This blog discusses the different methods to understand and reduce burnout in accountants to increase job satisfaction and reduce job turnover.

Aritzeta, A., Ayestaran, S., & Swailes, S. (2005). Team Role Preference And Conflict Management Styles. International Journal of Conflict Management, 16(2), 157-182. doi:10.1108/eb022927.
This article investigates the relationship between conflict management techniques and team role preference. The article covered five styles of conflict management and nine role preferences to determine the effects of each relationship. For our blog, we used this article to investigate the meaning of the dominating conflict style, as well as understanding how this conflict management style may affect employees.

Bakker, A., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel, A. I. (2014). Burnout and Work Engagement: The JD–R Approach. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, 389-411. Retrieved October 27, 2020, from https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091235.
This article refers to the relationship between burnout and engagement. It describes the causes and effects of each or strategies to get to ideal levels of these workplace factors. It describes the relationship using theories, and how burnout is linked to health, and engagement is linked to motivation. We used this article to provide methods for reducing employee burnout, such as the optimization of job demands.

Cooper, M. L., Knight, M. E., Frazier, M. L., & Law, D. W. (2019). Conflict management style and exhaustion in public accounting. Managerial Auditing Journal, 34(2), 118–141. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1108/MAJ-09-2017-1643.
This is a small study that surveyed 208 public accounting professionals on their perception of conflict management and its effect on roll stressors that lead to burnout. It examines how a manager can make choices regarding conflict management to attempt to reduce job stress. Although this study has a small sample size, it still provides valuable insight into factors that can affect burnout in accountants. This study provides a solution for reducing burnout by adjusting management style.

Guthrie, C. P., & Jones III, A. (2012). Job Burnout in Public Accounting: Understanding Gender Differences. Journal of Managerial Issues, 390-411. http://ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=87526565&site=ehost-live.
This is a study on job burnout in the field of public accounting. Unlike other studies done on the topic, this study is focused on the differences in job burnout between genders. There were 1681 participants almost evenly split between men and women. The results of this study found that women had the strongest relationship between turnover intention and emotional exhaustion. Men had the strongest relationship between job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. This article shows insight on the relationship between job burnout and gender that will be important to highlight in our article.

Haddad, T. (2017). A Quantitative Examination of the Relationship between Perceived Burnout and Job Satisfaction in Certified Public Accountant. Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1627
This is a doctoral dissertation written to understand the link between perceived job burnout and job satisfaction (including motivation) amongst CPAs in California. To understand the connections, the author used information from Maslach’s Burnout Inventory and a satisfaction questionnaire. The findings confirmed earlier research that there is a strong negative correlation between job burnout from prolonged job stress exposure and job satisfaction. The article ends with applications to professional practice that will limit the effects of this correlation.

Jankowski, H. (2016). How to Decrease Employee Turnover Rates within Public Accounting Firms. University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects. Retrieved from http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_chanhonoproj/1979.
This article discussed methods to reduce turnover rates from accounting firms. The author examined the demographics of people who worked in public accounting firms and offered a few solutions to help reduce the high rate of turnover that many firms faced. Some of the pertinent information that we used from this article included statistics of turnover rate among different industries as well as some speculated causes of high turnover intention.

Mansor, N., Zamri, N., Rahman, L., & Isa, N. (2020). The Effects of Perceived Stress and Burnout towards Accounting Students’ Academic Performance. Journal of Critical Reviews, 2036-2047. Retrieved from http://www.jcreview.com/fulltext/197-1594229272.pdf?1602779189
This article is based on the data gathered from 411 student responses to a perceived stress scale and Maslach burnout survey. The findings revealed that while perceived stress has a significant positive relationship, burnout has a significant negative relationship with academic performance. These findings are important in addressing the potential factors that affect academic performance in order to avoid the negative effects associated with the situation faced by the accounting students.

Taneja, S., Pryor, M. G., & Oyler, J. (2012). Empowerment and Gender Equality: The Retention and Promotion of Women in the Workforce. Journal of Business Diversity, 12(3), 43-53.
This article explores how gender diversity can be beneficial to organizations, through diverse backgrounds and inputs, as well as discussing several tangible methods for hiring, promoting, and retaining female workers in a company. We used this article to find managerial methods for retaining a gender diverse staff, specifically female employees in modern businesses.

Utami, Intiyas and Supriyadi, Dr., Flexible Working Arrangement and Stress Management Training in Mitigating Auditor’s Burnout: An Experimental Study (May 27, 2013). Accounting and Taxation Vol.5, Number 1, 2013, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2270892
This analysis is a study that tested two experimental ways to reduce burnout in accounting professionals. The experiment involved 28 accounting students and split them into groups with variables of flexible work scheduling or training of stress management. The control group had none of these resources and one group used both techniques. This was designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a flexible schedule and stress management in increasing job performance and reducing job turnover. This study will be used to show how job burnout affects employees.

Written by: Zoie Breeding, Marcus Hong, Rachel Curtiss, Blaine Clary
All authors contributed equally.