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Flexibility and
Flexibility and job stress in the job stress
accounting profession
Yosra Mnif
University of Sfax, High Institute of Business Administration,
GFC Laboratory (Gouvernance, Finance et Comptabilité), Sfax, Tunisia, and 261
Emna Rebai Received 3 May 2020
Revised 25 September 2020
University of Sfax, Faculty of Economics and Management, 17 April 2021
GFC Laboratory (Gouvernance, Finance et Comptabilité), Sfax, Tunisia Accepted 16 June 2021

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of flexibility as a coping mechanism for
reducing the negative impact of job stress on the accounting profession.
Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected using a survey questionnaire sent by mail to
accounting professionals in Tunisia. A total of 200 responses were examined using a structural equations
modeling procedure.
Findings – The results indicate that flexibility attenuates the negative effects of job stress by improving job
performance and job satisfaction among accounting professionals. Also, flexibility has a significant and
positive association with psychological well-being. The results demonstrate that role ambiguity and overload
have a positive influence on job burnout, which supports the argument that role stressors are antecedents of
burnout in the accounting profession.
Practical implications – This study’s results help the accounting firms to reduce job stress by offering
work flexibility to employees. Also, the results have significant implications for accounting professionals who are
concerned with the consequences of job stress and the coping mechanisms that can diminish these consequences.
Originality/value – This study contributes to the behavioral accounting literature by examining
flexibility as a coping strategy within the job stress model in an emerging country (Tunisia).
Keywords Job satisfaction, Job performance, Flexibility, Job stress, Turnover intentions
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Job stress is a crucial topic for accounting research owing to its consequences on accounting
professionals and accounting firms. Many previous researchers have investigated the effects of
job stress in the accounting profession. For example, the pioneering work of Friedman et al.
(1958), which examined the changes in the blood chemistry among accountants before and after a
busy season. They suggested that job stress has a negative influence on the health of
accountants. Similarly, Smith (1990) reported that job stress may lead to negative personal and
organizational consequences for accounting professionals. Indeed, the consequences of job stress
include burnout, decreased job performance and job satisfaction and increased turnover
intentions (Fogarty et al., 2000; Fisher, 2001; Chen et al., 2006; Hsieh and Wang, 2012).
Given the negative effects of job stress on the accounting profession, past studies
investigated the coping mechanisms that can diminish these effects. For example, Almer Accounting Research Journal
and Kaplan (2002) reported that flexible work arrangements lead to a decline in job stressors Vol. 35 No. 2, 2022
pp. 261-275
and burnout. Moreover, Jones et al. (2010) provide evidence that healthy lifestyle reduced the © Emerald Publishing Limited
1030-9616
harmful effects of stress among accounting professionals. Further, Herda and Lavelle (2012) DOI 10.1108/ARJ-05-2020-0097
ARJ demonstrated that organizational fairness plays an important role in the decrease of burnout
35,2 and turnover intention. Dalton et al. (2015) suggested that external mentoring attenuates the
negative effects of job stressors in the accounting profession. Also, Buchheit et al. (2015)
showed that alternative work arrangements have a mitigating influence on job burnout. In
addition, Smith and Emerson (2017) showed that resilience is a coping mechanism that
reduces the negative impact of job stress. Recently, Smith et al. (2020) examined the
262 mitigating effect of resilience on job stressors, burnout and stress arousal. In light of the
above, coping mechanism for job stress may take the form of the individual characteristic
(e.g. resilience), personal strategies (e.g. healthy lifestyle) or policies implemented by
accounting firms (e.g. mentoring and flexible work arrangements). This study focuses on the
role that work flexibility in general (not only flexible work arrangements) plays in reducing
job stress, burnout and work interference with home. However, to our knowledge, there are
no studies into the impact of work flexibility in the job stress model. This study addresses
this gap by examining the reducing effect of work flexibility within the context of job stress
model. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to explore the role of flexibility as a coping
mechanism for reducing the negative effects of job stress among accounting professionals in
Tunisia.
In effect, flexibility in the workplace is defined as the ability of employees to choose
when, where and for how long they engage in tasks relating to their jobs (Jeffrey Hill et al.,
2008). It can take the form of telework, reduced working hours, flexible start and stop times
(Molina, 2008). Flexibility attenuates the negative effect of work interference with home on
the psychological well-being (Jones and Guthrie, 2016). We use the role theory as a
foundation of our paper. This theory suggests that the person’s life is composed of a set of
roles to play within and outside the organization (Kahn et al., 1964). When the employees are
exposed to job stressors such as role conflict, they become less effective, more dissatisfied in
their work and their role performance will be disrupted (Kahn et al., 1964). In addition, role
theory suggests that the multiple roles of individual require numerous demands, which can
create conflicts such as work-home conflict.
Based on survey responses from 200 accounting professionals, this paper finds that role
ambiguity and role conflict lead to an increase of job burnout. Furthermore, this study finds
that work flexibility improves the psychological well-being and reduces the negative effects
of job stress among accounting professionals. Consequently, they become more satisfied and
their performance can increase.
Our results provide important insights about the role of flexibility in the job stress
model and make significant contributions to the accounting behavioral literature. First,
to our knowledge, this is the first study that examines the role of flexibility as a coping
mechanism within the job stress model in emerging African setting (Tunisia). Second,
this paper offers a detailed understanding of job stress dynamic based on a rich
literature from different areas, such as psychology and sociology. Additionally, this
paper extends the study of Smith and Emerson (2017) by examining intervention
strategy aimed at reducing the harmful effects of job stress. Our findings have
important implications for accounting professionals and accounting firms. More
specifically, the results of this paper encourage accounting firms to create a flexible
work environment to reduce the negative effects of job stress. Moreover, this study can
help auditors to better understanding the impact of job stressors.
This paper proceeds as follows. The next section is a review of the theoretical
development and hypotheses followed by the research method. We then present the results
of this research and finally, the last section presents a discussion of our findings followed by
the conclusions.
Theoretical development and hypotheses Flexibility and
Job stress and job burnout job stress
Role theory has been developed to better understand the individual’s behavior in
organizations (Schuler et al., 1977). Indeed, this theory suggests that the organization is a set
of roles that should be accomplished by individuals (Tubre and Collins, 2000). However,
when persons are faced with role stress, the achievement of their roles becomes disrupted
and their performance will decrease (Kahn et al., 1964). Specifically, if an individual should
achieve multiple roles that have conflicting expectations and they are unclear for a limited
263
period of times, their role performance can be risky (Kahn et al., 1964; Sales, 1970). In fact,
role stress is defined as the inadequacy between individual’s skills and work requests
(French et al., 1974). Role stress is conceptualized three dimensions: role ambiguity, role
conflict and role overload (Kahn et al., 1964; Schuler et al., 1977). Role ambiguity occurs
because of lack of adequate information necessary for the accomplishment of the employee’s
role (Kahn et al., 1964; Senatra, 1980). Role conflict emerges when an employee has two or
more opposing demands (Kahn et al., 1964; Rizzo et al., 1970). Role overload appears when an
employee cannot finish their work in a given period (Beehr et al., 1976). A prolonged
exposure to role stressors leads to the experience of job burnout (Cordes and Dougherty,
1993; Maslach, 1993). Specifically, job burnout is a specific psychological state in which
individuals suffer from emotional exhaustion, reduced personal accomplishment and
depersonalization (Freudenberger, 1974). Moreover, Maslach and Leiter (2016) defined
burnout as a psychological syndrome caused by stressors.
Role theory gives a basis for analyzing the role stress dynamic in prior accounting research.
For example, Senatra (1980) examined the consequences of role ambiguity and role conflict in a
public accounting firm. Similarly, based on role theory, Viator (2001) evaluated the effect of role
ambiguity and role conflict on the accounting professionals by incorporating the mentoring
relationship. In addition, Fogarty et al. (2000) examined the mediating effect of job burnout in the
job stress model. In a recent study, Smith et al. (2020) investigated the impact of resilience as a
coping mechanism for reducing job stress, stress arousal and burnout, using role theory.
In the context of this paper, it was shown that job stressors have a positive significant
association with job burnout (Fogarty et al., 2000). Similarly, Law et al. (2008) found that role
stress has a positive and significant effect on job burnout. Jones et al. (2010) revealed that the
role stress experienced in accounting firms produces high level of job burnout among
accounting professionals. As for Hsieh and Wang (2012), they showed that high level of job
stress is correlated with high level of job burnout. According to Chong and Monroe (2015),
when junior accountants suffer from role ambiguity and role conflict, their level of job
burnout increases. In addition, Smith et al. (2018) reported that conflict and ambiguity have
a positive association with burnout. Recently, Cooper et al. (2019) found that role conflict and
role overload are related to exhaustion, which is a core dimension of job burnout. Based on
the above explanation, the following hypotheses are posited:

H1a. Role ambiguity is positively associated with job burnout.

H1b. Role conflict is positively associated with job burnout.
H1c. Role overload is positively associated with job burnout.

Job burnout and psychological well-being

Job burnout significantly contributes to many problems among individuals (Jackson et al.,
1986; Cordes and Dougherty, 1993). Indeed, it leads to a lower performance and impaired
ARJ quality of work (Leiter and Maslach, 1988). Specifically, burnout causes severe
35,2 psychological problems, including depression, anxiety and irritability. These problems
affect negatively the worker’s psychological well-being (Maslach, 1982; Cordes and
Dougherty, 1993). Similarly, Maslach et al. (2001) noted that job burnout is related to mental
disorders such as anxiety and depression.
Accounting researchers have documented the negative consequences of job burnout. For
264 example, Fogarty et al. (2000) found that job burnout has negative effects on job outcomes.
Likewise, Fogarty and Kalbers (2006) reported that job burnout has disastrous
consequences on the psychological well-being of the accounting professionals. Moreover,
Jones et al. (2010) found that job burnout is negatively associated with psychological well-
being. In a similar vein, Chong and Monroe (2015) showed that the psychological state of
junior accountants is negatively influenced by burnout. Consequently, their level of job
satisfaction and organizational commitment will decrease. Cannon and Herda (2016) argued
that burnout has a negative impact on the auditor and the audit firm. Moreover, Smith et al.
(2017) suggested that job burnout has negative effects on the accounting professionals.
Recently, Salehi et al. (2020) found that psychological well-being is negatively associated
with auditors’ job burnout. Based on the foregoing, the following hypothesis is formulated:

H2. Job burnout is negatively associated with the psychological well-being.

Flexibility, psychological well-being and work interference with home

Work and family are the two most important elements in the life of a person, the satisfaction
of someone depends on the satisfaction of another (Rothausen, 1994). According to role
theory, each individual has a set of social and professional roles, which involve a number of
responsibilities, rights and norms (Kahn et al., 1964). Pressures faced by individual can
negatively influence the achievement of their roles, and thus it cannot balance work and
home (Kahn et al., 1964). In other words, the role imbalance between responsibilities at work
and at home leads to work-family conflict (Boles et al., 1997). In this regard, role theory
included two dominant perspectives about the relationship between work and home: the
scarcity perspective and the enhancement perspective (Greenhaus and Ten Brummelhuis,
2013). Our study focuses on the scarcity perspective because it is the most used perspective
in the work-home literature (Jones and Guthrie, 2016). The scarcity perspective suggests that
if an individual has several roles to be accomplished with a limited amount of time and
energy, he will suffer from conflicts and interference between work and home (Greenhaus
and Beutell, 1985). Consequently, these conflicts have negative consequences on the
psychological well-being (Gareis et al., 2009).
For the accounting profession, previous studies showed that accounting professionals
suffered from the problem of work interference with home. For example, Pasewark and
Viator (2006) examined the sources of work family conflict in the accounting profession.
They demonstrated that work interference with home is negatively correlated with job
satisfaction, which causes the increase of turnover intentions. Furthermore, Jones and
Guthrie (2016) reported that work interference with home has negative effects on the
psychological well-being of accounting professionals based on role theory. In fact, owing to
these negative consequences, accounting firms are faced with the necessity of introducing
flexibility in their work environment to help the employees to reduce the conflicts between
work and personal life (Almer and Kaplan, 2002).
 In this respect, previous studies have shown that work flexibility has a positive effect on Flexibility and
the employees. For example, Baltes et al. (1999) suggested that flexibility is positively job stress
associated with job satisfaction. In addition, Grzywacz (2002) reported that flexibility leads
to the decrease of work-home conflict.
Jones and Guthrie (2016) found that flexibility is positively correlated with the psychological
well-being and work interference with home is negatively correlated with the psychological well-
being. Furthermore, they demonstrated that flexibility mitigates the negative effects of work
interference with home on psychological well-being. Moreover, Amiruddin (2019) suggested that 265
audit firms must protect their employees’ well-being by reducing work-family conflict.
Accordingly, based on the preceding discussion, the following is hypothesized:

H3a. Flexibility is positively associated with psychological well-being.

H3b. Work interference with home is negatively associated with psychological well-being.
H3c. Flexibility mitigates the impacts of work interference with home on psychological
well-being.
Flexibility and job outcomes. As introduced in previous studies, work flexibility has positive
consequences for psychological and physical health of the employees. Indeed, Greenhaus
and Powell (2006) suggested that flexibility reduces the pressures resulting from work-home
conflict. Consequently, the work environment will improve and the employees will perform
their job more effectively.
In addition, Lightbody (2008) reported that flexibility has a positive association with job
satisfaction. Similarly, Matos and Galinsky (2011) found that flexibility leads to an increase
of job satisfaction and improves the mental health of employees. Regarding the job
performance, Pierce and Newstrom (1983) suggested that workplace flexibility increased
employee performance by decreasing the level of job stress. Moreover, Nord et al. (2002)
demonstrated that workplace flexibility plays a significant role in the improvement of job
performance. Allen (2001) revealed that flexible work arrangements are negatively
associated with turnover intentions among the employees.
In the accounting profession, previous studies demonstrated that flexibility has
played a dominant role in the improvement of job outcomes. For example, Mattis (1990)
found that flexibility leads to higher level of job satisfaction and lower level of turnover
intentions among accounting professionals. Similarly, Collins (1993) reported that
flexibility reduces the negative effects of job stress. Almer and Kaplan (2002) noted that
flexible work arrangements are negatively associated with job stress and work home
conflicts. Recently, Jones and Guthrie (2016) found that flexibility has a positive effect
on the psychological well-being of the accounting professionals. Therefore, the
following hypotheses are proposed:

H4a. The positive effects of flexibility on psychological well-being exceed the negative
effects of role stressors, mediated by job burnout and deteriorated psychological
well-being resulting in a positive association with job satisfaction.
H4b. The positive effects of flexibility on psychological well-being exceed the negative
effects of role stressors, mediated by job burnout and deteriorated psychological
well-being resulting in a positive association with job performance.
H4c. The positive effects of flexibility on psychological well-being exceed the negative
effects of role stressors, mediated by job burnout and deteriorated psychological
well-being resulting in a negative association with turnover intentions.
ARJ Methods
35,2 The participants of this study consisted of 200 accounting professionals (associate,
senior, manager, partner) from the offices of 15 public accounting firms in Tunisia.
Indeed, our initial sample includes 350 participants, but we received only 200 usable
responses with a response rate of 57%. This response rate is similar to other rates
found by previous studies in behavioral accounting such as the study of Lan et al.
266 (2013) and Kohlmeyer III et al. (2017). We collected data during the summer months in
2017. We chose the period outside the busy season so that the accounting
professionals could find the time to answer our questionnaire.
Data for this study were obtained using a questionnaire with a scale of 1–5 (e.g. from
strongly disagree to strongly agree). The survey was sent to the participants via e-mail
directly from the authors. Before sending the questionnaire, we conducted two important
steps. In the first step, we did a pilot test of the questionnaire. Indeed, we directly contacted
groups of accounting professionals, which represented 10% of the initial sample, and asked
them to answer our questionnaire by giving their remarks about the clarity and the
comprehensibility of the questions. The pilot test indicated that the survey would take
participants 15 min to complete. Then, in the second step, we considered all the remarks of
the participants in the pilot test to improve the clarity of the questionnaire before sending it
by e-mail. To ensure privacy, data were collected anonymously. In order to evaluate non-
response bias, we used Oppenheim’s (1966) early-late hypothesis. We conducted
independent sample t-tests so as to evaluate the significance of mean score differences
between the first 50 respondents and the final 50 respondents. We noted no significant mean
score differences between the groups. Therefore, there is no significant non-response bias in
this study.
To decrease the risk of having a common method variance (CVM), we followed the
procedures proposed by Podsakoff et al. (2003), such as an anonymous format of
the questionnaire, explaining that there are no right or wrong answers, separation of the
questions relative to the predictor and criterion variables, avoiding ambiguous terms.
Moreover, we used the Harman’s single factor test via CFA and found that CVM bias does
not exist. We also verified the absence of nesting data in our study. [1]
In our paper, all the items are self-scored using five-point Likert scales:
 Role conflict and role ambiguity: we used five items from the instruments of Rizzo
et al. (1970) to measure role ambiguity and three items to measure conflict. These
items are used by several researchers as Fogarty et al. (2000), Almer and Kaplan
(2002); and Jones et al. (2010) (coefficients alpha = 0.81 and 0.94).
 Role overload is measured using a three-item measure developed by Beehr et al.
(1976) (coefficient alpha = 0.83).
 Job burnout is measured using six items drawn from a subset of the scale used in
the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach, 1982) (coefficient alpha = 0.91).
 Psychological well-being is measured using four items from the satisfaction with life
scale (coefficient alpha = 0.92).
 Flexibility is measured using four items developed by Rothausen (1994) (coefficient
alpha = 0.92).
 Work interference with home is measured using four items developed by Gutek
et al. (1991) (coefficient alpha = 0.90).
 Job satisfaction is measured using three of the four items from Hoppock’s (1935)
scale (coefficient alpha = 0.89).
  Job performance is measured using ten items from the Choo’s (1986) instrument Flexibility and
(coefficient alpha = 0.92). job stress
 Turnover intentions are measured using a four items developed by Chatman (1991)
(coefficient alpha = 0.96).

Our model is evaluated with structural equation modeling (SEM). We used this method
because our model includes complex relationships between the endogenous and the
exogenous variables. In addition, several previous studies in the literature of behavioral
267
accounting, such as the study of Fogarty et al. (2000), Fogarty and Kalbers (2006); and Jones
and Guthrie (2016) have used SEM. We analyzed our data using the maximum likelihood
method.

Results
Of the 200 respondents, 16 (8%) were seniors, 9 (4.5%) were managers, 7 (3.5%) were
partners, and 140 (70.1%) were associates. A total of 60 (29.9%) of the respondents were
used in Big 4 firms and one hundred and four (70.1%) were used in non-Big 4. The majority
of the respondents were female (51.2% vs 48.8% male). We summarized the characteristics
of the survey respondents in Table 1. A correlation matrix for the constructs is presented in
Table 2.
We used six indices for the evaluation of the model fit: the comparative fit index (CFI), the
goodness-of-fit index (GFI), the adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), the Tucker Lewis
Index (TLI), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and the X2/df ratio. The
goodness of fit summary is presented in Table 3.
We evaluated the convergent validity by examining the variance extracted estimates of
the constructs. The results reported in Table 4 show that all constructs have variance
extracted estimates greater than 0.5 as recommended by Fornell and Larcker (1981). Hence,
the convergent validity is verified. In addition, we assessed the discriminant validity by
comparing the variance extracted estimates with the squared correlation between the latent
constructs (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The results show that the variance extracted
estimates are all greater than the squared correlations.
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of flexibility as a coping strategy for
reducing the negative impacts of job stress. Our initial structural model did not have a good
fit. Consequently, we realized a re-specification for the model in order to improve its fit. This
re-specification caused an improvement of the adjustment indices (GFI = 0.875, NFI = 0.847,
TLI = 0.904, CFI = 0.915), the results are presented in Table 5. These indices improvedbut

No. (%)

Gender
Female 102 51.2
Male 98 48.8
Position in firm
Associate 140 70.1
Senior 16 8
Manager 9 4.5
Partner 7 3.5 Table 1.
Type of Firm Sample
Big4 60 29.9 characteristics
Non-Big4 140 70.1 (n = 200)
 35,2
ARJ

268

matrix
Table 2.
Pearson correlation
Constructs RA RC RO JB WIH FLEX PWB JS JP TI

Role ambiguity (RA) 1

Role conflict (RC) 0.457** 1
Role overload (RO) 0.531** 0.545** 1
Job burnout (JB) 0.546** 0.452** 0.668** 1
Work interference with home (WIH) 0.548** 0.505** 0.576** 0.449** 1
Flexibility (FLEX) 0.465** 0.442** 0.631** 0.555** 0.683** 1
Psychological well-being (PWB) 0.442** 0.427** 0.649** 0.651** 0.599** 0.852** 1
Job satisfaction (JS) 0.462** 0.370** 0.410** 0.380** 0.508** 0.502** 0.563** 1
Job performance (JP) 0.274** 0.350** 0.329** 0.375** 0.455** 0.365** 0.440** 0.462** 1
Turnover intentions (TI) 0.035 0.009 0.054 0.035 0.076 0.033 0.005 0.069 0.216 1

Notes: **statistically significant at the 0.01 level

remained below 0.9. Judge and Hulin (1993) accepted the adjustment indices at the threshold Flexibility and
of 0.7 when the model is complex. Hence, the fit quality of our structural model is acceptable. job stress
H1a–H1c–c predicts that role ambiguity, role conflict and overload are positively
correlated with job burnout. The results show that role ambiguity is positively and
significantly associated with job burnout (coefficient = 0.19, p < 0.05). Thus, H1a is
supported. Although no significant association was observed for role conflict associated
with job burnout, H1b is not supported. In contrast, role overload is positively and
significantly associated with job burnout (coefficient = 0.85, p < 0.001), supporting H1c.
269
H2 predicts that job burnout is negatively associated with psychological well-being. As
shown in Figure 1, job burnout has a significant positive relationship with psychological
well-being, H2 is not supported.
H3a predicts that flexibility is positively correlated with psychological well-being.
Figure 1 shows that flexibility is positively and significantly correlated to psychological
well-being is positive and significant (coefficient = 0.83, p < 0.001), supporting H3a.
Moreover, the results indicate that work interference with home is not significantly
associated with psychological well-being, therefore H3b is not supported. H3c predicts that

Indices of fit Values

Chi square/df 1.642

Goodness-of-fit index (GFI) 0.780
Normed fit index (NFI) 0.865 Table 3.
Tucker-Lewis index ( TLI) 0.935 Goodness of fit
Comparative fit index ( CFI) 0.931 results for
Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) 0.067 measurement model

Variance extracted estimate

Role ambiguity 0.882

Role conflict 0.735
Role overload 0.925
Job burnout 0.687
Work interference with home 0.896
Flexibility 0.656
Psychological well-being 0.758
Job satisfaction 0.786 Table 4.
Job performance 0.721 Convergent validity
Turnover intentions 0.642 test

Indices of fit Values

Chi square/df 2.032

Goodness-of-fit index (GFI) 0.775
Normed fit index (NFI) 0.847 Table 5.
Tucker-Lewis index ( TLI) 0.904 Goodness of fit
Comparative fit index ( CFI) 0.915 results for structural
Root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) 0.075 model
ARJ
35,2

270

Figure 1.
Final model with
standardized path
coefficients

flexibility mitigates the effects of work interference with home on psychological well-being.
To test this moderating effect, we started by transforming flexibility into a nominal
variable, then, dividing into two groups: flexibility and inflexibility. The results presented in
Table 6 show a slight variation between them (0.217–0.194). Consequently, the moderating
effect of flexibility is not significant, therefore H3c is not supported. Finally, H4a and H4b
predict that the positive effects of flexibility on psychological well-being exceed the negative
effects of job stress mediated by job burnout and deteriorate psychological well-being,
resulting in a positive association with job satisfaction and job performance. The results
shown in Figure 1 indicate that psychological well-being is positively and significantly
associated with job satisfaction (coefficient = 0.66, p < 0.001) and with job performance
(coefficient = 0.36, p < 0.001), therefore H4a and H4b are supported. In addition, the results
show that psychological well-being is not significantly associated with turnover intentions,
consequently H4c is not supported.
To evaluate the demographic influence, we tested the model differences per gender, type
of firm and its position using the chi-square difference, however, no significant differences
were found.

Discussion
This research investigated the potential mitigating effect of flexibility on the job stress
model. Specifically, this study examined the impact of flexibility as a coping strategy for job
stressors, burnout and work interference with home in the accounting firms. Role theory
suggests that job stress leads to anxiety, job dissatisfaction, turnover intentions and
reducing job performance. Given these negative consequences, previous studies examined
the coping mechanisms for attenuating the negative influence of job stress. As Jones et al.
(2010) examined the impact of healthy lifestyle as a strategy mechanism for job stress.

First group: Flexibility Second group: Inflexibility

Table 6. Hypothesis Estimate p-value Estimate p-value
Test of moderating
effect of flexibility H3c 0.217 0.172 0.194 0.372
Similarly, Smith and Emerson (2017) considered resilience as an intervention strategy Flexibility and
designed to reduce the harmful effects of job stress among accounting professionals. Our job stress
study responds to the need for accounting firms to provide coping strategy based on survey
data from 200 accounting professionals in Tunisia.
Our findings indicate that role ambiguity and role overload lead to an increase in job
burnout among accounting professionals. More specifically, this result demonstrates that
role stressors are antecedents of job burnout in accounting professional. These findings are
consistent with the results of previous studies, such as those of Fogarty et al. (2000) and 271
Jones et al. (2010). The paper’s results indicate that job burnout does not have a negative
effect on the psychological well-being, which contradicts the result of Jones et al. (2010). This
might be explained by the fact that our study was carried outside of the busy season.
Furthermore, our results indicate that flexibility is positively and significantly associated
with psychological well-being. In other words, the work flexibility offered to the accounting
professionals by the firm improves their psychological well-being. This finding is consistent
with the result of Jones and Guthrie (2016). Moreover, we found that work interference with
home does not have a significant effect on psychological well-being, and that the moderating
effect of flexibility on the relationship between work interference with home and the
psychological well-being is not significant.
In line with our predictions regarding the effects of flexibility on the job stress model, our
results illustrate that flexibility can mitigate the negative effects of role stressors in the
accounting profession. Flexibility exerts a positive impact on job performance and job
satisfaction by reducing the negative influence of job stress. This result supports the key
role of flexibility in the job stress model. Specifically, when the work environment at
accounting firm is characterized by flexibility, the psychological well-being of employees
will improve and they become more effective and satisfied in their work. In contrast, we
found that the mitigating effect of flexibility on turnover intentions is insignificant.

Conclusions
Given the negative consequences of job stress in the accounting profession, previous studies
have investigated the mechanisms that diminish their consequences such as work
arrangements flexibility (Almer and Kaplan, 2002), healthy lifestyle (Jones et al., 2010) and
resilience (Smith and Emerson, 2017; Smith et al., 2020). In fact, our study contributed to the
behavioral accounting literature by examining work flexibility in general (not only flexible
work arrangements) as a coping strategy for job stress. Additionally, this study extends
the study of Smith and Emerson (2017) by exploring intervention strategy designed to
reduce the harmful effects of job stress.
Moreover, our results have a considerable practical implication for accounting
professionals and accounting firms. Indeed, based on our findings, accounting firm can
improve their work environment and reducing job stress by offering flexibility to their
employees. Furthermore, this paper can help auditors to better understand the impact of job
stressors.
However, the findings of this paper are subject to certain limitations. First, the survey
was administered during the summer months, outside the busy season. Consequently, the
results may not be generalizable throughout the year. Second, the results of this study
are limited to the Tunisian context; therefore, these findings cannot be generalized. Third,
the sample size is small. This paper opens the door for future studies to investigate other
mechanism that may reduce the negative effect of job stress and improve the work
environment in accounting firms. In addition, future research might contain a longitudinal
study.
ARJ Note
35,2 1. To evaluate the existence of nesting data, we used the method of Eta squared. According to
Georgopoulos (1986), a lower value of 0.20 indicates a low likelihood of nesting data. We found
that all items have Eta squared values less than 0.20, therefore, the nested effect is unlikely.

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Corresponding author
Yosra Mnif can be contacted at: yosra.mnif.sellami.isaas@gmail.com

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