Job satisfaction, job-related stress and intention to leave among audit staff in large and small accounting firms (East Coast Region) / Yunita Awang

This study was taken to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and its determinants. For that purpose 238 questionnaires were sent to 25 accounting firms located in the East Coast region of West Malaysia. From the total, 95 audit staff participated in this study. The approach in this study involved first to identify the job satisfaction factors. These factors were then regressed against two important other variables: job-related stress and intention to leave. The findings isolated main determinants of job satisfaction, which was found to be mainly "hygiene issues" as proposed by Herzberg, which can minimise, dissatisfaction. Monetary compensation was isolated to be the main contributor towards job-related stress amongst accountants. When regressed with the variable "intention to leave", accountants in general always had the intention to leave their profession, particularly after their third year on articleship. These accountants mainly used their experience and qualification as stepping-stones to get "better" jobs in the commercial or private sector. These findings, to a certain extent have implications for the accounting firms and their Partners, individual audit staff and the profession as a whole. In dealing with the issue of job satisfaction, the firm's Partner should provide avenues for the staff to develop good rapport among them; and the MIA should monitor the accounting firms' practices to ensure the problems of job dissatisfaction are minimised. In handling job-related stress, management should regularly review the company's compensation policies to benefit all staff. MIA should also have in place sets of guidelines on the compensation schemes to be followed by accounting firms.