EXHAUSTION AND JOB PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC ACCOUNTING: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF JOB SATISFACTION

What the paper says

This study seeks to determine if job satisfaction mediates the relationship between exhaustion (the core dimension of job burnout) and job performance in public accounting.Both job satisfaction and job performance are regarded as separate, negative consequences of burnout in the most widely accepted accounting burnout model.However, based on Conservation of Resources theory, and the job satisfaction-job performance literature in industrial and organizational psychology, this study posits that job satisfaction and job performance are interrelated.More specifically, the authors hypothesize that job satisfaction functions as a mediator such that exhaustion negatively affects employee job performance through job satisfaction.The relationship between job satisfaction and job performance is potentially very important as the public accounting profession serves to protect and assure the public in regard to firms' reported financial information, and decreased job performance here may limit these protections and assurances.Should job satisfaction be found to mediate the relationship between exhaustion and job performance, the implication is that efforts to increase job satisfaction may help mitigate exhaustion's negative influence on job performance.Survey responses were analyzed from 208 accountants from six public accounting firms.The results indicate that exhaustion influences job performance through the mediator of job satisfaction.In addition to extending accounting burnout research by adding valuable context to the existing accountant burnout model, this result indicates that firm management may be able to help mitigate exhaustion's negative effects on job performance by focusing on improving job satisfaction.