1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.0 Overview Over ... - DSpace@UM

CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTION1.0 OverviewOver the past four decades, significant changes have taken place within our country,Malaysia, needless to say, the workplace. The increase in information communicationtechnology coupled with the globalization has led to company restructuring coupled withchanges in job contracts and workplace patterns have all contributed to the transformationon the nature of work (Sparks, Faragher, & Cooper, 2001). The transformation of thenature of work and increased competitiveness resulting from the globalised economyraises concerns of stress and workplace stress (Wright, 2003). Coupled with this, therecent corporate scandals and concerns of loss of public confidence in the accountingprofession, regulations and enforcements over activities of accountants have beenintensified (IFAC, 2003). Whilst research on workplace stress has focused on professionsuch as engineers, lawyers, teachers and educationist (Fatimah, O., 1987; Myrtle, R. C.,1988) in Malaysia, very little is known about workplace stress among accountants.Therefore, this research project examines the relationship between the work stressors andcoping strategies against psychological health symptoms among self-employed andorganizationally employed accounts in Malaysia.1.1 BackgroundThe detrimental effects of job stress discovered over the years have also caught the wideattention of practicing managers, human service workers and health professionals.1

Balancing work and employee well-being has become important to both in the Privateand Public sectors. Thus, it is important to help individuals, organizations and socialworkers to better understand the stressor and the strains, to formulate appropriate copingstrategies to minimize the negative consequences of job stress. The focus here is onwork-related stress as opposed to life stress or stress in any non-work domain butnevertheless, this chapter will further enlighten a little on the stress and related issues.1.1.1 Occupational stressA great pioneer on medicine and a noted authority on stress, Han Selye once said,“Complete freedom from stress is death” (Brief, Schuler, & Van Sell, 1981). Thus, stressin absolutely inevitable. In the same work, Selye stated that because stress may beassociated with pleasant or unpleasant experiences, it should be viewed as an inevitablehuman condition which, if mismanaged, can result in distress. The study of stressattracted many researches from many fields, particularly those in the psychologicalmedicine and behavioral sciences. The question is, what is stress? Well, stress is anyexperience that creates physiological & psychological imbalances within the individual(Flippo, 1984). Even tough stress has been widely talked about; it is not well understoodand we have yet to develop an effective mechanism for avoiding the distresses of stress.Occupational stress is a fascinating topic in many ways. It has, in the last three decades,become a key concept for academic research into peoples’ physiological andpsychological health problems (Cooper, Dewe & O'Driscoll, 2001). The term job stress,2

work stress and occupational stress are used interchangeably in this paper; not becausethere are indistinguishable concepts but simply to preserve the usage originality by pastresearchers. Beehr and Newman, 1978 has define job stress as a condition arising frominteraction of people and their jobs and is characterized by changes within people thatforce them to deviate from their normal functioning (Arthur P. Brief, et al, 1981) .Initial studies were carried out in the developed countries due to real concern over theescalating health costs in those countries. Occupational stress was an increasing problemfor employees in Western societies, particularly the U.S. (Sauter & Murphy,1995),because it is costly. Workplace stress has serious consequences and can lead to increasedhealth/medical costs, higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, more accidents, and poorperformance. Now, there is consensus that occupational stress is important wherebyfigures are often citied estimating that many billions of dollars are lost in the UnitedStates each year due to occupational stress. These “losses” are due to increased costs ofmedical insurance to employers and employees, excess pressure on the medical facilitiesand professionals who could otherwise work with other patients and illnesses, lostproductivity due to illness, and so forth.(Beehr. A Terry, 1995).Despite extensive research on occupational stress, the focus onto peculiar issues amongspecific professions’ such as accountant is limited. Furthermore, the problem ofoccupational stress should also be particularly relevant for countries that are undergoingenormous economic and social changes such as Malaysia. Most academic studies have3

een emphasizing more on the relationship between work stress and job satisfactionwhich.1.1.2 Stress among accountantsRosenman and Friedman (1959) have noted that in the United States, physiologicalchanges occurred in accountants as they approached their annual tax deadlines, and theincreased illnesses they suffered at these times. In order to attack stress in the right wayand in the right place, it is important to look for “stress-centers” in a particularorganization. It is pointless to recommend any one “pre-fabricated” coping programme,just as it is pointless to administer medicine to a patient without first diagnosing thedisease. It is therefore empirical that a validated questionnaire is used in order to obtain aconsistent and reliable form of feedback to evaluate the stress level and effective copingmethods (Marshall, Judi; Aldershot: Gower, C., 1981).Most empirical studies on the sources of auditor's stress, have been limited in the scopeof stressors explored and have two overall research goals. Firstly, several studiesexamined the different levels of importance attributed to certain stressors by differentdemographic profiles of respondents e.g. Male vs Female: Pearson, Wescort and Seiler(1985); auditor rank, regional vs national audit-firm auditors: Gaertner and Ruhe (1981)..1 Professional accountant is defined as a member of a body which is a member of IFAC. In Malaysia allthose who hold themselves out as accountants must be registered with the Malaysian Institute ofAccountants (MIA). MIA is a member of IFAC.4

Secondly, a set of auditor-based stress studies investigated the relationship between asmall number of stressors and certain consequences of those stressors such as a measureof role conflict to be significantly and positively associated with job-related tension(Senatra, 1980). In light of the current development in the accounting profession itself ,as mentioned earlier, coupled with cost control initiatives across the globe; it is seen asthe right time to embark on this research topic.1.2 Research ObjectivesThe main aim of this study is to examine the effect of different employment type amongaccountants (self-employed and organizationally employed) against psychologicalsymptoms of stress. It is to further explore the above and its relationship with stressorsand coping strategies (as mediator or moderator). Specifically, the study will address :a) The existence of stress among accountants in Malaysia and to further exploreif there is a difference in stress level between organizationally employed andself-employed.b) To identify if there are different sources of stress between organizationallyemployed and self-employed accountants in Malaysia.5

c) To identify if there are different coping strategies (i.e. problem focus,emotional focus and fight-flight focus) practiced by self-employed andorganization employed accountants in Malaysiad) To analyze demographic factors against sources of stress and copingstrategies, and further analyze if they differ between organizationallyemployed and self-employed accountants in Malaysia.e) The association between employment type among accountants in Malaysiaand their psychological symptoms of stress, with further exploration on therelationship of two more independent variables (i.e. stressors and copingstrategies) using the stress model explained in Chapter 3.1.3 Scope of studyThis study is confined to professional accountants who are registered with the MalaysianInstitute of Accounting (MIA). This study is also confined to exploring the associationbetween employment type, work stressors, coping strategies and psychological healthsymptoms. Other characteristics such as individual’s personality and etc., which affectthe stress-strain relationship, are outside the scope of this study. Finally, needless tohighlight that this study is confined in its scope linking to hypotheses as furtherdeliberation into medical or mental ill-health will entail greater research time.6

1.4 Significance of StudyGanster and Fusilier (1989) proposed that if variability is found in any of the jobcharacteristics of a single occupation, then it is these aspects of the job that should be themain focus of any job redesign/stress management intervention aimed at reducing jobstress among the worker (see Dollard & Winefield,1998). Furthermore, Mulhoran andTorkelson, 2003, suggested that an advantage of studying one occupation as opposed tomany is that the specific industry may be able to make use of the results. Thus, stressinterventions/job redesign could be "tailor made" using more job-specific modelsincorporating a range of identified organizational stressors (de Jonge & Kompier,1997).As has been discussed earlier, this new knowledge economy with the globalization andadvancement in IT poses significant challenges to the professional accountants.Furthermore, little has been done to reveal how Malaysian accountants differ in terms ofstress level experienced and how they manage it. Given the challenges that professionalaccountants have faced in terms of tighter regulation and governance by oversight bodiesand monitoring by their respective professional institutes, it is opportune to study thisphenomenon in the context of professional accountants.Therefore, this research attempts to identify the existence of stress, differentiate stressfactors between organizationally employed and self-employed accountants and identifythe coping strategies adopted by Malaysian accountants, if there are, that may lead toeffective job performance. It is to fill the void in accounting literature in Malaysia in7

particular by (a) identifying the stressors that has an impact on an organizationallyemployed against self-employed accountants (b) exploring the association between thosestressors and accountants' questionnaire on symptoms of poor health .This study has significant contribution to the profession generally. The findings can beuseful to formulate effective coping mechanisms for professional accountants. These canbe provided as part of the continuing professional education programs conducted by theMalaysian Institute of Accountants as part of its continuing education in line with IFAC’srequirements on International Education Standards (IES) 5, Continuing ProfessionalEducation.1.5 Study LimitationsThis is just to highlight that there are several limitations in carrying out this researchproject which may not be specific to the researcher but a common issue among student inMalaysia. Firstly, the finance required to carry out this research paper could be higherunder the circumstances it was carried out including in Sabah and Sarawak. Secondly,much more time was required to carry out an extensive study on the psychological healthillness thus limited the number of respondents and specific focus given only to key focusarea outlined in this chapter. In another words, the full survey with right proportion of theorganizationally employed and self-employed were hampered due to time constraint. Theoverall lack resources which was overcome over the period , had a little impact inslowing down the research analysis.8

1.6 Organisation of the studyThe remainder of this thesis is organised as follows:a) The second chapter presents the related literatures and perspectives on theoccupational stress studies and their outcomes.b) Chapter 3 provides the detailed Theoretical Framework on this study andthe methodology used in this study. It also examines the sample and datacollection process. The chapter moves on to provide the definition ofvarious variables used in this study.c) The fourth chapter of this paper explains the results and findings of thestudies and the comparison with the findings of the previous studies doneon the same subject.d) This paper ends with a summary and conclusion of the research in Chapter5, with further discussions inclusive of contribution of this study,recommendation and suggestions for future research and the implications.1.7 ConclusionIn this chapter, we explored a little on general stress occurrence in workplace and currentstate of occupational stress research in Malaysia with particular focus on Accountants.There is a concern on the gap in stress research among accountants in Malaysia and thisresearch paper is hoped to fill part of the gap that exist. In the next chapter, severalliterature reviews related to the area of study is presented to build the foundation for thisstudy and enlightened further the purpose of this research paper.9

CHAPTER 2LITERATURE REVIEW2.0 IntroductionThis chapter reviews prior literature on various occupational stress studies and theiroutcomes in relation to several different mediators (such as coping strategies) which linksdirectly or indirectly to psychological mental health symptoms i.e. the stress model that isadopted and modified in this research. Nevertheless, since various work stressors arerelevant to this study and are also common manifestation at workplace, they are alsoreviewed in this chapter.The diversity of backgrounds and disciplines of earlier stress researches has resulted inmany of these studies focusing on different aspects of stress phenomenon. As such, theconcept of stress as inherited from these studies, have a diversity of definitions, making itseem versatile, yet ambiguous. In this review of stress research, significant paradigmshifts in the “conceptual development of stress” will be discussed under the sameheading. Finally, to achieve a good topic flow in a meaningful manner, the review startswith discussion on the stress model utilized by earlier researches leading towards themodel adopted in this study. Then, further elaboration is made in reference to thetheoretical framework by reviewing past literatures related each variable in the model,leading towards conceptualization of the whole research paper.10

2.1 Stress ModelsIt is only relatively recent that scientist have begun to test more complex association andmodels (e.g. Grunberg, Moore, & Greenberg,1998; Vasse, Nijhuis, & Kok, 1998).Apparently, our knowledge about those employees who are at the highest risk forpsychological problems and risky health-related behaviours as a consequence ofoccupational stress is still limited.In outlining the stress model for this research paper, it is important to share the four stressmodels evaluated by Haskins, M.E, Baglioni, A.J, and Cooper,C.L, (1991) namely;Direct effects, Buffered effects, Mediated effects and Mediated-mediated effects, inwhich it was concluded that the two mediated effect models were acceptable on reflectingthe relationship among items such as job stressors, personality types, coping strategiesand psychological health symptoms. This study is seen as an expansion from the earliermodel used by Haskins, M.E. et.al. ,1991 and is explained as follows:+ Type-A +Stressor + Psychological health symptoms+ Coping -Figure 2.1 : Stress modelSource : Edwards, Baglioni and Cooper (1988).11

The results from the above researches revealed that the mediated effect model (which isshown above) does represent some relationship and is considered an acceptable model. Inthat model, Type-A is seen to play a mediating role between stressor and psychologicalhealth symptoms while coping is also seen to be playing the same role between workstressor and psychological health symptoms. This study splits into two sections; Firstly, itexpands the section on employment type ahead of stressor in above model whileremoving Type-A personality (Hypothesis 4) and Secondly, it explores the abovementioned mediating relationship of coping strategy on work stressor and psychologicalhealth relationship (Hypothesis 5), thus resembling a straight chain relationship model(refer Chapter 3 on theoretical framework).In quite a similar area of study, it was suggested that Type-A behavior engages inmaladaptive coping (e.g. imposing deadlines on themselves, increasing goals and etc.)which damages health (Davidson et al., 1980). Meanwhile, another study onprofessionals, found that Type-A engineers who are under stress, were likely to use lesseffective forms of coping, characterized by a sense of helplessness and resentment(Newton and Keenan, 1985). This research paper partly refers to the above stress modelto determine the relationship between employment type (self-employed andorganizationally employed) and psychological health symptoms with mediating role bywork stressors and coping strategies.There are other models with separate focuses which are worth reviewing here due to theiroutcome and conclusions. For example, the Demand Control (D-C) (Karasek,1979) and12

the Demand-Control-Support (D-C-S) (Johnson & Hall,1988;Johnson, Hall & Theorell,1989;Karasek & Theorell,1990) models of work stress suggests that jobs with highdemands and low control (and low support) are stressful. Mcclenahan, A.C, Giles,L.M, &Mallett J., 2007 on the other hand revealed that high job strain is linked to ill-health andjob satisfaction in a homogenous occupational sample, which may seem very close to therespondents examined in this research paper. Unfortunately, there were no prior researchinto Karasek’s theory that appears to have examined the moderating role of job tenure,thus prompting Bradley, G. (2007), to carry out research underpinning an argument thatthe job environment of novice workers is substantially different from that of experiencedworkers, and that relationship between Karasek’s job factors and strain are likely to differas a consequence. Unfortunately, contrary to his expectation, the main effects associatedwith the job factors did not differ by job tenure status. Since, there has been lack of stressstudy on accountants in Malaysia, it prompted this research study based on severallongitudinal studies abroad.2.2 Employment TypeIt is important to clearly define the employment type as there are vast definitions beingused that could mislead readers. In this research, the employment type refers to selfemployedand organizationally employed accountants. It is important to define that thisfactor focuses on the nature of job (e.g. self-employed works longer hours) and not thestress related factors which comes under occupational stressors. No doubt that13

employment type can be seen as a categorical data but for this research purposes, we haverepresented employment type to level of decision authority. This is in reference to thestudy on the association between work stress and mental health comparingorganizationally employed and self-employed workers which resulted in a conclusion thatself-employed reported significantly higher level of decision authority thanorganizationally employed. This becomes the foundation on idea for this study.Another similar studies, results have shown that organizationally employed and selfemployeddiffer especially in terms of the higher maintenance responsibilities for thelatter. (David J. Prottas and Cynthia A. Thompson ,2006). Not surprisingly, the selfemployedtends to work longer hours compared to employees (Eden, 1975; Lewin-Epstein &Yuchtman-Yar, 1991). There is a tendency to think that it could have been dueto the higher maintenance requirements as well as their having a greater stake in thebusiness (Thompson, Kopelman &Schriesheim, 1992). They also found that workstressors were associated with women’s physical health whereby those with moremanageable job demands and higher level of employability security reported betterphysical health while women who were self-employed reported worse physical health(Parslow, A.R., et al. 2004).Self-employment is an option which is commonly perceived to offer a work environmentwith more manageable job demands, more decision authority and skills discretion, butbrings with it more job insecurity, although the findings on this last issue are inconsistent(Hundley, 2001; Lewin-Epstein & Yuchtmann-Yaar, 1991). Due perhaps, to this14

perception that work stressors experience by the self-employed are minimal and are likelyto have little impact on the health of this employment group, there has beencomparatively little research on the impact of work arrangement (known in this researchpaper as employment type) on the mental health of the self-employed ( Parslow, A.R. , etal. 2004). Research comparing self-employed and organizationally employed workers hasrarely recognized important distinctions among self-employed arrangements, such as theextent to which their working conditions vary (Hundley,2001). This brings about to theinteresting study that this research paper will address with special focus on a specificgroup i.e. Accountants. The above leads to the following null hypothesis :H1 :There is a difference in stress level between organizationally employed and selfemployedaccountants in Malaysia2.3 Differences in Work Characteristics and DemandsIndeed, there is a need to highlight that studies were done relating the nature of certainoccupation that leads to an effect on psychological health symptoms. Weick (1983) in hisstudy, noted that auditors are prime candidate for experiencing excessive and prolongedjob-related stress. In fact, the preponderance of articles in the auditing practitionerliterature offers stress-management techniques (e.g. Englard and Bodner, 1984), thusproviding anecdotal evidence for such as assessment. Economic, technological and socialchanges have resulted in new forms of relationship between individuals and15

organizations, increasing the number of individuals who work under various forms ofalternative work arrangements (Connelly & Gallagher,2004; Sullivan, 1999). Jobpressure, a work stressor emanating from the physical as well as psychological demandsof work compared (Karasek,1979), is likely to be higher for owners compared toindependents and employees.Furthermore, Rahim (1996) found that owners ofbusinesses reported a greater number of stressors, such as role overload, thanorganizationally-employed managers. Similarly, Jamal and Badawi (1995) found thatamong minorities in Canada and the United States, the self-employed had higher level ofwork stress. This is an interesting fact for this research paper since self-employedaccountants is expected to have increased in Malaysia over the past 5 years.An organization’s options for reducing the levels of work stress experienced byemployees can include better recognition of factors that can trigger or exacerbate workstress and modification of tasks, schedules, management strategies and other aspects ofthe work environment (Copper & Cartwright,1997). Meanwhile, Chong, et.al (2004),revealed that emotional reaction of occupational stress has negative and direct effect onpublic accountants' level of organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Furthermore,they reiterated that the cognitive role of occupational stress has direct impact on jobperformance while there is an indirect effect of emotional reaction and cognitive role ofoccupational stress on public accountants' job performance through organizationalcommitment and job satisfaction.16

Looking at a different angle, Oi-ling, S (2003), who carried out study on Job stress andJob performance in Hong Kong is regards to the role of Chinese work values andorganizational commitment; revealed that it is essential to nourish work values amongemployees and cultivate employees’ commitment to their organizations and furthermore,in a very high stress situation, it is appropriate to alter the work environment to reducestressors at work, in order to enhance job performance. These factors are important anddiffers between self-employed and organizationally employed due to their organizations’set-up and corporate culture.2.4 Conceptual Development of Stress and CopingTwo separate paths of researching were taken up by stress researches after Seyle haspopularized the concept. One group of researches focused on identifying and examiningthe nature of what Seyle called “stressors” while the other group focused on responses tostressful encounters. The former generally felt that Seyle’s conceptualization of stress asa general response pattern which cannot explain the fact that the same response does notnecessarily arise from the same threatening situation. The question to those researchers is“what make the stimulus are stressors?” As for the latter, what becomes a stressor isunderstood as more of a function of subjective interpretation or response of theindividual, that is, what is a stressor to some may not be one to the others.The terms stressor has been commonly used to mean that which stimulates stressfulresponses or leads to stressful outcomes. Researches following this approach attempted toidentify, typologies and describe the characteristics of stressors, and to measure the17

degree of “stressfulness” possibly generated by the stimulus. Generally, three types ofstressors have been identified; major changes affecting most people such as naturaldisasters; major events affecting one or few persons, such as life events; and minor eventsthat happen on a relatively regular basis, such as daily hassles. Here. This study willrelate to the type third stressor which relates to work environment and consequences dueto the interaction between variables over a long period.2.5 Cognitive Appraisal PerspectiveIt is important to share some literatures to enhance the readers appreciation on the needfor occupational environment and occupational stress related study. Lazarus (1984), canbe said to be the most important advocate of the cognitive appraisal approach to stressresearch. He took a bold step in theorizing psychological stress as opposed tophysiological stress, and, in doing so, helped enhance our understanding of the complexinteraction processes between the person and his environment. According to him, a stateof stress develops when an individual feels a discrepancy between the demands of thesituation and own capabilities to cope. Coping here refers to the efforts directed atcounter re-acting the demands imposed by stressors. Lazarus and Folkman, (1984)repeatedly emphasized that “the way a person appraises an encounter strongly influencesthe coping process and how the person reacts emotionally”.18

2.6 Work StressorsIn the current complex world of information technology, work occupies the main role inlives of all society's members and eventually dictates the quality of life-style as well asself-realization. It is generally presumed that job stress contributes to physical andpsychological health problems, promotes risky health-related behaviours and impairs jobperformance (Cooper,Dewe,&O"Driscoll,2001;Frone,1999; Jex,1998; Jex & Beehr,1991;Semmer & Mohr,2001). Thereby, much empirical research has focused on demonstratingdirect relationship between job stressors and various outcomes (Cooper, Russell, &Frone, 1990; Frone, 1999). This research paper differs in this aspect..There were several approach used to study the stress at workplace and it’s impact. Thestimulus approach to occupational stress for example, focused on identification of variouswork place stressors, such as workload, control, role ambiguity, and role conflict, andtheir association with job strain and mental and physical health problems, e.g,cardiovascular disease (de Jonge & Kompier,1997). The other support for the modelcomes from epidemiological research examining biological mechanisms linkingoccupational stressors and disease outcomes. Further evidence can be seen from exposureto stressful job demands may cause blood pressure to rise, possibly due to increasedlevels of cortisol and /or adrenalin, which are released when the physiological stressresponse is triggered (Elsass & Veiga,1997).19

Sparks and Cooper (1999) argued that to fully understand the work-strain relationshipresearch should incorporate a greater range of variables that are specific to a particularworkplace. Drach-Zahavy, A. (2008), highlighted that the initiatives to create workplacehealth-friendly should be augmented by the generation of an organizational climate thathighlights the benefits to workers of taking up these initiatives, and minimizes theirperceived social costs. Her findings suggested that perceptions of social costs had adetrimental impact on workers’ ability to benefit from workplace health friendlyinitiatives; i.e. high stress is not a good motivator for workers to join workplaceinitiatives for physical health promotion.It is well-known that researches have identified and classified a wide range of potentialwork stressors. Beehr and Newman (1978), for example, identified 37 potential workstressors, categorizing them under four headings. Such headings not only covered roledemands and expectations but also job demands and task characteristics, organizationalcharacteristics and conditions, and an organization's external demands and conditions.Similarly, Cartwright and Cooper (1997) identified six primary categories of workrelatedstressors that range from factors intrinsic to the job itself to career issues and thehome-work interface. Other authors, (Sulsky & Smith 2005) identify what contemporarystressors covering issues such as career management, technology developments, workfamilyconflicts, and organizational change, and transition stressors covering downsizingand job loss. Others, (Barling, Inness, & Gallager 2002) point to changes in employmentpractices and reviews alternative forms of employment (e.g., part-time, outsourcing, jobsharing)as potential work stressors. Choo (1986), who examined on auditor-based stress20

study, found empirical support for a theorized inverted-U relationship between a singlemeasure of perceived job stress and job performance ratings.This research paper focused on the above categorization, adopted from Haskin, M. E.,et.al. (1991), to reflect a better layout (refer figure 2.1) whereby the work stressorquestions were compressed into three factors to facilitate subsequent discussion.Work stressorsOutcome- Psychological health symptoms• Role/ organization - Anxiety• Work overload/Time pressure(FFA / SOM)• Interpersonal relations - Depression(DEP)Figure 2.2 : Relationship between Job stressor and Psychological health symptomsAdopted : Haskin, M. E., et.al. (1991)Lazarus (1991), noted that stress is a transaction, a changing process that is not staticthus, the role of stress moderators varies with the changing external economic andfinancial environment in different societies. In particular, there are several studies madeon specific stressors such as Work-Home Interference (WHI) ; which may occur if threeways (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). It may arise from time demands that make itphysically impossible to be in two places at the same time(e.g. Long hours of work21

preventing participation in family activities); from the spillover of strain from onedomain to the other (e.g. When strain at work makes it difficult to relax at home); orwhen specific behaviours that are expected at work are incompatible with behavioursthat are expected at home (e.g. Teachers may continue to act as teachers with their ownchildren or spouse). MacExen and Barling (1994) found that daily WHI was related todaily psychological strain, which in turn was related to marital behaviour (withdrawaland anger). Infact, further studies in this area includes by Butler, Grzywacs, Bass, andLinney,(2005) concluded that higher level of daily WHI were associated with the higherdaily levels of job demands and lower level of job control. Other stressor studyinvestigated with specific focus on the hours of work and their impact on stress. Reid &Moss, 1997, identified increase stress levels amongst employees with long working hoursand heavy work schedules. Here, despite the introduction of reduced working times insome European countries, many employees in Europe were still working long hours,underpaid or as overtime (Wedderburn, 1996). There are many serious implications fromthe long hours of work whereby the further study on effects of long hours of work iselaborated below under the physiological health symptoms which may be categorizedunder stress factors or maybe under employment type work characteristics.Cooper & Marshall, (1975), highlighted that there are two central features of stress atwork, the interaction of determines either coping or maladaptive behaviour and stressrelateddisease : (1) the dimensions or characteristics of the person and (2) the potentialsources of stress in the environment which Lofquist & Dawis (1969), labelled as thePerson-Environment Fit. Meanwhile, Cooper & Marshall (1976), pointed out that there22

are large number of possible environmental sources of stress at work such as factorsintrinsic to particular work, role in organization, career development, relationship atwork, and "just being in" an organization. The gaps lie not only in certain areasassociated with particular sources of stress but also in our lack of ability to see this filedof work as essentially inter-disciplinary, requiring a number of resources from a varietyof disciplines. The above literatures bring about a fundamental question related to thisresearch i.e. do work stressors differ between different employment type amongaccountants. In addressing this question, the second null hypothesis will be tested in thisresearch paper :H2: There is a difference in sources of stress between organizationally employed andself-employed accountants in MalaysiaIn the global arena, today’s businesses faces a rapidly changing administrativeenvironment, flatter organizations, virtual teams, doing more with less, temporarystructures, transparent management and employees with new values and life/work styles.The globalization movement seems lately to be moving at a still more urgent pace thus acertain rage is sweeping over us, brought about by advancement in technology and theadvent of the digital age, which has collapse geographical distances and reduced the timeneeded to communicate and access information to mere seconds. Work stress is seen as aglobal problem for managers and employees of different organizations; accountants arenot free from it, depending on which organization they are attached to. In the 1990s, theUnited Nations labeled work stress “the 20 th -century disease” (Krohe,1999) and now in23

21 st century, it is recognized in developing nations around the world. The United StatesNational Institute for Occupational Safety and Health states that “stress-related disordersare fast becoming the most prevalent reason for worker disability”; the World HealthOrganization calls work stress a “worldwide epidemic.” There were others, especiallymedical scientists, who were particularly interested in the health outcome orconsequences of stressful experiences. Despite all these highlights, stress cases havecontinued to increase, topping the list of reasons for non-performance for the fourthconsecutive year, with 22% of unions reporting an increase in stress cases among theirmembers (Barhem, B., 2008).His study revealed that global characteristics aresignificantly exhibited among managers in the private sector; with broad responsibilityfor others, private managers consider the most important sources of stress are roleambiguity and role overload (of a qualitative kind). This might be reflected in this currentstudy.2.7 Coping StrategyThere is no doubt as to the importance of coping as an explanatory construct whenexploring the nature of stress (Dewe, P., 2003). Coping is generally considered to be aprocess by which an individual attempts to minimize the negative emotions that arisefrom the experience of negative events. Generally over a period, we have seen animportant shift in research emphasis pertaining to stress and health studies, from that ofstressors to that of coping. It has been increasingly argued that health outcomes are moreoften than not a function of coping efficacy rather than simply a consequence of the24

presence or absence of perceived stress (Antonovsky,1979; Henry & Stephen, 1977;Roskies & Lazarus, 1980; Folkman, 1984).Three main concerns of person-environment relationship focusing on copingare(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984:142):a) to examine what the person actually rather than usually does.b) To examine the specific situation that the person is coping with; andc) To examine the changes in the individual’s coping thoughts and actions as astressful encounter unfolds, that is, to see coping as a function of continuousappraisals and reappraisals of the shifting or constantly changing personenvironmentrelationship.Smith and Lazarus (1993) identified two categories of appraisal that influence emotions,namely, Primary appraisal which assesses the personal relevance of a situation(motivational relevance and motivational congruence) while Secondary appraisal, whichevaluates coping options and outcomes; including accountability (who/what isresponsible for the situation), future expectancy (likelihood of change), problem-focussedcoping potential (options for influencing the situation), and emotion-focussed copingpotential (ability to emotionally adapt to the situation).Two main categories of coping ways were identified by Lazarus and Folkman, namely,problem-focused and emotional-focused. The former relates to behaviour directed atsolving the problem, or the problematic situation (that is ovart behaviour designed tomodify the stressful situation). Examples are efforts directed at defining the problem,25

generating alternative solutions, weighing the alternatives in terms of their costs andbenefits, choosing among them and acting. The latter category refers to the managementof one’s emotions, so as to reduce feelings of distress (such as avoidance, minimizing,distancing, selective attention, positive comparison, wrestling positive value fromnegative events, etc.). Theoretically, these two category of coping ways can facilitate orimpede each other in the coping process. Most people appear to use different copingstrategies to deal with any given stressor (eg. Folkman, Lazarus,Gruen & DeLongis,1986).It has been argued that employees’ emotional attachment and sense of belonging to anorganization has positive and strong effects on their contributions to that organization(Wong et al., 2001). Meanwhile, Oi-ling, S ( 2003), concluded that Chinese work valuesand organizational commitment, which are unexplored in Western society, are potentialstress moderators of the stress-performance relationship for Hong Kong employees.The study by Haskins, M.E, Baglioni, A.J, and Cooper,C.L, (1991), focusing onidentifying the major sources of stress for audit seniors as well as evaluating fourdifferent stress models reveals that there are statistical evidence of increaseddysfunctional psychological symptoms associated with increases in the presence ofcertain stressors. The above studies, brings two interesting hypothesis which will betested in this research paper :H3: There is a difference in coping techniques used by organizationally employed andself-employed accountants in Malaysia26

2.8 Psychological Health SymptomsOrganizations and workers share responsibility in promoting workers' health. Study byAnat, D. (2008), revealed that the workplace can play an important part in this process byfacilitating access to free medical procedures, initiating health education programs,structuring a healthier workplace environment, empowering staff, and leading policychange toward greater awareness of workers' health. She when further to highlight thatworker, on the other hand, considers the social costs and potential benefits of relievingstress hazards in joining these initiatives, so they do not always fully utilize theopportunities provided by the workplace to promote their health. Nevertheless, concernfor workers' mental health in the workplace should enjoy efforts equal to those made outconcern for their physical health. Her study further revealed that fatigue should be thesubject of special awareness and likewise the means to prevent it should be givenparticular consideration.The main aim of emphasizing the medical evidence is to ensure that we encourage greaterinter-disciplinary work in the growing field of stress at work. A report (1969) by theDepartment of Health and Social Security in UK concluded that Coronary heart diseaseand mental ill health together, represented a serious cost for industry both in human andfinancial terms. There is a growing body of evidence from studies in experimentallaboratory settings (Kahn & Quinn,1970) and in workplace (Margolis, Kroes &Quinn,1974) to suggest that occupational stress is a causal factor in these diseases. Here,what is meant by occupational stress is actually negative environment factors or stressors27

(e.g. Work overload, role conflict/ambiguity, poor working conditions) associated withthat particular job.“Hours of work” has long been recognized to have a marked effect on the way stressreflects on an individual. Tytherligh, M.Y., Jacobs, P.A., Webb, C., Ricketts, C., &Cooper, C (2007), revealed that when differences in age and job exposure (i.e. type ofUniversity; category of employee; salary level; hours worked per week; and additionalresponsibilities) were accounted for, men and women reported similar levels of stress forwork relationship, work-life balance, overload, job security, control, resources andcommunication, and job overall. In contrast, they quickly added that men, however, weretroubled by pay and benefits while women reported higher levels pf physical andpsychological ill-health outcomes of stress. Thus, they indirectly supported previousresearches (Roxburgh, 1996; Verbrugge,1985; Verbrugge & Wingard, 1987) , thatshowed women’s higher levels of vulnerability to the negative health-related outcomes ofstress which, according to Gerdes (2003), may reflect some of the difficulties faced bywomen who work in male-dominated work environments such as universities. Womenare likely to be more susceptible to distress and illness due to conflict in values and lackof recognition for the reality in which they exist (Lluminari, 2004). Not surprisingly,earlier study by Starrin et al. (1990) supports the above statements as they found thatdifferences in gender; i.e., increases in overtime were associated with increases incardiovascular mortality in women, but no such relationship was found in men.28

Interestingly, other earlier studies have shown some relationship between long hours ofwork and effect among men. It is a serious concern as Buell & Breslow (1960),discovered higher incidents of coronary heart disease in men who worked over 48 hoursper week. The interesting linkage with current study here is the fact that due toincreasing workloads, job insecurity, and pressure to perform by deadlines, manyindividuals are working longer hours ; be it men or women. Work overload, resulting inlonger working hours, has been positively linked with stress (Cooper, Davidson &Robinson,1982) and fatigue (Ono, Watanabe, Kaneka, Matsumoto & Miyako,1991).There were several other studies which relates stress to mental health of employees suchas those by Sparks, K., Cooper, C., Fried, Y., & Shirom A., who shared their resultsindicating significant mean correlation between overall health symptoms, physiologicaland psychological health symptoms, and hours of work (which are one of the stressors inthis research). They went on to say that qualitative analysis of 12 other studies supportedtheir findings of a positive relationship between hours of work and ill-health. Here, theyfurthered their conclusion that there are different factors which may obscure therelationship between health and hours of work, together with the moderating factors,which is covered to a certain extent under this study. Their paper also discarded theargument from certain sectors that ill-health reported may not be caused by long workinghours but other factors such as personality as they referred to two studies in the metaanalysis(Russek & Zohman,1958; Thiel et al., 1973) and six studies from qualitativereview (Alfresson et al., 1985; Buell & Breslow, 1960; Hinkle et al., 1968; Ong et al.,1982; Starin et al., 1990; Uehata, 1991) which found relationship between hours of workand health, using non-self-report measures.29

Hence, several studies using self-reported and non-self-reported health measures havefound a relationship between hours of work and health. This is used to strengthen theargument for a link between long hours of work and ill-health. Furthermore, in the fieldof occupational psychology, studies of overtime have identified fatigue as an importantfactor in the working hours – health relationship. Hence, long working hours and theeffects on health is a prominent issue in research and public arena worldwide.Thus, this study will encompass most of the stressors discussed above and relate it to theaccountants in Malaysia, in specific, to establish the existence of stress among them andto highlight to the industry as a whole, to prioritize some immediate actions towardsimproving the working environment and conditions which will be critical in ensuring ahealthy work-force with clear state of mind; leading towards a higher productivity fororganizations. Finally, having reviewed the all the above literature, this research will testtwo important hypotheses which will encompass overall relationship between thevariables in the stress model presented in Chapter 3;H4 :Work stressors have a mediating effect on the relationship between employmenttype and coping strategy.H5 : Coping strategies have a mediating effect on the relationship between Work stressorand Psychological Health Symptoms30

CHAPTER 3METHODOLOGY3.0 IntroductionIn general, this chapter describes the design of the research instrument, the data collectionprocess, the sampling procedures and also the techniques used for analyzing the data.Now, having viewed at the various literature and the statistical analysis conducted bythe researchers in the past, lets move on to see the outcome of this research..3.1 Theoretical FrameworkA systematic theoretical framework should be adopted to examine the concept of stress atmultiple levels of analysis and to specify antecedents, processes and outcomes that arerelevant to stress phenomena and the overarching concept of stress (Lazarus andFolkman, 1984). The mediated model which was discussed in the earlier chapter is thefoundation to this study as shown in Figure 2-1H4Employment Stressors Coping Psychological healthType H5 symptomsFigure 3.1 Mediated model of stress in this study31

The mediated effects model shown in Figure 3.1, explains that rather than amplifying orweakening the impact of employment type environment on health, stressors and copingmediate the influence of these factors. Employment type may damage health but thestressors may in turn damage the health further. Similarly, the occurrence of stressorsmay damage health but may also stimulate coping; which may in turn improve health(Wheaton, 1985).3.2 Research InstrumentThe survey instrument consists of a six-page self administrated questionnaire as perAppendix A attached. The first section was intended to identify the existence of stressamongst respondents while the second section was to trace the source of stress as well asmeasure the psychological health symptoms (mental-ill health) of the respondents. Thethird section was to identify the coping techniques used by the respondents. In summarythe questionnaire was divided into four sections as follows: -Section 1 :Section 2 :Section 3 :Items related to psychological health symptomsSources of stressThe coping techniques for stressSection 4 : Demographic factors3.2.1 Section 1 (Questionnaire)Crown Crisp Experiential Index (CCEI) , formerly known as the MiddlesexQuestionnaire (Crown and Crisp 1966) was adopted in this part of the questionnaire. Itconsisted of twenty-five items (traits) in a five-point Likert-type scales that ranged from32

‘1’ for ‘Never’ to ‘5’ for ‘Almost all the time’. Respondents were requested to answerwhat best resembles the situation they are facing currently. This questionnaire was usedas it has proven to be reliable, valid and objective test for which normatic data isavailable for comparison.A total mental health index can be obtained to serve as mental health outcome measure ofgeneral emotionality, together with profile of six subscales; out of which only three wereselected for purpose of this study as there were some reservation on validity andreliability of the other three items reflected in studies by Dasberg and Shalif 1978. Theselected three subscales were Free Floating Anxiety (FFA), Somatic Concomitants ofAnxiety (SOM) and Depression (DEP).The question’s outlined for each category will be as follows :FFA consists of questions : 1,4,8,11,14,20 and 23SOM consists of questions : 2,5,6,9,12,15,17,18,21 and 24DEP consists of questions : 3,7,10,13,16,19,22 and 25In order to disguise from the respondents the aims of the questions, these 25 questionswere arranged in such a way that it appears randomized in the questionnaire. Thedefinitions of the three subscales are as follows :33

Resort to hobbiesScrutinize prob.Adjust volume workii. Flight /fight (Questions : 13,16,17,20,21,23,27,32 and 33)Among the characteristics are :AvoidGet madBuy timePutoffLeaving jobBlame othersiii. Emotion-focused (Questions : 3,4,24,25,26,28,29,30,34 and 35)Among the characteristics are :Keep feeling to oneselfSwallow angerTalk to understanding friendsSeek supportSeek adviseThree types of coping techniques were questioned interchangeably. They are Problemfocused, Emotion-focus and Flight/fight focus. The control strategies consists of bothaction and cognitive reappraisal that are proactive and take-charge tone while the escapestrategies consists of action (focused on stressor situation) and cognitive reappraisal(focused on one’s cognitive of the situation) that show escapist and avoidance mode. Thesymptom-management refers to strategies that manage the symptom related to job stressin general, such as relaxation and exercise.36

3.3 Development of HypothesesThere are five hypotheses in this study that has been briefed in literature review; they are:H1 :There is a difference in stress level between organizationally employed and selfemployedaccountants in MalaysiaH2: There is a difference in source of stress between organizationally employed andself-employed accountants in MalaysiaH3: There is a difference in coping techniques used by organizationally employed andself-employed accountants in MalaysiaH4: Work stressors have a mediating effect on the relationship between employmenttype and coping strategyH5 :Coping strategy have a mediating effect on the relationship between workstressors and psychological health symptoms.3.4 Data Collection ProceduresSince the nature of this study is an exploratory type research, where time and money arecritical constraints, convenience sampling was carried out among accountants who areactive and participated in various seminars organized by accounting society. Survey37

forms were sent personally and through friends to places where seminars were conducted.There were 250 questionnaires distributed among accountants all around Malaysia and atotal of 165 responded. This represents 66%; thus an acceptable percentage by farcomparing other researches. Self-administered method had been employed.3.5 Sampling and Distribution ProceduresThe questionnaires were printed and kept as sets for easy handling by respondents. Acovering letter was prepared to clarify the purpose of the research (refer APPENDIX B).The anonymity and confidentiality of the returns were highlighted in the cover letter tosolicit a better return and a sincere answer.3.6 Data Analysis TechniquesThe Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient test was conducted to test the reliability of the scales.Whereas, Factor Analysis is used to test the measurement models of all measures for thefactorability of the correlation matrix of the variables. Subsequently, Multivariateanalysis of variance (MANOVA) is used to examine the relationship between thedependent variables and the independent variables. Finally, Multiple regression analysisis carried out to investigate the relationship between the psychological symptoms,stressors and coping techniques. The details procedures and results of the statisticalanalysis are contained in the next Chapter of this report.38

CHAPTER 4RESEARCH RESULTS4.0 IntroductionAs mentioned in chapter 3, this chapter will discuss the various data analysis, thestatistical results and the findings using the SPSS program. It will cover descriptivestatistics about the respondents, the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for reliability test of thescales, Factor analysis for variance of the variables used for the various measures andfollowed by the Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to explore differentaspects in regards to the relationship between the dependent variables and independentvariables. Lastly, we analyze the crucial part of testing the relationships between thepsychological symptoms, stressors and coping techniques using the Hierarchical multipleregressions program.4.1 Descriptive StatisticsPersonal and demographics characteristics of respondentsDescriptive statistics and frequency distributions have been derived from the datacollected after omitting some of the incomplete survey forms. Table 4.1 shows thedemographic characteristics of the respondents, which explained the respondents by typeof employment, gender, age, marital status, ethnic group, highest education level, PresentJob category, no of years with present organization and no of years in workforce.39

Although 165 sets of questionnaires were collected, the sample only consists of 162valid respondents, of which 100 or 61.7% are organizational employed 62 or 38.3%respondents are self employed. Out of 162 respondents 48,8% are male and 51.2%female. Most of them are Chinese as they accounted for 75.5% of the sample population.In regards to the age of the respondents, 50.7% of them are between 31 to 40 years oldand 35.2% are above 40 years old leaving behind 13.6 % who are 30 years and below.Thus, it is fairly justifiable to say that those respondents involved in this study are quiteexperienced in their job area. Relative to the age category revealed, 70.4% of therespondents are married .As expected in an accounting profession, 82.1% of the respondents are with professionalqualification of which 50 respondents out of 162 (30.8%) are with ACCA qualifications.In terms of Job categories, 39.8% are managers followed by Partners 26.1%, 14.3% areexecutives and 5.6% are Directors while the balance of 14.3% under others. This reflectsfairly well on senior respondents involved in this research.In terms of stability, 39.8% of the respondents are in the workforce for more than 15years, 11 to 15 years formed 28.6% while 24.8% are in the workforce between 5 to 10years. However, it is worth to take note that only 29% are in the present organization formore than 9 years.Table 4.1 Demographic characteristics of respondentsEmploymenttypenPercentorganisational employed 100 61.7self employed 62 38.3Total 162 100.040

Gender Male 79 48.8Female 83 51.2Total 162 100.0Ethnic Malay 19 11.9group Chinese 120 75.5Indian 14 8.8Other 6 3.8Total 159 100.0Age 46 32 19.8Total 162 100.0Marital status Married (without children) 23 14.2Highesteducation levelPresent JobcategoryYears withpresentorganisationYears inworkforceMarried (with children) 91 56.2Single 45 27.8Other 3 1.9Total 162 100.0Diploma/LCCI Higher 1 .6Bachelor's Degree 50 31.1Master's degree and above 10 6.2Professional Qualification 100 62.1Total 161 100.0Partner 42 26.1Director 9 5.6Manager 64 39.8Executive 23 14.3Others 23 14.3Total 161 100.09 47 29.0Total 162 100.015 64 39.8Total 161 100.041

Table 4.2 : Descriptive statistics on MeanDescriptive StatisticsMean Std. Deviation NSTRESSTOT 67.3857 12.57929 140EMGROUP 1.3827 .48756 162Age 4.02 1.337 162Marital Status 2.17 .683 162Gender 1.52 .513 162Ethnic Group 2.04 .599 159Highest Education Level 3.30 .934 161No. of years with present organization3.41 1.274 162No. of years in workforce 3.03 .971 161The mean of total stress is 67.3 which represents medium stress level category. It isimportant to highlight here that the sample size for total stress was only 140 due tounanswered questions by respondents. Nevertheless, this may also be reflected in furtheranalysis below whereby stress is significant in this study.Table 4.3 : Frequency analysis on open ended on specific health symptomsPsychological health symptoms Frequency Valid PercentHigh Blood Pressure 17 10.7Heart cholestrol level 19 11.9Diabetes 2 1.3Migranes/recurrent headaches 26 16.4Ulcers/digestive trouble 7 4.4Repeated colds, sore throats, bronchitis 8 5.0Others 2 1.3None of the above 78 49.1Total 159 100.042

GRAPH 4.1 : Bar chart of health conditions of respondentsThe above Table 4.3 and Graph 4.1, highlights some key concerns in relation to healthcondition of respondents. The migraine or recurrent headaches leads the DANGER listwith 16% of respondents having above related symptoms. The heart cholesterol level isfollowing closely with 11.9% of respondents representing this portion. Meanwhile, thehigh blood pressure is at third position with 10.7% of respondents.43

9080706050403020100FFA SOM DEPLOWMEDIUMHIGHGRAPH 4.2 : COMPARISON ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH SYPMTOMSThe above Graph 4.2 cone chart reflects the concern that this study highlights i.e. all thethree psychological health symptoms; namely FFA, SOM and DEP represents almost14% for high level. Meanwhile, almost all the three reflected above 85% on mediumlevel health symptoms.Table 4.4 indicates that the first 3 ways of coping that the respondents find most helpful.In terms of choices by ranking, it indicates that the most preferred ways are prayer andseek advise from friends, family members or professionals followed by sport andexercise. It is to be noted that the overall number one ranking in coping technique usedto by Malaysian accountants is “Seeking advise either from friends, professionalassociations or family” while the second technique is “praying” which is quite acceptablein our society. Then, we have sports and exercising as the third technique used byaccountants in Malaysia, thus mainly relating to emotional focus and flight/fight focus.44

Table 4.4 Preferred choices of copingChoices 1 st . 2 nd . 3 rd . TOTAL RANKPrays 28 3 6 37 2Seek advise 26 29 21 76 1Sport & exercise 12 12 4 28 3Meditation 8 4 2 14 7Go for holidays 6 10 8 24 4Watch movies / listen to music 2 9 9 20 5Laugh and joke 2 3 2 7 *8Facing the problem head on. 6 4 6 16 6Reading 2 2 3 7 *8Eat 1 1 0 2 11Take things easy 3 0 0 3 10others 11 15 17 43TOTAL 107 92 784.2 Reliability Test4.2.1 Reliability of the scalesCronbach’s alpha was used to measure the internal consistency of responses. TheCronbach’s Alpha coefficient of .917, .939 and .802 for variables ofpsychologicalsymptoms , stressors and coping techniques respectively are above .7 indicates that thescale can be considered as internal reliable in the sample. In regards to the reliability ofthe various categories namely: psychological symptoms , stressors and copingtechniques, the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients are .909,.892 and .539 respectivelyindicating that the scale for the first two groups are considered as internal reliable butfor coping techniques, it is rather low (.539). Thus, we will proceed to use the list ofitems under coping techniques for a hierarchical multiple regression analysis to ascertainthe exact factors involved to improve the reliability. Meanwhile, the reliability forpsychological health is high for all factors (refer Appendix C).45

4.2.2 Factor AnalysisThe use of self-report measures has raised concern regarding common method variancewhere it is suggested that relationships between variables can become exaggerated(Kline, Sulsky and Rover-Moriyama, 2000) therefore Factor Analysis is used to test themeasurement models for all measures thus determining item retention. The results are asfollows:-The correlation matrix revealed the presence of many coefficients of .3 and above, whilethe Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy value is .911 exceeding therecommended value of .6 (Kaiser, 1970) and the Bartlett's Test of Sphericity reachedstatistical significance .000 supported the factorability of the correlation matrix for thepsychological symptoms experienced by each participant.In regards to the Sources of stress, the presence of many coefficients of .3 and above inthe correlation matrix table and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of SamplingAdequacy value of .862 coupled with theBartlett's Test of Sphericity reachingstatistical significance .000, supported the factorability of the correlation matrix.The Factor Analysis results also supported the factorability of the correlation matrix ofthe Coping techniques (KMO =.624 andBartlett's Test of Sphericity = .000) for allthe measures related to the coping techniques.46

4.3 CorrelationsAccording to Gay and Airasian (2003), the correlation coefficient indicates the size anddirection of a the relationship. This study deployed Multivariate analysis of variance(MANOVA) for checking the relationships between the dependent variables andindependents variables. MANOVA is selected in this study as the number of dependentvariables exceeds one. The procedures and analysis are as follows:4.3.1 The existence of stressThe existence of stress was measured using 25 items rated on a 5-point Likert – type ( 1-Never; 2-Seldom;3-Sometimes;4-Very often;5-Almost all the time).A simple weighted sum of the number of psychological symptoms experienced by eachparticipant was used to measure the existence of stress. The weighted sum is furthertransform into 3 category (1(low)= total 52 and below, 2(medium)= 53 thru 78 and 3(high) = 79 and above). Table 4.3 below indicates that 61.2 % of the respondents are inthe middle range while 16.4% are in the high category. It is noted that although there are165 respondents, sadly 25 respondents have not completed all the 25 questions for someunknown reasons, hence they are being excluded in this analysis.Table 4.5 : Psychological symptoms experienced by respondentsValid n Percent1- LOW 12 8.62- MEDIUM 101 72.13 - HIGH 27 19.3Total 140 100.047

4.3.2 Psychological health symptoms and Type of employmentAs mentioned earlier in Chapter 2, the 25 items measuring the Psychological healthsymptoms are further grouped into 3 subcategory scale using the measures describedby Dasberg and Shalif; 1978 representing three subscales of total mental health indexnamely : Free Floating Anxiety (FFA), Somatic Concomitants of Anxiety (SOM) andDepression (DEP) outlined as follows for each category. Hypothesis validation regardingPsychological health symptoms and Type of employment was carried out usingmultivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with employment type as the fixedvariable and the three categories of Psychological health symptoms as dependentvariables. The sample consisted of 89 respondents who are organizational employed and55 respondents who are self employed.The Box's Test of Equality of Covariance Matrices a in Table 4.6 below shows Sig.value of .066 > .001 indicating the data have not violated the assumption ofhomogeneity of variance covariance matrices. On Table 4.7, referring to the valuesrecorded in the Sig. column for the Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variances a ,results shows none of the values reported significant or are more than .05 indicatingthat the test do not violate the assumption of equality of variance.Table 4.6Box's Test of Equality of CovarianceMatrices aBox’s M 12.140F 1.973df1 6df2 8.705E4Sig. .066Table 4.7Levene's Test of Equality of Error Variances aF df1 df2 Sig.FLOATING .688 1 142 .408SOMATIC 2.059 1 142 .154DEPRESSION 1.089 1 142 .29948

The Multivariate Tests result shows in Table 4.8 below indicated that the interactioneffect is not statistically significant ( the Sig. level of Wilks’ Lambda is .107 , which isgreater than alpha level of .05) thus we fail to accept the null hypothesis “H1: there is adifference in stress level between organizationally employed and self-employedaccountants in Malaysia”. It differs from the finding of Jamal and Badawi (1995)which indicated that among minorities in Canada and the United States, the selfemployedhad higher level of work stress.Table 4.8Multivariate Tests bEffect Value F Hypothesis df Error df Sig.Partial EtaSquaredEMGROUP Pillai's Trace .042 2.069 a 3.000 140.000 .107 .042Wilks' Lambda .958 2.069 a 3.000 140.000 .107 .042Hotelling's Trace .044 2.069 a 3.000 140.000 .107 .042Roy's Largest Root .044 2.069 a 3.000 140.000 .107 .0424.3.3 Sources of stressThe 22 questions rated with a five-point Likert scale (1-No stress at all, 2-Moderatelyless stress; 3-Neutral; 4-Moderately high stress; 5 High stress) are compiled into 3stressor factors (as explained in Chapter three) namely : Role/ organization stressors,Work overload/time pressure stressors and Interpersonal relations stressors.Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with employment type as the fixedvariable and the three groups of stressors mentioned above was carried out. The49

esults at Table 4.10(also refer Appendix D) indicates that statistically there is asignificant difference in the source of stress between organizationally employed and selfemployedaccountants in Malaysia ( Wilks’ Lambda value .890, with α =.008 < ,05.)Table 4.9Multivariate Tests bEffect Value FHypothesisdf Error df Sig.Partial EtaSquaredEMGROUP Pillai's Trace .110 4.116 a 3.000 100.000 .008 .110Wilks' Lambda .890 4.116 a 3.000 100.000 .008 .110Hotelling's Trace .123 4.116 a 3.000 100.000 .008 .110Roy's Largest Root .123 4.116 a 3.000 100.000 .008 .110Table 4.10IVDVeTests of Between-Subjects EffectsType III Sum ofSquaresdfMeanSquare F Sig.Partial EtaSquaredEMGROUP ROLE 51.711 1 51.711 1.946 .166 .019WORKLOAD 1.046 1 1.046 .037 .848 .000INTEREPERSONA_P2 218.872 1 218.872 5.827 .018 .054Further investigation on the relation to each dependent variables using Tests of Between-Subjects Effects at Table 4.10 above shows that there is a significant different at alphaequals .05 for Interpersonal relations stressors. However, in order to reduce the Type 1error the alpha level need to be adjusted using Bonferroni adjustment [divide .05 by 3(representing 3 dependent variables giving an alpha level of .017 ), and the resultsuggests that there is no significant differencein the source of stress betweenorganizationally employed and self-employed accountants in Malaysia at original alphavalue of .05, but it is statistically significant at original alpha value of .10. Whereas,Rahim (1996) found that owners of businesses reported a greater number of stressors,such as role overload, than organizationally-employed managers.50

Hence, the findings fail to accept null hypothesis “H2: There is a difference in sources ofstress between organizationally employed and self-employed accountants in Malaysia” atalpha equals .054.3.4 Coping strategyPart three of the questionnaire consists of 38 items measuring the coping techniques ofthe respondents which were classified into the following three categories :1. Problem-focused2. Flight/fight focused3. Emotion-focusedThe Wilks’ Lambda Sig. value of .413 > α =.05 at shown in Table 4.11 belowindicates the relationship is not significant, thus statisticallythere is a no significantdifference in the source of stress between organizationally employed and self-employedaccountants in Malaysia. This result was obtained using the Multivariate analysis ofvariance (MANOVA) with employment type as the fixed variable and the threegroups of coping techniques Hence, we fail to accept the null hypothesis, i.e. H3:There is a difference in coping techniques used by organizationally employed and selfemployedaccountants in Malaysia.Table 4.11Multivariate Tests bEffect : EMGROUP Value FPillai's TraceWilks' LambdaHotelling'sTraceRoy's LargestRootHypothesisdf Error df Sig.Partial EtaSquared.037 .966 a 3.000 75.000 .413 .037.963 .966 a 3.000 75.000 .413 .037.039 .966 a 3.000 75.000 .413 .037.039 .966 a 3.000 75.000 .413 .03751

However, the results on Tables 4.12 and 4.12a below on the Multivariate analysis ofvariance (MANOVA) with Gender type as the fixed variable and the three groups ofcoping techniques Multivariate analysis shows that it is statistically significant at Wilks’Lambdavalue .791 Sig. .007. The Tests of between subject effects indicates thatFlight/fight Focus is statistically significant at Sig. .016.Table 4.12Multivariate Tests cEffect Value F Hypothesis df Error df Sig.P4.3GENDER Pillai's Trace .212 3.011 6.000 152.000 .008Wilks' Lambda .791 3.113 a 6.000 150.000 .007Hotelling's Trace .260 3.212 6.000 148.000 .005Roy's Largest Root .244 6.174 b 3.000 76.000 .001SourceDependent VariableTable 4.12aTests of Between-Subjects EffectsType III Sum ofSquares df Mean Square F Sig.P4.3GENDER PROBLEM_P3 91.527 2 45.763 .746 .478FLIGHT/FIGHT_P3 65.669 2 32.834 4.376 .016EMOTION_P3 68.123 2 34.062 1.950 .149Nonetheless, when the test is executed with Ethnic type as the fixed variable and thethree methods of coping techniques on Multivariate analysis, shown in Table 4.13, it isstatistically significant with Wilks’s Lambda value .815 at Sig. value .019. Whereas, theTests of between subjects effects indicates it is not statistically significant among thevariables as results shown in Tables 4.13a.52

Table 4.13Multivariate Tests cEffect Value FHypothesisdf Error df Sig.P4.4ETHNIC Pillai's Trace .193 2.635 6.000 148.000 .019Wilks' Lambda .815 2.626 a 6.000 146.000 .019Hotelling's Trace .218 2.616 6.000 144.000 .019Roy's Largest Root .158 3.907 b 3.000 74.000 .012Table 4.13aTests of Between-Subjects EffectsType III SumMeanSourceDependent Variableof SquaresdfSquare F Sig.P4.4ETHNIC PROBLEM_P3 331.137 2 165.569 2.823 .066FLIGHT/FIGHT_P3 12.406 2 6.203 .756 .473EMOTION_P3 76.506 2 38.253 2.160 .1224.3.5 Association between demographic factors and work stressorsThe Multivariate Test results from MANOVA using age, marital status, gender,ethnicity and educational level as fixed variables on Table 4.14 below, suggests thatstatistically there is no significant difference between the demographic factors and workstressors.SourceValueTable 4.14Multivariate Tests cWilks' LambdaF Hypothesis df Error df Sig.Partial EtaSquaredP4.1 AGE .898 .703 15.000 265.415 .781 .035P4.2 MARITAL .955 .506 9.000 238.657 .870 .015P4.3 GENDER .955 .766a 6.000 198.000 .597 .023P4.4 ETHNIC .859 1.672 9.000 233.789 .097 .049P4.5 EDU LEVEL .921 .905 9.000 236.223 .522 .027Dependent Variables : Role/ organization stressors ;Work overload/timepressure stressors , and Interpersonal relations stressors :53

4.4 Association Between VariablesAs discussed in Chapter 2 , the various researchers have indicated that there is anassociation between employment type, psychological health symptoms, stressors andcoping techniques. However, in most of the cases, the type of association between thesevariables are not specifically mentioned. Hence, to fill the gap, this section aims toexplore the mediating effect of work stressors and coping techniques in theemployment type and psychological health symptoms relationship. This is achieved byusing hierarchical multiple regression analysis.4.4.1 Psychological symptomsA simple weighted sum of the number of psychological symptoms experience by eachparticipant was used to analyze the psychological–health dependent variable instead ofthe three psychological symptom subscale (refer Appendix E). This is due to the fact thatFactor analysis shown on Table 4.15 below, indicated that most of the component areloaded into the first component except 2 items which are negatively related as follows:Can you go to sleep without any problems at the moment?Can you think as quickly as you used to?Table 4.15 Rotated MatrixRotated Component Matrix a ComponentPattern Matrix aDo you feel uneasy and restless? .856Do you feel unduly tired and exhausted? .789Do you experience long periods ofsadness?1 2.781Do you often feel tense? .743Do you feel uneasy and restless? .855Do you experience long periods ofsadness?Component1 2.803Do you feel unduly tired and exhausted? .796Do you often feel tense? .74854

Has your appetite decreased/increasedrecently?.728Do you sometimes feel really panicky? .707Have you ever had the feeling you aregoing to pieces?Do you sometimes feel pricklingsensations in your body, arms and legs?.697.696Do you find yourself needing to cry? .689Would you say that you were a worryingperson?Do you often feel sick? .677Do you feel life is too much effort? .675Do you often suffer from excessivesweating or Heart flutters?Are you troubled by dizziness orshortness of breath?.687 .330.674.671Do you often feel upset? .616Have you felt as though you might faint? .604Do you often have indigestions? .573Do you have to make a special effort toface up to a crisis or difficulty?Do you regret much of your pastbehaviours?Do you ever have trouble getting sleep orstaying asleep?Have you had bad dreams that upsetyou?.561 -.378.547.541 .409.530Has your sexual interest altered? .411Do you have any of the followingconditions?Have you lost your ability to feel sympathyfor others?Can you go to sleep without any problemsat the moment?-.333.309-.732Can you think as quickly as you used to? -.688Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.a. Rotation converged in 3 iterations.Has your appetite decreased/increasedrecently?Would you say that you were a worryingperson?.731.713Do you sometimes feel really panicky? .709Have you ever had the feeling you aregoing to pieces?Do you sometimes feel prickling sensationsin your body, arms and legs?.704.701Do you find yourself needing to cry? .698Are you troubled by dizziness or shortnessof breath?.690Do you often feel sick? .685Do you often suffer from excessivesweating or Heart flutters?.684Do you feel life is too much effort? .663Do you often feel upset? .626Have you felt as though you might faint? .605Do you ever have trouble getting sleep orstaying asleep?Do you often have indigestions? .563Do you regret much of your pastbehaviours?.573 -.323.563Have you had bad dreams that upset you? .550Do you have to make a special effort toface up to a crisis or difficulty?Has your sexual interest altered? .414Do you have any of the followingconditions?Have you lost your ability to feel sympathyfor others?Can you go to sleep without any problemsat the moment?.533 .460-.349.316.715Can you think as quickly as you used to? .684Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization.a. Rotation converged in 4 iterations.4.4.2 Sources of stressSince the result of internal reliability test is high, the three sub-grouping for stressorsnamelyRole/ organization stressors; Work overload/time pressure stressors andInterpersonal relations stressors which are relevant to accounting profession , areadopted from Haskins et. al.(1991) in this analysis.55

4.4.3 Coping techniquesThe three subscale used for coping techniques are Problem-focused ; Flight/fight focused(also known as avoidance) and Emotion-focused. The individual regression revealsdifferent result in significance due to effect from Problem focus which does not seem tobe the common coping strategy among accountants in Malaysia (Appendix H)4.4.4 Mediator variableThere is often confusion concerning the difference between a mediator variable and amoderator variable. The explanation involves some concepts that is worthwhile to bediscussed in detail.In general, a given variable may be said to function as a mediator to the extend that itaccounts for the relationship between the predictor and the criterion. Mediators explainhow external physical events take on internal psychological significance. Whilemoderator variables specify when certain effects will hold, mediators speak on how orwhy such effects occur. Moderator variables are important, because specific factors (e.g.context information) are often assumed to reduce or enhance the influence that specificindependent variables have on specific responses in question (dependent variable).In multivariate analysis of variance ( MANOVA) terms, a moderator effect can berepresented as an interaction between major independent variables and factors thatspecifies the appropriate conditions for its operation, that is, the effect of the majorindependent variables depends upon the value of the moderator variable.56

The next step in this research is to conduct a hierarchical regression analysis as threesteps regression analysis model had to be performed. The general purpose of multipleregression (the term was first used by Pearson, 1908) is to learn more about therelationship between several independent or predictor variables and a dependent orcriterion variable.4.5. Hierarchical Multiple Regression AnalysisHierarchical Multiple regression analysis (also referred to as sequential regression) isconducted to determine the mediational hypotheses. The relationship between thepsychological health symptoms, stressors and coping techniques were tested by ensuringentrance by predetermined order. According to Baron and Kenny (1986), in order toestablish mediation, the following conditions must hold : First, the independent variablemust be related to the mediator; secondly, the independent variable must be related to thedependent variable; and thirdly, the mediator must be related to the dependent variable. Ifthese conditions all hold in the predicted direction, then the independent variable musthave no effect on dependent variable when the mediator is held constant (full mediation)or should become significantly smaller (partial mediation).F-Ratio is used to assess the statistical significance of the overall regression model; thelarger the F-Ratio, the more variance in the dependent variable is explained by theindependent variable.57

In testing the hypothesis 4 (refer Appendix F); with reference to the conditions outlinedearlier for the testing mediation, firstly work stressor (mediator) was regressed onemployment type. The standardized regression coefficient ( Beta= -.220) associated withthe effect of those independent variables on work stressor was significant (p=0.025).Therefore, the requirement for mediation in condition 1 was met.Then, condition 2 was to regress the independent variable (employment type) towards thedependent variable (coping strategies). The standardized regression coefficient ( Beta= -.148) associated with the effect of those independent variables on work stressor was notsignificant (p=0.193). The second condition is not met.Meanwhile, the condition 3, work stressor was regressed on coping strategy. Here, thecoefficient associated with the relation between coping strategy and work stressor wassignificant (Beta=.300, p = .008). The hierarchical regression showed the followingresults with significant relationship (Beta=.235; p=0.023). This findings show that therelationship between employment type and coping strategy becomes significant whenwork stressor plays a mediating role.In testing the hypothesis 5 (refer Appendix G) ; with reference to the conditions outlinedearlier for the testing mediation, firstly coping strategy (mediator) was regressed on workstressor. The standardized regression coefficient ( Beta= -.300) associated with the effectof those independent variables on coping strategy was significant (p=0.008). Therefore,the requirement for mediation in condition 1 was met.58

Table 4.16 : H4 - Work stress (Mediator test)Independent VariablesCondition1 IV - MCondition2 IV -DVCondition3 M - DVCondition 4IV - M & M -DV1 Employment typeβ -.220 .148 .235B - 4.571 2.354 .015∆R 2 .048 .022 .050F 5.178 1.728 3.997p .025 .193 .0232 Copingβ .300B .229∆R 2 .090F 7.323p .008Table 4.17 : H5 - Coping (Mediator test)Independent VariablesCondition1 IV - MCondition2 IV -DVCondition3 M - DVCondition 4IV - M & M -DV1 Work stressβ .300 .544 .034B .229 .449 .031∆R 2 -090 .296 .001F 7.323 38.225 3.397p .008 .000 .0392β .187B .202∆R 2 .035F 2.497p .11959

Then, condition 2 was to regress the independent variable (work stressor) towards thedependent variable (psychological health symptoms).The standardized regressioncoefficient ( Beta= -.544) associated with the effect of those independent variables onpsychological health symptoms were significant (p=0.000). The second condition is alsomet.Meanwhile, the condition 3, coping strategy was regressed on psychological healthsymptoms. Here, the coefficient associated with the relation between coping strategy andpsychological health symptom was not significant (Beta=.187, p = .119). This resultprompted for further analysis by each coping strategy. The results shown in Table 4.18indicates that the Flight/Fight focus and Emotions focus seems to be significant while theProblem focus is not significant. This differs from the professionals in Singapore asconcluded in a study in Singapore lawyers (Choo, 1983). The hierarchical regressionshowed the following results with significant relationship (Beta=.034; p=0.039). Theabove findings shows that the relationship between employment type and coping strategybecomes significant when work stressor plays only a partly mediating role.In summary, the results failed to accept null Hypothesis 1 to Hypothesis 3, thus inanother word, it indicates that statistically there is no significant difference onemployment type to psychological health symptoms, sources of work stressors onemployment type and the coping strategy adopted against employment type. On thecontrary, the output of the hierarchical multiple regressions suggests that work stressorsplayed a full mediating role between employment type and coping strategy while60

coping strategy only acted as part mediator between work stressor and psychologicalhealth symptoms. A separate analysis showed that among work stressors, workload had agreater impact between Employment type and Coping strategy (F value highest= 52.037;Beta =.599 - refer Appendix I ). The above can be interpreted as work stressorstrengthens the relationship between the independent variable and dependent i.e.employment type and coping strategy while the work stressor could be having a negativeimpact due to different coping strategy adopted (p value dropped from highly significant.000 to .039) after introducing the coping strategy. The next chapter will discuss thesefindings further and conclude this research paper.61

CHAPTER 5SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION5.0 IntroductionThe above results have indicated some interesting issues that could provide some insightsinto the probable issues faced by accountants in Malaysia and a follow through couldresult in reduction in work stress that lead towards higher productivity.5.1 DiscussionThe result from stress analysis confirms that accountants in Malaysia are facingoccupational stress. In the first part of recognizing the association between employmenttype and psychological health symptoms among accountants in Malaysia, the resultsindicated no significant relationship. These finding agrees to study by Ruth, et. al. (2006),who reported no differences between organizationally employed and self-employedworkers in their level of anxiety and depressive symptoms. This result differs from tofindings by Jamal (1997), who reported that self-employed individuals had morepsychosomatic health problems than those not employed in this way.The result in this study has an interesting outcome in that both employment types; namelyorganizationally employed and self-employed did not differ in terms of their stress level.This differs from other study by Lewin-Epstein and Yucthmann-Yaar (1991), who foundthat self-employed had significantly higher level of work stress, although details of theirderivation on results were not provided. Jamal (1997) also found that the self-employed62

eported more job stress . Meanwhile, Ruth et. al. 2006 indicated that female selfemployedworkers showed more stress but was quick to add that further deliberation intoreasons will need further examination. The years in which the research was conductedmay have an impact on in the findings. The demand for performance on those who areorganizational employed compared to those who are self-employed may be lesser in1990’s compared to this current era of globalization and advancement in technologies.The outcome of this study certainly has many implication to the accounting professionitself. The study by Johnson, M.D. et.al., (2006), for example, among veterinarianprofession on those who worked in a veterinary medicine or nonveterinary medicineorganization as well as owners or associate; the outcome seems to be different as ownersof veterinary medicine identified more with the organization while the those innonveterinary identified more with their profession. Meanwhile, accountants could bereflecting a different outcome in relation to their identification or association to theirprofession It is more apparent in this group of accountants as they consists of seniorrange and those who are generally active in accounting society such as involvement inseminars.The interesting fact that employment type which by itself did not show significantrelationship with psychological health symptoms, actually reflected a significantrelationship with the coping strategies whereby further inclusion of another independentvariable called work stressor, resulted in a significant difference and a mediating role bythe work stressor. Meanwhile coping strategy reflected a mediating role as it explains the63

slight negative impact seen in psychological health symptoms (increased p value from.000 to .039) when it comes into the hierarchical regression step by step analysis.Stressor factors when analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis, indicated thatworkload seems to be a significant variable that may explain the existence of stress whichdoes not differ among organizationally employed or self-employed accountants. Thisresult resembles outcome outlined by Rosenman and Friedman (1959) that in the UnitedStates, physiological changes occurred in accountants as they approached their annual taxdeadlines, and the increased illnesses they suffered at these times. The result in this studyalso agrees to other professional category such as lawyers in Singapore wherebyworkload and time pressure were reported to be common work stressor. ( Choo, L.G. ,1993).Coping strategy also did not seem to significant thus no difference between the twoemployment type thus indicating this accounting profession seems to have a peculiarway of relating to their fellow colleagues. The top choices of coping among accountantsseems to be Seek friends advise, Pray and Exercise/sports. It is to be noted that thehierarchical regression on coping strategy revealed that the flight/fight focus wasapparently significant and further exploration indicated three main actions that weresignificant i.e. I consume alcohol drinks, I thought of leaving the job and I talk tounderstanding friends. These coping techniques practiced have reflected that they have animpact on the overall stress level faced by Malaysian accountants. Apart from talking tofriends, which is a emotional focus; help-seeking behaviour, the other two remains a64

concern i.e. namely I consume alcohol drinks and I thought of leaving the job. The abovediffers from the outcome on study among lawyers in Singapore whereby partners (or selfemployed)exhibited problem focus strategy while the other (employed group) revealedon emotional focus, thus having a different perspective (Choo, L.G., 1993)This outcome also contradicts the study by Lowe, R and Bennett, P. (2003) , who foundthat coping method used includes both the problem-focused (active coping and planning)and emotion-focused strategies (emotional support and acceptance). The result from thisstudy without doubt is a concern as some strategy could cause a problem in the long run.If we are to better understand the nature of coping then researches must now be preparedto take next step forward and investigate coping using more person-centered, dailyprocess design. (Dewe, P., 2003)This research reveals another real concern among accountants on the Psychologicalhealth symptoms which seems to indicate there is an issue to attend to and to be resolved.This is reference to the three most critical symptoms to be noted are migraine/recurrent ofheadaches, high heart cholesterol and high blood pressure. It might be concluded that thesymptoms reflected from this study needs special attention from the main industryresearches and players so that further research can be conducted to improve the level ofoccupational stress and psychological health symptoms among Malaysian accountants.Conceptually speaking, this study implies that stressor and coping strategy are moreclosely related to psychological health symptoms and employment type does not make a65

difference in the case of accountants in Malaysia. However, in a very high stresssituation, it is more appropriate to alter the work environment to reduce stressors at work,in order to enhance job performance.Lastly, if we can get organizations, social scientist and doctors to work together on thesesort of problems (in the field), we may be able to make important contributions not onlyto the social, managerial, and medical sciences but to the physical and mental well-beingof men and women at work.5.2 Implication of the StudyThe findings of this study would be useful for employers and society for accountants suchas MIA. Present results showed that the independent stressors, particularly workoverload/time pressure stressor has to look into further to ensure the psychological healthsymptoms faced by accountants in Malaysia can be limited. The indication of healthrelated illnesses such as Migraine/Recurrence headache, High heart cholesterol and Highblood pressure is something that the industry as a whole needs to investigate further.Therefore, accountants have to maintain a positive working environment in order toensure psychological health symptoms and other ill health situation is improved.5.3 Research LimitationTime constraint has limited this research to the scope of only identifying work stresscomparison between self-employed and organizationally employed accountants. Themany aspects of occupational stress relationship with psychological health can be66

explored. Another limitation is that representative samples of Malaysian ethnics were notpossible due to time limitations thus the coping strategies could reflect different resultswith more inclusion of other ethnics. This research also could not obtain all responsesfrom all states in Malaysia even tough it managed to obtain a fairly good coverage.5.4 Recommendation for future researchThe question that race to our mind when the above analysis are reviewed is ; do theaccountants differ in terms of certain characteristics? There seem to be some evidence onthis fact and a fundamental understanding of behaviour type is crucial to understand thisprofessional group.Future research in this area should adopt a longitudinal design using a random basedsampling. Follow-up studies are also required, using the standard measures ofphysiological health to provide valid comparison. If time constraint is avoidable, biggersamples should be taken to review the consistency of the result and outcome. Studiescould take into different dimension by separate survey on junior accountants and senioraccountants to see some pattern of stress coping strategies. The same study can beconducted in Malaysia with different occupations.67

5.5 ConclusionThis study has been very fruitful in identifying the psychological health symptoms amongself-employed and organizationally employed accountants in Malaysia. Furthermore, itreveals the mediating role played by work stressors and by coping strategy in the stressmodel relationship.This study adds an additional body of knowledge that employment type (representingauthority on decision making) has same impact on self-employed and organizationallyemployed accountants while gaining additional understanding on the mediating role ofwork stressor in a employment type and coping strategy relationship. This study furtherconfirms the earlier study by Haskins, et. al (1991) that coping assumes a mediating roleis the stress model on work stress and psychological health symptoms.There have been several calls for companies to do something about stress at work as webecome more aware of its multiple ill-effects. Researches have explored to a certainextent in some industries and the focus continues in order to encourage all industries tofollow suit. It is very interesting to note that researches has been fairly consistent inrelation to occupational stress as articles published thirty years ago (Beehr and Newman,1978) had only several conclusions changed a little compared to book published fifteenyears ago (Beehr.A Terry, 1995) and now , we have taken it further in this currentresearch.68

In this new era, Globalization has presented private and public sectors, includingaccountants, with many challenges; among these are to work better with less, theacceptance of mobility; flexible management styles, ability to adapt, cultural sensitivityand the ability to cope with the stress of working in the global environment. Anorganization’s success or failure depends on how they meet these new global challenges.Apparently, work stress is one feature of globalization, in which future human beings areat risk of losing their jobs, of role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload, bothqualitative and quantitative.Rightfully, Micheal (1996) argues that even people based in their own countries may beconsidered global managers if they have dealings with international businesses. Anability to adapt well to different business environments is a basic attribute that is neededand further to that should be able to respect different beliefs, solve problems quickly innew circumstances, communicate well with other people from different cultures, speakmore than one language, understand different government and political systems conveyrespect and enthusiasm when dealing with others and possess high technical expertise intheir work (Schermerhorn and Osborn, 2003). In this study, some accountants are at amanagerial level in a private organization and the above statements could be true to them.The coping strategy adopted by accountants is crucial in determining their state ofpsychological health symptoms. Most professional would probably be adopting problemfocus coping solution as studies on lawyers in Singapore has shown (Choo, 1993) but thecoping strategy in this study reflected Emotional focus and Flight/Fight focus. It is hoped69

that this study would trigger an interest from all relevant parties related to this industry todwell further into the research questions still lingering on without an answer, particularly,those related to health condition of professional accountants who have contribute a lot tothe organizations’ and nations’ development.70