harrell 1990; Snead and Harrell 1991) were used to assess
turnover intentions. Each measure was elicited on a scale of 1 = most negative to 7 =
most favorable. Higher scores indicate greater job satisfaction and stronger intentions to
stay with the firm.