STRESS REDUCTION INTERVENTION RELATED TO WORK ISSUES-Research Paper
Keyli 
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The effecTs of QualiTy of Work life on commiTmenT and Turnover inTenTion
Tung-Chun huang National Central University, Chung-li, Taiwan
John LawLer University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
Ching-Yi Lei Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Taiwan
Although previous studies have demonstrated the importance of balance between family and work life, few have included quality of work life (QWL) and job-related attitudes. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of quality of work life on auditors’ career and organizational commitment in Taiwanese public accounting firms, and how those commitments, in turn, affect turnover intention. Our findings indicate that different dimensions of QWL result in distinctive effects on organizational and career commitments and turnover intentions. Managerial implications for both researchers and practitioners are discussed.
Keywords: quality of work life, auditors, organizational commitment, career commitment, turnover intention.
Employee turnover in public accounting firms is not a new problem; however, it has become a significant issue recently. The major reason is that losing talented professionals may contribute to a decline in productivity, efficiency, and profits (Larkin, 1995; Roth & Roth, 1995). Even though vacancies can be filled by new
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND PERSONALITY, 2007, 35 (6), 735-750 © Society for Personality Research (Inc.)
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Tung-Chun Huang, PhD, Institute of Human Resource Management, National Central University, Chung-li City, Taiwan; John Lawler, PhD, Professor, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA; and Ching-Yi Lei, Senior Manager, Performance Improvement Department, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Taiwan. Appreciation is due to reviewers including: Ralph Kober, Department of Accounting & Finance, University of Auckland Business School, Private Bag, Auckland, 92019, New Zealand, Email: [email protected] Please address correspondence and reprint requests to: Dr. Tung-Chun Huang, Professor, Institute of Human Resource Management, National Central University, 300 Chung-Da Road, Chung-li City, 32054 Taiwan. Phone: 886-3-4262271; Fax: 886-3-4227492; Email: [email protected]
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recruitments, their competency may be lower than that of former employees due to lack of experience and knowledge accumulation (Half, 1982). Lockwood (2003) suggests that the cost of employee turnover and the accompanying loss of valuable company knowledge can be significant. In addition, the changing nature of increasing competition, client demands, and training costs is forcing firms to reconsider the issue of turnover (Stallworth, 2003). Since public accounting firms are highly dependent on their staff’s professional input, it is imperative to find ways to retain experienced accountants if the firms are to be successful (Taylor & Cosenza, 1998).
After years of economic development and income growth, compensation and benefits are no longer the only goals that employees pursue. Taylor and Cosenza (1998) mention that while money is still important, it is not sufficient to inspire accountants’ loyalty. The changing values of the workforce indicate that current employees are more interested in elevating their quality of life. Beyond earnings, workers expect to gain benefits from their jobs such as challenge and achievement, career development and growth, balance between work and family life, a harmonious organizational climate and a supportive managerial style.
It is suggested that companies offering better quality of work life and supportive working environments will likely gain leverage in hiring and retaining valuable people nowadays (May, Lau, & Johnson, 1999). This is because better job characteristics and work environments positively relate to organizational commitment, which in turn reduces the intention of turnover (Steers & Mowday, 1981). An IBM workforce survey indicates that the decision of the highest performers on whether or not to stay with the company is most likely to depend on their ability to balance work and personal responsibilities (Landauer, 1997). Besides better human resource outcomes, the practices of quality of work life seem to also benefit business performance. Comparing the companies that are identified as the “best companies to work for” to the Standard and Poor’s 100 companies, Lau and May (1998) found that companies with high quality of work life enjoy exceptional growth and profitability.
Though many studies (Fields & Thacker, 1992; Grover & Crooker, 1995; Landauer, 1997; Nadler & Lawler, 1983) in sociology and management demonstrate the importance of balance between family and work life, studies involving quality of work life and job-related attitudes have rarely appeared in the accounting literature. Quality of work life practices may offer accounting researchers and practitioners valuable insights into several areas including organizational commitment and employee retention in public accounting firms. This study aims to examine the impact of quality of work life on auditors’ organizational and professional commitment in public accounting firms and how those commitments in turn affect turnover intention. Prior research has examined auditors’ turnover intention using correlation and regression analysis that
EFFECTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AND COMMITMENT 737
examines only a single relation at a time. We extend this research by employing a comprehensive model, and testing this model by using LISREL (Jöreskog and Sörbom, 1996), which provides simultaneous testing of the complicated relationship between QWL, commitments, and turnover intentions. It is hoped that the results will provide insight into the roles of QWL and commitments in retaining talented auditors.
Quality of Work life and Commitment Many organizational behavior studies examine individuals’ psychological
attachment to their work organizations. Most studies use organizational commitment to examine employees’ relationships with their firms. Research on accounting firms also focuses on organizational commitment and its antecedents and consequences. Allen and Meyer (1990) identified three types of organizational commitment: affective, continuance, and normative commitment. The literature of public accounting studies indicates the existence of both affective and continuance commitment (Kalbers & Fogarty, 1995; Ketchand & Strawser, 2001). Recently, Stallworth (2003) conducted an integrated examination of the dimensions of organizational commitment and its effect on intention to leave the public accounting organization.
Most of the studies about the antecedents of organizational commitment were oriented to job characteristics and work experience variables such as scope of work, job challenge, degree of autonomy, variety of skills, and amount of feedback provided on the job (Bamber & Iyer, 2002; Dunham, Grube, & Castaneda, 1994; Steers, 1977), participation in decision making and support from management (Zaffane, 1994), communication with superiors (Belgan, 1993), job quality, material income (Andolsek & Stebe, 2004) and recognition fairness (Parker & Kohlmeyer, 2005). Several accounting studies have demonstrated the importance of situational factors on organizational commitment. Ferris (1981) found that organizational commitment was primarily influenced by the utility of rewards. Colarelli, Dean, and Konstans (1987) suggested that organizational commitment was primarily influenced by job autonomy and feedback. Dean, Ferris, and Konstans (1988) concluded that the commitment of professional accountants was influenced by the organization’s ability to meet employees’ expectations. The present study defines QWL as favorable conditions and environments of work and life aspects such as family/work life balance, self-actualization, compensation, and supervisory behavior. Better work experience may nurture public accountants’ affective commitment to their firms. Thus we proposed:
Hypothesis 1: That the quality of work life has a positive impact on organizational commitment.
The concept of an individual’s attitude toward his or her vocation or career can be described in several terms such as professional commitment, professionalism,
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and career commitment. Since career commitment has greater generalizability and conceptual distinctiveness, and has been recommended for further research (Chang, 1999), the construct of career commitment has proven to be distin- guishable from that of organization commitment (Blau, 1989). Individuals who commit to their careers are more likely to develop their job skills and knowledge. Hence firms that provide better training and development opportunities are more likely to affirm employees’ career commitment. The results of work by Aryee, Chay, and Chew (1994) indicate that the expected utility of a present job, supervisor support and motivating job characteristics have significant positive influences on career commitment. Therefore, it was hypothesized:
Hypothesis 2: That the quality of work life has a positive impact on career commitment.
Previous studies (Aranya, Pollock, & Amernic, 1981; Norris & Neibuhr, 1984) indicate that a firm with the ability to facilitate realization of employees’ professional expectations and strengthen professional identity can increase their organizational commitment. Most empirical research seems to support this argument. For example, Kalbers and Fogarty (1995) found that internal auditors with higher levels of professional identification also have higher organizational commitment. Russo (1998) found that newspaper journalists exhibit high identification with both their profession and organization. Recently, Bamber and Iyer (2002) examined the professional and organizational identification of the five largest auditing firms in the USA. Their results show that professional identification has a significant and positive influence on organizational identification. Accordingly, we expected:
Hypothesis 3: That career commitment is positively associated with organizational commitment.
Quality of Work life, Commitment, and turnover intention Many studies consistently report a significant negative effect of organizational
commitment on turnover intentions. It is suggested that highly committed employees should have a strong desire to remain with the current organization, which, in turn, reduces the turnover intention. This is because that employee who has developed a higher level of organizational commitment is less likely to consider alternative job opportunities (Ketchand & Strawser, 2001). In his classic work, Steers (1977) examined two samples – hospital employees, scientists and engineers – and found that commitment is positively related to the desire to remain in both samples. In addition, commitment was found to be inversely related to turnover in the hospital sample. Targeting the professional employees of public accounting firms, Stallworth’s (2003) research results indicate that affective commitment is the single best predictor of intention to leave. Recently, Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, and Topolnytsky (2002) conducted a meta-analysis
EFFECTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AND COMMITMENT 739
on the consequences of affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization. They found that the correlations between the three commitment scales and turnover were all negative. Among them the strongest is the relation between affective commitment and turnover.
Prior studies also provide empirical evidence that perception of quality of work life is negatively related to turnover intentions. High relative pay and benefits are reported as inversely related to employee turnover (Shaw, Delery, Jenkins, & Gupta, 1998). Autonomy in decision making is associated with lower propensity to quit (Hom & Griffeth, 1995). Grover and Crooker (1995) found that employees with access to more family-responsive practice benefits showed greater organizational commitment and lower intention to leave. Recently, Batt and Valcour (2003) investigated the impact of human resources practices on work- family outcomes and employee turnover. Their results indicate that high relative pay and employment security tend to decrease turnover intentions. However, the presence of career development opportunity is positively associated with the probability of turnover.
Chang (1999) mentioned that an individual who possesses a stronger career desire may become more attached to the company. This means that the attitudes of individuals toward their career may also affect their attitudes toward their company. In testing the generalizability of career commitment and its impact, Blau (1989) found that career commitment is significantly negatively related to turnover. The practitioner literature reveals that internal auditors with high professional commitment have lower turnover intentions (Harrell, Chewning, & Taylor, 1986). Examining the relation between career commitment, turnover intentions, and turnover behavior, Bedeian, Kemery, and Pizzolatto (1991) indicate that when turnover intentions were holding constant, no direct relation was found between career commitment and turnover. However, turnover had a direct effect on turnover intentions. Therefore, they concluded that career commitment affects turnover through turnover intentions. The findings of previous studies led us to hypothesize:
Hypothesis 4: That organizational commitment has a negative impact on turnover intention.
Hypothesis 5: That perception of quality of work has a directly negative effect on turnover intention, and an indirect effect through its positive impact on career and organizational commitment.
Hypothesis 6: That career commitment has a directly negative effect on turnover intentions, and an indirect effect through its positive impact on organizational commitment.
Control variables Some personal characteristics are related to commitment and intention to leave.
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Previous studies have revealed that age, tenure, and being married are positively related with organizational commitment (Ketchand & Strawser, 2001; Meyer et al., 2002; O’Reilly & Chatman, 1986), but negatively associated with turnover intention (Bamber & Iyer, 2002; Batt & Valcour, 2003; Rasch & Harrell, 1990). Hence age, tenure, and marital status were treated as controls in our analysis to avoid confounding the results.
meThod
sample A random sample of 600 auditors in the four largest accounting firms in
Taiwan received the questionnaire. Of these, 326 validated responses were returned, which represented a 54.3% response rate. Among the respondents, 38% were male and 62% were female. The average age was 28, those aged under 25 represent 30%, 49% were between the ages of 26 and 30, and the other 21% were older than 30 years. Only 17% of the respondents were married.
variables measure Quality of work life Twelve items developed by Chen and Farh (2000) were used to represent the four dimensions of the quality of work life - work/life balance, job characteristics, supervisory behavior, and compensation and benefits (Table 1). Each QWL dimension scale is measured by 3 items. Respondents were asked to indicate their perception about each QWL question with anchors ranging from strongly agree (6) to strongly disagree (1). Six-point Likert scales were used to offset the central tendency bias that may be encountered with Asian respondents (Chen, Lawler, & Bae, 2005). We performed exploratory factor analysis to reduce the complexity of the components. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity is significant at p < 0.01 (Approximate chi-square = 1541.87, degree of freedom = 66) and the KMO measure of sampling adequacy (0.796) shows that factor analysis is appropriate. The Principal Component Analysis and the Varimax Rotation Method were employed to categorize the dimensions of quality of work life.
Table 1 shows that the 12 items were grouped into four factor categories. Table 1 indicates that altogether 70.50% of variance was explained by the four factors. When reliability tests were conducted for each of the scales, the internal consistency measures (Cronbach alpha) were all higher than 0.70 and within the acceptable range (Hair, Anderson, Tatham, & Black, 1995). The scale for each QWL factor was obtained by calculating the average of the items contained within each factor respectively. Affective Commitment and Career Commitment This study uses 5 items adapted from Meyer and Allen (1984) to measure affective commitment and 5 items
EFFECTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AND COMMITMENT 741
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adapted from Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993) to measure career commitment. The Bartlett’s test of sphericity is significant at p < 0.01 (Approximate chi-square = 1376.43, degree of freedom = 45) and the KMO measure of sampling adequacy (0.875) indicates that factor analysis is appropriate. Results of the factor analysis (Table 2) show that affective commitment and career commitment are loaded on different measures, indicating the validity of those two concepts.
Table 2 faCtor analysis on the dimensions of affeCtive Commitment and Career Commitment
Items Factor Loadings Affective Career Commitment Commitment
1. I really care about the fate of this organization .793 2. I am proud that I am a member of this organization .817 3. This organization has a great deal of personal meaning for me .814 4. I really feel as if this organization’s problems are my own .778 5. I feel a strong sense of belonging to my organization .765 6. I am proud to be in the auditing profession .648 7. I want the auditing profession to be my life-time job career .682 8. I keep my knowledge of auditing up to date .726 9. I feel a strong sense of belonging to the auditing profession .811 10. I regret having entered the auditing profession (R) .531
Eigenvalue 3.413 2.602 Explanation of Variance 34.133 26.024 Cronbach a 0.882 0.757
Note: R = reverse scored
We also conducted confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the discriminant validity to see whether the two dimensions could be proven empirically. We compared a model in which the relevant questionnaire items were associated with two hypothesized factors versus a model with one single underlying factor. The various fit indices were better for the two-factor model (RMSEA = 0.08, GFI = 0.94, AGFI = 0.90, NFI = 0.93) than for the one-factor model (RMSEA = 0.16, GFI = 0.84, AGFI = 0.74, NFI = 0.81). The results of CFA support the use of separate affective and career commitment indexes. Turnover intention The variable of turnover intention was measured by a scale score comprising three items that asked whether respondents plan to stay with their present employer until retirement (reverse scored), if they frequently think about leaving their current organization, and whether they plan to continue their career in the current accounting firm (reverse scored). A 6-point Likert scale was also used to offset the central tendency bias. The Cronbach alpha index for the three items was 0.820, which means that the internal consistency of our turnover intention scale was reliable.
EFFECTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AND COMMITMENT 743
resulTs and discussion
Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients among the variables are shown in Table 3. The four QWL dimensions are all significantly and positively related to career commitment and affective commitment (p < 0.01). In contrast, the four factors of QWL are all negatively related to turnover intention at p < 0.01. Structural equation modeling with LISREL was employed to test the hypotheses. The maximum likelihood method of estimation was applied to analyze the covariance matrix. LISREL allows us to evaluate all the predicted relations in our integrated model simultaneously.
Table 3 desCriptive statistiCs and pearson Correlation
Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Turnover Intention 4.49 0.93 1.00 2. Affective Commitment 3.62 0.92 -0.56**
3. Career Commitment 3.77 0.71 -0.46** 0.53**
4. Work/Life Balance 2.53 0.94 -0.48** 0.35** 0.21**
5. Job Characteristics 4.24 0.75 -0.22** 0.38** 0.36** 0.32**
6. Supervisory Behavior 4.05 0.85 -0.26** 0.38** 0.19** 0.26** 0.31** 7. Compensation & Benefits 3.49 0.89 -0.35** 0.48** 0.29** 0.43** 0.39** 0.46**
** p < 0.01
Table 4 presents the structural model’s statistics. The Chi-square statistic of the model is nonsignificant (X2 = 10.20, degree of freedom = 9, p = 0.34), which means that no significant difference exists between our data and the model. In addition, all the fit indices well exceed the recommended cut-off values. GFI and NFI values of 0.99, the AGFI value of 0.97, and the RMSEA value of 0.019 indicate that our hypothesized model fits the data very well. Moreover, 21%, 43% and 44% of the variance in career commitment, affective commitment, and turnover intention were explained respectively by our model. Figure 1 presents the significant paths of the structural model.
Three of the four QWL dimensions have significant effects (p < 0.01) on the affective commitment, excepting only job characteristics. Among the dimensions of QWL, compensation and benefits is the strongest predictor (Beta = 0.23) of affective commitment, followed by supervisory behavior (Beta = 0.17) and work/ life balance (Beta = 0.12). The results show that the perception of fair reward and adequate benefits is the most important QWL factor in promoting an auditor’s organizational commitment. However, when managers in accounting firms improve their supervisory skills such as providing subordinates with appropriate instruction, assistance, and recognition, auditors’ organizational commitment
EFFECTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AND COMMITMENT744
will also improve. In addition, if the auditors’ workload is reasonable and work/ family life are balanced, their firm commitment will also be advanced. Hence, our hypothesis (H1) that perception of QWL has a significant and positive effect on organizational (affective) commitment is supported.
As hypothesized (H2), the effects of both job characteristics and compensation and benefits on career commitment are positive and significant at p < 0.01. However, the impacts of work/life balance and supervisory behavior are not statistically significant. This means that when auditors perceive that their jobs are autonomous, creative, meaningful, and full of challenge, they will be more committed to the accountancy profession. In addition, if auditing professional employees believe that they are fairly paid compared to other jobs inside the organization or other auditors outside the firm, their professionalism is also promoted. However, perceived balance between work and life and supervisory behavior have no influence on an auditor’s career commitment. Hence, our hypothesis (H2) which proposes that QWL has a positive impact on career commitment is only partially supported.
Table 4 struCtural eQuations results and estimated CoeffiCients for the
hypothetiCal model
Independent Variables Dependent Variables Career Commitment Affective Commitment Turnover Intention Beta t-value Beta t-value Beta t-value
Exogenous Variables Age 0.12 2.09* - - - - Marital Status 0.16 2.77* - - - - Work/Life Balance - - 0.12 2.55** -0.35 -7.63**
Job Characteristics 0.26 4.80** - - 0.11 2.36**
Supervisory Behavior - - 0.17 3.60** - - Compensation & Benefits 0.20 3.60** 0.23 4.35 - Endogenous Variables Career Commitment - - 0.41 9.28** -0.23 -4.58**
Affective Commitment - - - - -0.36 -6.9**
Squared Multiple Correlation for Structural Equation 0.21 0.43 0.44
Goodness of Fit Statistics Chi-Square 10.20 (p = 0.33) RMSEA 0.019 GFI 0.99 AGFI 0.97 NFI 0.99
Note: The dummy variable of marital status is defined as single = 0; being married =1; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01
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Figure 1: The result of Structural Equation Modeling * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01
As predicted, the impact of career commitment on organizational (affective) commitment is positive and significant at p < 0.01. Therefore, hypothesis 3 is supported. Among the influential factors of organizational (affective) commitment, career commitment is the strongest determinant (Beta = 0.41). This result indicates that when auditors are more committed to their auditing profession, their commitment to the current firm is also increased. Therefore, accounting firms would find that providing an appropriate environment and climate for the development and growth of auditors’ professionalism is a very useful tool in enhancing auditors’ organizational commitment.
Table 4 and Figure 1 show that organizational (affective) commitment is the strongest predictor (Beta = -0.36, p < 0.01) of turnover intention. It indicates that an auditor who commits to his or her accounting firm also has a lower intention to leave the organization. The result confirms the findings of previous researchers such as Kalbers and Fogarty (1995), Russo (1998), and Bamber and Iyer (2002), and our fourth hypothesis is verified. There are two factors of QWL that significantly explain the intention of turnover. As expected (H5), auditors who perceive that their workloads are reasonable and family/work life is balanced also have lower intention to leave the current accounting firm. However, the
Job Characteristics
Compensation & Benefits
Supervisory Behavior
Work/Life Balance
Age Marital Status
Career Commitment
Affective Commitment
Turnover Intention
0.26** 0.12*
0.16**
0.11**
-0.35**
0.20**
0.23**
0.17**
0.12**
0.41**
-0.36**
-0.23**
EFFECTS OF QUALITY OF WORK LIFE AND COMMITMENT746
influence of job characteristics on turnover intention is significant but negative, which is contrary to our prediction. This may be due to the fact that autonomous, creative, and challenging job assignments develop the auditors’ knowledge and competence, which in turn increase the auditors’ external employability. The perception of balancing family and work life has a very strong positive effect on reducing auditors’ intention of leaving the current accounting firm.
The final significant predicting factor of turnover intention is career commitment. As expected (H6), the effect of professionalism on leaving intention is negative. As already mentioned, career commitment has a strong impact on the growth of affective commitment, and affective commitment is positively related to an auditor’s willingness to stay in the current organization. Our sixth hypothesis is supported. Though some factors of QWL do have a directly significant influence on turnover intention, and some of them have an indirect effect on turnover intention via the impact of career and affective commitment, some of them do not. Therefore, the findings of this study only partly verified the argument of hypothesis 5.
There are several interesting findings when we put the whole hypothetical relations together. First, though the four dimensions of QWL are all significantly related to career commitment (CC), organizational commitment (AC) and turnover intention (TI), the human resource outcomes they reveal are different. Among them, work/life balance can improve an auditor’s AC and reduce TI; job characteristics result in high CC and TI; supervisory behavior benefits only AC; compensation and benefits enhance both CC and AC, but have no direct effect on TI.
Secondly, though the direct effect of job characteristics on TI is positive and significant, its indirect effects through the impact on CC (+) to the TI (-) and via CC (+) to AC (+) to TI (-) are negative. The total effects of job characteristics on TI reduce to 0.01 (direct effect 0.11 plus indirect effect -0.098). This finding means that the undesired effect of job characteristics on TI is negligible when the indirect effects are counted. Finally, the results of standardized total effects (see Table 5) show that the two QWL factors have stronger influences on AC than do marital status and age. Career commitment is the most important determinant (0.41) of AC, following by compensation and benefits (0.31) and supervisory behavior (0.17). On the other hand, perception of work/life balance has the most power in reducing an auditor’s turnover intention (-0.39). The other predictors of TI are career commitment (-0.38) and affective commitment (-0.36), which share almost the same influences as work/life balance on decreasing intention of turnover.
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Table 5 the result of path analysis: standardized total effeCts on dependent variables
Independent Variables Dependent Variables Career Commitment Affective Commitment Turnover Intention
Exogenous Variables Age 0.12 0.05 -0.05 Marital Status 0.16 0.07 -0.06 Work/life Balance - 0.12 -0.39 Job Characteristics 0.26 0.11 0.01 Supervisory Behavior - 0.17 -0.06 Compensation & Benefits 0.20 0.31 -0.16
Endogenous Variables Career Commitment - 0.41 -0.38 Affective Commitment - - -0.36
conclusions and implicaTions
This paper presents an integrated model used to investigate the effects of auditors’ perception of work life quality on professional identification, organizational commitment, and their turnover intention. Employing the survey data collected from 326 auditors who work in the four largest Taiwanese public account firms, this study presents several noteworthy findings. Our confirmatory factor analysis results indicate that although auditors’ career commitment and affective commitment are related, they are meaningful separate constructs. In addition, the LISREL results show that career commitment is a very important antecedent determinant of organizational commitment; however, no significant effect was found from organizational commitment to career commitment.
We found that the four factors of QWL were significant predictors of the outcomes of commitments and turnover intentions. The most important finding is that different dimensions of QWL may result in different kinds of human resource outcomes. For example, job characteristics and compensation and benefits are good for the development of professionalism. Also, work/life balance, supervisory behavior, and compensation and benefits enhance auditors’ commitment to their organization. While perception of work/life balance reduces auditors’ intention of turnover, in contrast, creative and meaningful job charac- teristics encourage their leaving intentions. However, when taking the indirect effects into account, the negative effects of job characteristics on turnover become very minor.
These findings have implications for both research and practice. For researchers, this model provides an integrated conceptual framework from which to study employees’ behaviors and attitudes. Employing a structural equation model with LISREL analysis allows us to evaluate the overall configuration
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of variable relations simultaneously. The new approach helps researchers to estimate variables’ effects more accurately than is possible with a single regression model. For managers, the results of this study suggest that public accounting firms can benefit by instituting policies and practices to foster a sense of professionalism. This is because creating auditors’ career commitment not only encourages them to commit more to the current organization but also reduces their intention of leaving. In addition, multiple practices of quality of work life must be incorporated together to get the best results in employees’ commitment and talent retention. Competitive and fair reward of pay and benefits are useful for fostering auditors’ career and organizational commitment, but not the best solution for the retention of talented auditors. Our results indicate that auditors are becoming more interested in elevating their quality of life. Those public accounting firms that fail to offer policies and practices that enhance employees’ work and family life balance may find it difficult to retain qualified auditors.
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