Swedish Accounting Professionals -
relationship between job satisfaction and insomnia
Master’s Thesis 30 credits
Department of Business Studies Uppsala University
Spring Semester of 2015
Date of Submission: 2015-05-29
Amiya Chakraborty Kelvin Omorowa
Supervisor: Göran Nilsson
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Abstract
Purpose- The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship between accounting
professionals’ job satisfaction and insomnia in Sweden by considering positive and negative human emotions as variables which includes joviality, attentiveness, hostility and fatigue.
Methodology- Quantitative approach has been undertaken in order to answer the research
question by partially replicating the assumptions of Scott and Judge (2006) in the field of accounting profession. Primary data was collected through online questionnaires within the period of ten weeks from randomly selected 29 accounting professionals who are working in various Swedish firms and institutions.
Findings- This study indicates that there are positive associations between accounting
professional’s job satisfaction and joviality and attentiveness. And negative associations exist between job satisfaction and insomnia, hostility and fatigue. These findings are aligning with the assumptions of Scott and Judge (2006).
Future research- Further research is suggested, to conduct a similar but extensive study in the
accounting profession by considering the gender differences and other variables such as job security, family situations, stress and health. Such research should also focus on a specific group of employees i.e. auditors or assistants or trainees in order to ensure the generalizability and precision of the results.
Keywords: Accounting profession; job satisfaction; insomnia; emotions.
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Table of Content
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Problem Discussion 4
1.2 Research Question 6
2. Literature Review 6
2.1 Accounting Profession 6
2.2 Accounting Profession: External and Internal Environments 7
2.3 Insomnia 10
2.4 Insomnia in Sweden 10
2.5 Attributes of Insomnia 12
2.6 Job Satisfaction 13
2.7 Attributes of Job Satisfaction 14
3. Methodology 17
3.1 Research approach 17
3.2 Research Replication 18
3.3 Participants and Procedure 19
3.4 Measures 20
3.5 Testing of Normality and Reliability 22
3.6 Analyses & Results 24
3.6.1 Correlations 24
3.6.2 Regression Analyses 25
4. Discussion 28
4.1 Limitations 31
4.2 Contributions 33
5. Conclusion and Future Research 33
Reference List 37
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Appendix- A 1
1.1 Questionnaire distributed to the respondents 1
1.2 Questionnaire used by the researchers in this study 7 1.3 Summary of all the all the responses for each question 9
Appendix- B 27
1.1 Correlations of questions in each variable 27
1.2 Reliability Tests 33
1.3 Normality Test 39
1.4 Correlations between variables 73
1.5 Simple Regression Analysis against Job satisfaction 74
1.6 Simple Regression Analysis against Insomnia 86
List of Tables & Figures
Figure-1: Hypotheses Model 16
Figure-2: Symptoms of Insomnia 28
Table-1: Measurement of Correlation between Questions in each Variable 22
Table-2: Normality and Reliability Test 23
Table-3: Pearson Correlation Matrix between Variables 24
Table-4: Results of Simple Regression Analyses against Insomnia 25
Table-5: Results of Simple Regression Analyses against Job Satisfaction
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1. Introduction
The Swedish accounting profession began around 1895. The emergence of the profession has been gradual and has grown consistently (Eva & Peter, 2012). However, the emergence of the profession has not been without critical moments such as corporate financial scandals. These moments have triggered more development in the profession and this has further portrayed the relevance of this profession in the society (ibid). In this regard, the profession has evolved to become dependable in the society in respect of offering services that serve as fundamental bases for the proper functioning of society’s vital institutions such as the capital market and provision of comfort to the investors (Pentland, 1993). Furthermore, Ohman et al. (2006) emphasized that the importance of these accounting professionals in regard of their trustworthiness, responsibility towards protecting public interest and ensuring financial reports’ quality are widely recognized. These professionals are also well known and accepted for their fiduciary role in the society.
In accounting profession, the employees are trained to internalize work pressure while putting up smiling faces to impress their superiors and clients, to this extent; the profession is described as a disciplined profession (Kornberger et al., 2011). In a similar perspective, Staw et al. (1994), explained that it is the culture of some organizations that require members of staff to express an emotion that they do not feel while at work, and are left to deal with the outcomes of such unexpressed emotion at home. In this regard, working under intense pressure with a feign emotion in a bid to render outstanding professional services could make some accounting professionals to experience emotional exhaustion (Kornberger et al., 2011).
The foregoing assertion is further supported by Staw et al. (1994). In their contribution, the authors noted that unexpressed emotion could lead to unintended situations such as emotional imbalance.
The frequent occurrences of financial scandals and the recent global financial crisis have
contributed greatly to the rapid changes that are occurring in the corporate environments in
which accounting professionals operate (Azim et al., 2010 and KPMG International, 2008).
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This has led to a more tightly controlled environment, and consequently more disciplined accounting professionals (Kornberger et al., 2011 and KPMG International, 2008). To keep up with the new controls in the operating environment, the professional are having to work under extreme caution and excessively worried about future events that might result from their completed assignments, on which they have appended their signatures (Paracini et al.
2014). And according to National Sleep Association (2014), excessive tension and worries could trigger emotional imbalance which may consequently lead to insomnia. Insomnia is a sleeping disorder which leads to inability to initiate or maintain restorative sleep. Therefore, one may argue that there is a risk of insomnia among the accounting professionals, maybe, as a result of the overwhelming responsibilities that rest upon their shoulders everyday while trying to meet the demands of all the regulatory authorities in the course of rendering their professional services (National Sleep Association, 2014 and Paracini et al. 2014). In addition, there are studies that have shown that sleep deprivation is an increasing common phenomenon, not only in Sweden but also globally. Some studies, such as the one conducted by Scott and Judge (2006) show that sleep deprivation which has a detrimental consequence in the form of insomnia is also prevalent among administrative employees and has affected their work disposition. Their assumptions regarding this issue could also be true for accounting professionals, therefore, this paper attempts to partially replicate those assumptions.
Above discussion brings us close to the concept of level of job satisfaction that the Swedish accounting professionals derive from their job. Moyes et al. (2008) highlighted in their study that it is worth to evaluate the level of job satisfaction among accounting professionals.
Because over the years, this has become an important area for employers who want to retain competent employees in order to have better competitive positions. In consenting to this, Rosekind et.al. (2010) stated that employee’s job satisfaction is of fundamental relevance in the pursuit and achievement of both legal and economic goals of any organization.
Employee’s job satisfaction is important to both employers and the employees themselves.
Conducting a study that examines the job satisfaction in relation to insomnia will serve as a
bridge between both parties. Especially, in helping the human resource managers to get the
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best out of their employees, as this is one of the greatest challenges that they are facing in many organizations worldwide (Khatri et al., 2001).
It should be noted that, in modern days, remuneration and reward policies, working hours, work environment, suitability and value adding skills are not the only factors that promote and enhance job satisfaction among employees such as in case of accounting professionals. In the opinion of Harrison and Horne (2000), cited in Brent and Judge (2006), mental fitness is equally a factor to be considered in this case. Mental and psychological anomalies also play a vital role in determining employees’ job satisfaction (Cheryl et al., 2002). The authors further pointed out that due to excessive pressure of work, many employees are being deprived from sleep, which may leads to insomnia and consequently affecting emotions. This can reduce and impair the cognitive ability of the accounting professionals to make relevant decisions and undertake complex tasks. Furthermore, Rosekind et.al. (2010) revealed that the economic costs of sleep deprivation are enormous. Therefore, there is a possibility that inadequate sleep may pose a great threat to job satisfaction of employees in the accountancy profession and in a long run to the economy of their organizations.
The importance of role of accounting profession and job satisfaction are unquestionable in the
contemporary business world. On the other hand, insomnia is a factor that may alter the state
of job satisfaction. Any obstacle that might diminish accounting professionals’ job
satisfaction, thus, preventing their ability to render fiduciary services should not be taken for
granted. Therefore, in this study, our interest is to examine the relationship between insomnia
and accounting professional's job satisfaction from a human emotional standpoint by taking
into consideration the feeling of fatigue, loss of joviality and attentiveness as well as the
development of hostility among the professionals in the organisations. These foregoing,
according to Scott and Judge (2006), are the natural outcomes of insomnia. Based on the
above variables, we intend to find out what kind of relationship is prevailing between job
satisfaction and insomnia among the employees i.e. the accounting professionals in public
accounting firms and other organizations in Sweden where the services of accounting
professionals are utilized.
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1.1 Problem Discussion
The importance of accounting profession is enormous in the contemporary world. Their professional role in this field is to ensure the quality and safeguard the integrity of the financial reports. The spectrum of their role covers vast area in the business world including private and public sector, non-profit sector, academia, regulatory bodies and so on.
Furthermore, these professionals are also considered as the protectors of public interest by helping companies to act ethically. Therefore, judging the importance of this profession it is essential that employees in this profession are satisfied with their duties and responsibilities, as a whole with their job. Job satisfaction has been proven to be a critical driver for company’s success, especially, in the companies that are knowledge intensive and rely on their employees to a great extent (Spector, 1997). Hence, it is important to investigate if insomnia can contribute to decreasing job satisfaction among individuals as identified by Scott and Judge (2006) which can also be true for accounting professionals. As of now, there is no such research that has been undertaken, especially, in the field of accounting professionals in our knowledge. However, it should also be noted that similar type of studies have been performed such as Scott and Judge (2006) and Judge et al. (2006) but in different occupational sectors or environments in other countries. Therefore, there is an obvious research gap, especially, in the field of accounting profession in Sweden that is worth pondering due to the enormous importance of this profession in the business world.
In the accounting profession, executing tasks, demands a great amount of physical and mental stability due to the immense work pressure and disciplinary power mechanism (Kornberger et al., 2011). For example, in large audit firms, identity is a significant factor for employees i.e.
the transition from trainee to partner. In the internal environment, identity is a symbol of
professional reputation that an employee develops over the years. In order to create own
identity, employees go through a rigorous process of training which includes building up
professional, technical and socialization skills (ibid). This process has an immense
psychological pressure on employees as they are climbing through the professional ladder. In
addition, public accounting firms are known for its busy seasons. At this busy season, the
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professionals continuously face excessive pressure that demands extended working hours.
And at some tipping points, working extended hours may continue for months with frequent and demanding deadlines to meet. This leaves the professionals with little or no time for any leisure activities (Jones et al., 2010). Furthermore, the professionals work as problem solvers and problem includes stress and tension which may lead to sleeping problems (Lyman, 1985).
These problems could amplify when the professionals are making decisions to solve problems under limited time, budget and resources (Alderman & Deitrick, 1982). The work pressure on the accounting professionals has further been exacerbated by the external environment i.e.
passage of stricter laws in the wake of Enron and Arthur Andersen accounting scandal. These new laws require accounting professionals to be meticulously diligent in financial reporting and auditing of financial report in accordance with the law. Consequently, American Medical Association states that excessive pressure and tension can increase the likelihood of sleep apnea, thus, insomnia could be prevalent among accounting professionals and affecting their emotions.
Several studies have been performed regarding how and what kinds of work are being performed and the work pressure faced by accounting professionals such as Kornberger et al.
(2011), Sonde (1973) and Douglas and Sigband (1984). At the same time, American Medical
Association suggests that work overload may result in sleep deprivation for individuals
(Parmet, 2006) which could also be true for accounting professionals. However, there is a
research gap when it comes to understanding the relationship between accounting
professionals’ job satisfaction level and insomnia that could be responsible for altering human
emotion. In addition, Parmet (2006) and Buysse (2013) states that prolonged exposure to such
overload in the employment could become a source for sleep deprivation that could produce
physical or mental tiredness and anger and ultimately affecting job satisfaction as discovered
by Scott and Judge (2006). According to the authors, this kind of work environment can also
be responsible for diminishing happiness and attentiveness of the employees. However, at this
point, it is difficult to conclude anything due to the lack of research evidences in the field of
accounting profession in Sweden.
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1.2 Research Question: What is the relationship between insomnia (by considering fatigue,
and hostility) and job satisfaction (by considering joviality and attentiveness) among the Swedish accounting professionals?2. Literature Review
2.1 Accounting Profession
The accounting profession has historically became a concerned sector in the business world due to the occurrence and prevalence of excessive duties and responsibilities that is placed on its members in their respective positions. Over the years, several researches have been conducted in an attempt to understand what is responsible for this soaring work demand among its practitioners, which may have negatively impacted their job satisfaction (Smith, 1990). However, not much has been achieved despite of the intensified efforts that have been made. In most cases, the results from these attempts that were made have brought about a fragmented and inconclusive body of literature due to the complex nature of the problem (ibid).
It could be argued that higher performance expectation from the accounting professionals by the society may predispose the employees to the situation of inability to initiate and maintain sound sleep (Parmet, 2006; Ohayon & Bader, 2010 and National Sleep Association, 2014).
Furthermore, a re-occuring inability to initiate and maintain sound sleep has become a
growing problem that has resulted in substantial costs to organizations and individual
employees around the world (Ohayon & Bader, 2010). For example, in Sweden, one third of
its population within the range of its work force is reported to be in this situation (ibid). This
has created the problems of long term leaves, which rob their employers from their valuable
contributions that they would have made to the success of their organisations (Canivet et al.,
2013). In the opinion of Hart and Cooper (2001) and Jovanovic et al. (2006), excessive work
demand was once perceived to be a problem that only exist in jobs with low payments due to
lack of professional qualification . However, researches have shown that such demanding
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work burnout is being also experienced in the accounting profession and to some extent in other occupations as well (Hart & Cooper, 2001; Jovanovic et al., 2006 and Kornberger et al., 2011).
The prevalence of the situation of inability to initiate and maintain sound sleep in Sweden is gradually and steadily on the rise, as its prevalent rate in the last decade was 10%. However, its current rate is 25% (Eder et al., 2011). In the light of Scott and Judge (2006), in which the authors noted that the inability to initiate and maintain sound sleep impairs the cognitive functioning of individuals who have become affected by it. And as a consequence, such individual will have difficulties in completing their tasks and in making progress toward the attainment of their goals. Recent and on-going developments in the accounting profession has brought accounting professionals at the forefront of busy work schedule and high societal expectations. As higher expectations and tighter legal requirements are placed on the professionals in respect of details to be observed and processes to be followed while carrying out their professional tasks. These, in some ways, have become a potentially unrealistic burden on accounting professionals and a goal that is beyond their reach (Christensen et al., 2012).
2.2 Accounting Profession: External and Internal Environments
The development of a proficient accounting profession is a major constituent of economic and
business advancement. For this reason, the accounting profession is continuously being
challenged by the constantly changing external and internal environments in which the
profession operates. The huge expectation from the different regulatory bodies and authorities
and authorities to which the profession is subjected has became even more. Especially, after
the recent financial crises and other corporate accounting scandals that have rocked the
profession in different parts of the world (Azim et al., 2010). However, the profession
continued to evolve in the faces of these emerging new challenges. These changes and
challenges are coming in the form of enactment of new accounting regulations, promulgation
of new standards and issuance of new directives by regional governments and the profession’s
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regulatory bodies, in an attempt to prevent a reoccurrence of another financial crisis or other accounting scandals (ibid). Another significant element that is produced by the above changes is the fear factor that the accounting professionals are becoming subjected to after judiciously completing their professional tasks (Paracini et al., 2014). The fear has become more aggravated due to the uncertainties in the operating environments of the professionals. As the professionals live continually in doubt of what the future may bring in regard of completed tasks (ibid). Irrespective of these, it is safe to state that the accounting profession plays an important role in the society and hence the reason why the profession is being strictly regulated through different forms of legal instruments (KPMG International, 2008). The work of the accounting professionals are extremely complex and vary in forms. These duties and responsibilities are performed under strict compliance with ethical standards and legal requirements which are constantly been updated (ibid).
In today’s business world, corporate organizations are struggling with myriad disclosure challenges than ever before in their financial reporting. Furthermore, the accounting profession over the years have widened its focus beyond not only the technical skills but also incorporated the social implications of accounting practices (ibid). This has been visible in the advent of information technology in the last decades, which has served as a springboard for community educational awareness, globalization of businesses and growing public awareness of global environmental changes. These have contributed to the uncertainty in the external and internal environments in which the accounting professionals operate (ibid). These uncertainties exist in the legal, social, economical, political and technological environment.
With the inclusion of environmental related changes that lead to additional organizational disclosure demand which are trickled down by the accounting professionals. They have to deal with the enormous challenges of financial reporting and other forms of services in strict conformity with all regulatory standards and codes of ethics (ibid).
Azim et al., (2010) explained that the drastic implementations of professional codes of ethics
in the accounting profession were made necessary due to the series of accounting scandals. In
which some of them led to the collapse of multinational companies such as Arthur Andersen,
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Enron and WorldCom. In some of these cases, the accountants were either found guilty or to be in tacit collusion with some corrupt company officials in the affected organizations.
Furthermore, Dellaportas and Davenport (2007) and APESB (2010) also emphasized that the professional code of ethics for accounting professionals, which were introduced by the Professional and Ethical Standards Board (APESB) were introduced in order to boost high standard of professionalism in member engagement and for self-regulation. These codes of ethics were also intended to restore the reputation of the accountants which has been smeared with several scandals. And also to place a weight on accounting professionals’ shoulders so that they act in the interest of the public, reflect a wider responsibility to the society at large rather than to shareholders, clients or employers only.
According to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the society is rapidly being globalized and as a result, the services of the accounting professionals should also be adjusted accordingly (ACCA, 2012). Furthermore, the forces of globalization are described to be the driver of excessive obligations that are mounted on the accounting professionals. In regard of the economic and legal environments, the Association explained that globalization has created a persistent economic uncertainty. This has compelled respective authorities to re-think the entire global economic and financial governance infrastructure so that it complements the new regulations and amendments with the existing ones. Similarly, Zeff (2002) noted that the globalization trends in the political environment of accounting profession have brought more work for the professionals. In this regard, the profession is often under political lobbying by the politicians to impose additional disclosure requirements or tighten the allowed interpretations. At other times, the profession is also requested to prescribe specific accounting treatments or to eliminate alternative treatments.
Looking at the current trends in the operating environment of accounting professionals, it is
an indication that the professionals have a lot to grapple with now and it will escalate in the
future in order to meet the demand of the society and to attain to the level of societal
expectations. However, in the view of Hewlett and Luce (2006), the accounting professionals
are standing up to the challenges but in some intense situations, some of the professionals
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become emotionally exhausted due to the extended duties and responsibilities. This could lead to some sort of medical conditions for which they may need to seek medical attention.
2.3 Insomnia
Insomnia refers to a state where individuals experience difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep (Lyman, 1985). This could also be explained when a person is unwillingly waking up at night or waking up non-refreshed on a continuous basis. However, insomnia is not defined by the number of hours of sleep an individual gets or how long it takes to fall asleep.
Generally, the need or satisfaction of sleep varies from individual to individual. Insomnia is a common condition which may begin at an early age and if it is not treated on time, it may lead to chronic stage in older adulthood period (ibid). Insomnia is prevalent in an environment of excessive stress. For example, Choo and Firth (1998) noted that accounting professionals are constantly exposed to a barrage of potential catalysts of stress, which later may predisposes to insomnia. Such catalysts include reporting deadlines, heavy workload, boring repetition, and occasional necessity to make judgments on inadequate information. In addition, insomnia is attached with several negative medical, social and psychological consequences which can lead to daytime tiredness and difficulty in paying attention or being active at work, behavioral disorder, stress, cognitive dysfunctionality, poor performance, tension, anger, gastrointestinal symptoms and so forth (Buysse, 2013 and Merrigan & Buysse, 2013). Anyone can become a victim of insomnia regardless of age and gender. According to the publication of American Medical Association, there are several attributes of insomnia as described earlier. Since this study is not based on medical standpoint, primary focus is given to the classical attributes of insomnia which are hostility and fatigue as considered by Scott and Judge (2006).
2.4 Insomnia in Sweden
Several researches have been conducted about the pervasiveness of insomnia in Sweden.
Some of these research works have looked at the occurrence of insomnia in the different age
groups in Swedish population. For example, Ohayon and Bader (2010) had focused on the
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occurrence and correlation of insomnia in the Swedish population in the ages between 19-75.
From this point of view, the authors had noted that one third of the Swedish population are having difficulties maintaining or initiating sleep as well as having non-restorative sleep.
Another study conducted by Eder et al. (2011) regarding the measurement of sleeping quality found that thirty-one per cent of the randomly sampled population is not getting sound sleep due to frequent disturbance caused by different factors. This study also revealed that sleep disturbance is contributing to symptom of insomnia in Sweden. The occurrence of insomnia in Sweden at a scale revealed by previous studies is of great concern. In this regard, Fröjmark and Linton (2008) had suggested that there is a need for longitudinal epidemiological studies that will explore the different courses of insomnia in the entire population of the country. In yielding to the suggestion for the need of this type of studies, Fröjmark and Linton (2008) have carried out a study in which they further confirmed the prevalence of insomnia in Sweden. Therefore, it means that many people in Sweden including the adolescents are not having adequate sleep.
In the assertion of Condén et al. (2012), sleep serves as a restorative function in the body
system, especially, during the developmental stage of life, as in the case of the adolescence. In
addition, the authors also noted that the amount of sleep hours that one received is an
important indication of well being and health of the people that will enable them to be able to
go to their work and other normal daily activities. Insomnia in Sweden is widespread across
the different age groups, as Garmy et al., (2012) revealed in their study that children are also
not getting adequate sleep due to excessive time being spent on: playing video game,
computer and television. The prevalence of insomnia in Sweden has been blamed on modern
working life (Canivet et al., 2013). The authors explained that due to high demand of mental
workloads and growing threats of job insecurity, people are stressed beyond their resistance
limit which leads to poor sleep quality and consequently insomnia. They further suggested
that work should adapt to the workers and not the other way round. Knowing the
consequences of sleep deprivation, Ohayon and Bader (2010) advised that the prevalence of
insomnia should be addressed in order to avoid its health and economic repercussions.
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2.5 Attributes of Insomnia
Hostility can be defined as both workplace aggression (non-physical assault) and violence physical assault) which is carried out by the employees of an organization (Odom-Forren, 2009). It is also called insider-initiated aggression and can involve misbehavior, shouting at colleagues, spreading rumors and so forth. Such hostile behavior in a work environment is an indication of dissatisfied employees. According to LeBlanc and Barling (2004), non-physical confrontation is more common than physical confrontation in organizations. Both individual and organizational factors can identify who is going to be involved in hostility. Individual factors involve alcohol consumption (related with insomnia), biasness, injustice, anger, over- controlling supervision, role conflict and role ambiguity (ibid). According to Berkowitz (1989), goal attainment has partial associations with the emergence of such individual factors.
For example, when employees achieve goals they become happy but when they fail to do so it generate frustration or anger among them. So, in this case if someone is experiencing trouble with sleep, there is a high possibility that such employee performance at work will fall below expectation, this can increase his or her hostility level and reduce happiness level.
Fatigue is a state of physical and mental tiredness and exhaustion which could diminish employees’ job satisfaction level. Physical and mental fatigue is different but they are often correlated if an individual is exposed to prolonged physical exhaustion (Nordqvist, 2014).
Physical tiredness means, one is not able to perform his or her normal duties and eventually, it will affect the mental state of that individual. However, mental fatigue related with sleep deprivation problem. According to Nordqvist (2014), it influences the psychological state of an individual that reduces concentration level and hinders daily activities such as decision making. It could also be life threatening, for example, when the sufferer is driving a car.
Previous research shows that poor night sleep has a strong association with tiredness (fatigue) which negatively affects the performance and ultimately reduces the job satisfaction (Yperen
& Janssen, 2002). Pilcher, Ginter and Sadowsky (1997) found in their research that sleep
deprivation state trigger fatigue and anger among individuals and at the same time, adversely
affect their health. Akerstedt (1988) also found similar results by conducting a study among
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the shift workers where he discovered that night shift workers are primarily exposed to the sleeping problem which is causing day-time tiredness. This is a significant problem for both employees and organizations because it may breed risk and economic crises in the long run.
Now, based on the above discussion, it can be predicted that:
Hypothesis-1: Insomnia has a positive relationship with fatigue.
Hypothesis-2: Insomnia has a positive relationship with hostility.
2.6 Job Satisfaction
Every year large companies conduct surveys to find out their employees’ level of job satisfaction or how employees’ perceive their job (Spector, 1997). Managers at such companies are very serious about this issue because it is a very important factor for effectiveness of any company. According to Hulin and Judge (2003), job satisfaction refers to one individual’s psychological response towards his or her job. This is a multi-dimensional aspect which involves cognitive, emotional and behavioral elements (Staw et al., 1994). These aspects alter depending on what is important to each person or employee, therefore, state of satisfaction varies from individual to individual (ibid). Generally, job satisfaction is how people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their jobs. This refers to the extent to which employees whether likes (satisfaction) or dislikes (dissatisfaction) their work. To measure the level of job satisfaction, researchers such as Porter (1962) used techniques that involved perspective of need fulfillment i.e. whether the job is meeting the employees’ needs for the things provided by work such as salary, bonus or other kinds of rewards. But in modern days such techniques has become obsolete, because most researchers are now focusing on cognitive abilities of employees rather than on underlying needs (Spector, 1997).
This brings to focal point of our research which is insomnia that has several negative impacts
on the cognitive ability of individuals (Buysse, 2013). In addition, American Medical
Association suggest that sleep deprivation does not only hamper the cognitive ability an
employee but also produces anger, fatigue, lack of concentration and psychological disorder
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within the individual and previous researches explain that these are some of the attributes that breed job dissatisfaction in the workplace (Judge & Ilies, 2004 and Judge, Scott, & Ilies, 2006).
2.7 Attributes of Job Satisfaction
There are several attributes of job satisfaction which comprises intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
According to Herzberg, Mausner and Snyderman (1993), intrinsic factors involve recognition, achievement, promotion, responsibility, advancement, opportunity and on the other hand, extrinsic factors involve salary, supervision, organizational policies, working conditions and so on. The authors found in their research that intrinsic factors tend to portray feeling of happiness among the employees. Therefore, in our research, we are interested in the intrinsic factors that trigger happiness, thus, lead to job satisfaction. This feeling of happiness can also be described as joviality, satisfied, enthusiasm, careful, joyful, cheerful and so forth (Lazarus, 1991). According to the author, when an individual is motivated or accomplishing his or her job successfully, it triggers a notion of happiness or enthusiasm. However, as discussed earlier that joviality has an association with insomnia and stress. Previous research shows that poor night sleep and hectic work schedule can reduce happiness among the employees (Lazarus, 1991 and Rothman & Coetzer, 2002).
Another attribute of job satisfactions is attentiveness which refers to high awareness and concentration on a particular task. As Scott and Judge (2006) found a significant relationship between attentiveness, job satisfaction and insomnia, therefore, we are considering this attribute in our research. There are no arguments regarding the importance of attentiveness in considering job satisfaction level but unfortunately there is no clear definition of it.
Attentiveness has been defined in several ways based on the context. According to Klaver and
Baart (2011), attentiveness means being watchful or vigilant which means someone who is
attentive is devoted to perform a task. In addition, attentiveness is an accumulation of
cognitive power in order to carefully hearing or observing or performing something. This
cognitive ability could be hampered by work overload, stress, tiredness, loss of sleep and so
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forth (Scott & Judge, 2006). Cognitive ability is one of the significant components that play a vital role in determining employees’ job satisfaction because it is one of the psychological responses that allow one individual to evaluate something (ibid). Furthermore, from a neuropsychological perspective, cognitive ability is responsible for flexible thinking and maintaining focus and attention on a particular task (Miller & Cohen, 2001). These above two attributes: joviality and attentiveness are important for both employees’ and organization’s performance. According to Scott and Judge (2006), joviality and attentiveness are positive reinforcement, thus, has an inverse relationship with insomnia. It means that if employees are joyful and attentive, there is a high probability that employees are satisfied with their job.
These two attributes will be considered in this study because they will work as a cross checking factor in order to identify the association of insomnia with decreased feeling of joviality and attentiveness. Hence, we are predicting that:
Hypothesis-3: Insomnia has a negative relationship with joviality.
Hypothesis-4: Insomnia has a negative relationship with attentiveness.
It can now be argued that sleep apnea is associated with fatigue, hostility, distress along with other negative affectivity such as tension, irritation, lack of self confidence and so forth (Condén, Ekselius & Åslund, 2013). In addition, Akerstedt (1988) and Lavidor, Weller and Babkoff (2003) mentioned in their research that individuals who are suffering from sleeping disorder are experiencing exhaustion, stress, anger and tiredness in their daily life due to lack of sound sleep at night. Therefore, it can be argued that individuals who are experiencing insomnia tend to display more negative emotions than positive ones which can lead to lower job satisfaction. As positive emotions, we are considering joviality and attentiveness, which can be lowered if someone is deprived of sound sleep (Lazarus, 1991 and Rothman &
Coetzer, 2002). Because, in order to feel happy or motivated, to make proper decisions and to
concentrate, individuals must have fully functioning cognitive abilities which can only be
achieved through sound sleep (Miller & Cohen, 2001). Furthermore, when individuals
achieve their goals - it means they were attentive and alert in the goal attainment process - it
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makes them happy which trigger positive behaviors or emotions. But failing to perform may have converse effects on their behavior, thus, lowering their job satisfaction level. Sleep deprivations state also have similar effect on job satisfaction because tiredness reduces cognitive abilities and concentration resulting in failure which generates frustration and anger.
Therefore, it can be argued that if insomnia can increase the level of fatigue and hostility among individual, then it can also decrease the level of joviality and attentiveness, thus, reducing the job satisfaction level. Now, based on the above literature and discussion, we are assuming that:
Hypothesis-5: Job satisfaction has a positive relationship with joviality.
Hypothesis-6: Job satisfaction has a positive relationship with attentiveness.
Hypothesis-7: Job satisfaction has a negative relationship with insomnia.
Hypothesis-8: Job satisfaction has a negative relationship with fatigue.
Hypothesis-9: Job satisfaction has a negative relationship with hostility.
The figure below is a pictorial representation of the interdependencies between the different variables in this research.
(
-
) (-
) (+) (+)(+) (+) (
-
) (-
)Figure-1: Hypotheses Model.
(
-
)Insomnia Job
Satisfaction Joviality
Attentiveness
Hostility Fatigue
Joviality Attentiveness
Hostility Fatigue
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3. Methodology
3.1 Research approach
The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between insomnia and accounting professional's job satisfaction from a human emotional standpoint. To do this we have adopted quantitative research approach. In social science, there are two main research approaches; these are the qualitative and quantitative research approaches. No particular approach out of these two is considered the best to carry out a study in management research.
Rather, the approach which is considered to be very effective for solving a given problem is dependent on different factors, such as the nature of the problem that is being studied (Gill &
Johnson, 2006). The quantitative research approach allows the researchers to draw more generalized conclusions depending on the sample size (Bryman & Bell, 2011). It means, if the sample size is small, the study will lose its generalizability. We are well aware of the fact that the findings of this research are not going to be generalized as the sample size is small.
However, it is still worth to go forward with this study because it can serve as a pilot study that could motivate other researchers to conduct a detailed and extensive study in this field in the future.
Furthermore, it has also been stressed by Carr (1994) that no one research approach is
superior to the other because whatever research approach is adopted to carry out a research
will have some inherent strengths and weaknesses. We believe that our quantitative approach
has several strengths which include facilitation of discovery of quantifiable information and
elimination of all the extraneous variables that are found within the internal structure of the
study and the data analyses through standardized tests (ibid). On the other hand, we have
some weaknesses of this approach such as the subjectivity involved in the formulation of
hypothesis, random selection of respondents and limited capability to probe the correctness of
answers.
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In a survey strategy of conducting a research, questionnaires are extensively utilized for the collection of data (Saunders et al., 2009). Questionnaire is defined as a data collection method in which every respondent is asked to answer the same set of questions in a pre-determined order as arranged by the researcher (ibid). Questionnaire can be in different forms such as structured telephone questionnaire, interview questionnaire and online questionnaire. In this research, we have focused on online questionnaire. One of the advantages of using the online questionnaire is that it can be delivered directly into the e-mail boxes of respondents; as a result, it provides greater means of control because many people read and respond to their e- mail (Saunders et al., 2009). In addition, we believe that the possibility of analysing responses received from the questionnaires with the use of statistical software package, the possibility of collecting information from a number of respondents in a relatively short period of time and cost effectiveness are some advantages of using online structure questionnaire.
Conversely, we are doubtful that our inability to explain the questionnaire in the way that is comprehensible to all the respondents and the possibility of the information collected being superficial as some respondents may intentionally answer the questions wrongly are some of the inherent disadvantage of using such questionnaire.
3.2 Research Replication
Replication has been considered in this study because it is an important key to the support of a
worthwhile theory. It involves the process of repeating a study by using similar assumptions
or methods in different environments and subjects. Replication can also be considered as
application of previously used theory to a new situation in an attempt to determine the
generalizability (Heffner, 2001). As discussed earlier that this study also attempts to replicate,
however, partially the assumptions made by Scott and Judge (2006) in order to answer the
research question. In contrast to Scott and Judge (2006), the primary focus was given on
within individual level without considering the gender differences. Such consideration hasbeen made so that it matches with our circumstances and the nature of our study. It should be
noted that, in our case, previous researches have already identified that work pressure is
prevailing in the accounting profession (Kornberger et al., 2011, Sonde, 1973 and Douglas
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and Sigband, 1984) which motivated us to not to study work pressure as a variable. And at the same time, medical journals such as American Medical Association suggest that work pressure could contribute to sleep apnea which makes our paper interesting as our target group is facing immense work pressure. Therefore, our research area, to some extent, is different from Scott and Judge (2006).
Research replication is an important factor because it has been described to be advantageous in correcting misconceptions in prior studies, as it helps to provide a narrower and more informative result about the object of research (Bonett, 2012). Similarly, Yong (2012) noted that replication assist in revalidating previous study. Furthermore, the author mentioned that
“to show that “A” is right, you don’t do “B” you do “A” again” (Yong, 2012, p. 2). In the
light of this statement, we are researching to examine the relationship between outcomes of insomnia and accounting professional's job satisfaction from a human emotional standpoint in Sweden.
3.3 Participants and Procedure
In this study, we have total 29 participants which are selected on a randomly basis. Our
participants are from different large and medium sized companies and institutions in Sweden
who are working there as accountants or has accounting related responsibilities. In other
words, we have considered an individual as an accounting professional based on the definition
given by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). According to the definition,
anyone who has acquired expertise in the field of accountancy, which was achieved through
formal education and practical experiences, and who maintains and demonstrates competence,
complies with professional code of ethics as well as held to a high professional standard and
subject to enforcement by a professional accountancy organization or other regulatory
mechanisms (IFAC, 2011). Hence, for us to be able to fulfill the aim of this research, Swedish
accounting professionals shall include the auditors, accountants and other employees of an
organization that have acquired expertise in the field of accountancy or similar profession,
who work in the accounting and finance department and carry out accounting related tasks.
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In order to collect data, we have made a structured questionnaire (Appendix-A, p. 1 & 7) where a total of forty two short questions were included under seven categories. This questionnaire has been made in both interactive PDF format and Google Form platform and sent to the participants through e-mails. Over 120 structured questionnaires were distributed and received 29 filled out questionnaires. We have collected participants’ e-mail addresses from human resource department and official websites. In addition, some company’s human resource officer were concern about their privacy issues, therefore, we have sent questionnaire indirectly to our participants. It means, we first sent our questionnaire to the human resource officer, then he or she redistributed these to their accounting professionals without disclosing any e-mail addresses to us. After filling out the questionnaire, one participant responded with an e-mail and rest of them submitted their responses electronically in Google platform. As our study area is little peculiar, therefore, we were careful about explaining the scope of the study to the participants. Careful approach has been taken in order to prevent the biasness or to avoid the unwillingness to fill out the questionnaire by our target group. We have started to distribute questionnaire at the end of the January 2015 and we stopped collecting responses after ten weeks due to time limitation.
3.4 Measures
The measurement scale and questionnaire used in this study are based on previous researches conducted by Brayfield and Rothe (1951), Scott and Judge (2006), Chalder et al. (1993), Partinen and Gislason (1995), Beurskens et al. (2000) and Elovainio et al. (2000). It should be noted that actual instructions in the researches have been modified in order to match with the nature of our study. In the survey, participants responded on 1 to 5 scale where 1 represented
“Highly Disagree” and 5 represented “Highly Agree”. Our questionnaire had seven different
variables but we have excluded one variable due to irrelevancy (Appendix-A, p. 7). These six
variables include a) job satisfaction, b) attentiveness, c) joviality, d) insomnia, e) fatigue and
f) hostility. Under each variable, six questions were included. In order to measure insomnia,
respondents were asked sleep apnea related questions, such as, whether they have problem
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initiation sleep, experience non-refreshing sleep or irregular sleep and so forth (Partinen &
Gislason, 1995). Job satisfaction has been measured based on Brayfield and Rothe (1951) by asking participants concerning their enthusiasm, keenness and interest regarding their present or past accounting related work experiences. In addition, attributes of insomnia and job satisfaction, respectively, hostility and fatigue; and joviality and attentiveness has been measured by using questions that depicts positive and negative effects on the responses (Scott
& Judge, 2006). For instance, in order to measure joviality and attentiveness, we have applied positive adjectives such as happy, joyful, active and alert in the questions. On the other hand, we have applied negative adjectives such as tired, sluggish, rage and disappointment to measure fatigue and hostility.
We have collected data based on one to five scales and we are also aware of the fact that five
point scales are ordinal, therefore, they are non-parametric. However, in business studies, it is
standard practice to treat ordinal level measures as parametric and based on this notion, our
data has been processed in statistical software SPSS (Pallant, 2013). As our sample size is
small, we have evaded factor analysis in order to refine our data because it would not provide
us any significant results. However, instead of factor analysis, we have applied Pearson
Correlation Matrix in order to spot the strength of the relationship between different questions
in each variable by looking at the correlation coefficients. Based on the level of the strength of
correlation, significant questions were obtained and used in order to move forward with the
analysis. And insignificant and low correlated questions were removed from each variable. In
other words, our decision rule was to remove any question that was insignificant and/or had
correlation value lower than an absolute value of .40 in order to purify the data. This decision
rule is constructed based on Pallant (2013) where correlation coefficient from .30 to .49
considered as a medium strength of the relationship between different variables. In addition,
we deemed on this range of correlation coefficient due to a small sample size. In table-1, we
have all the variables, where, in job satisfaction variable, highest correlation value is .859 and
lowest value is .361. It means that, based on the decision rule, question number three (JS 3)
was removed because its correlation value was lower than an absolute value of .40 compared
to other questions in this variable. Consequently, similar measurement has been undertaken
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on the rest of the variables to purify the existing data by eliminating question number four, meaning ATTN 4 and HOS 4, from attentiveness and hostility variable respectively. In case of joviality, insomnia and fatigue, none of the questions were removed as their coefficients were over .40. It should be noted that all these correlations are significant at 0.05 level. As the existing questionnaire and scale are developed based on previous researches, therefore, we moved forward by assigning single column through computing mean for each refined variable. We have considered mean because it assists to eliminate the differences in individual responses tendencies or personality traits (Scott & Judge, 2006).
Variables Highest
Correlation
Lowest Correlation
Number of Questions
Removed
Job Satisfaction (JS) .859 .361 1 (JS 3)
Joviality (JOV) .812 .417 -
Attentiveness
(ATTN) .791 .309 1 (ATTN 4)
Insomnia (INS) .747 .411 -
Fatigue (FAT) .705 .425 -
Hostility (HOS) .788 -.360 1 (HOS 4)
Table-1: Measurement of Correlation between Questions in each Variable (Appendix-B, p. 27).
3.5 Testing of Normality and Reliability
It is important to check the normality of the data because it is a prerequisite for statistical tests which generate validity (Ghasemi & Zahediasl, 2012). There are several methods which can be used to determine normality of data. However, we have assessed normality by obtaining skewness and kurtosis value for each variable (see table-2). Here, skewness value indicates the symmetry of the distribution and kurtosis value shows the peakedness of the distribution.
If the skewness and kurtosis value are “zero”, it means that distribution is perfectly normal.
However, in our case none of the variables have zero value, meaning that all the variables are
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little skewed and kurtotic. This does not mean that the collected data are not normally distributed because in reality, data are often skewed and kurtotic (Cramer & Howitt, 2004).
Therefore, a small departure from zero is not a significant problem, as long as the measures are not too large compared to their standard errors. Hence, we can assume that our data are approximately normally distributed in terms of skewness and kurtosis. Our assumption also supported by Normal Q-Q plot where observed value for each score was plotted against a straight line which suggests approximate normal distribution. In addition, there were no outliers in the boxplot outputs (due to small sample size) and they were also fairly symmetrical.
Variables Skewness Kurtosis Standard Error Cronbach's Alpha Skewness Kurtosis
Job Satisfaction
(JS) -.072 -1.46 .434 .845 .938
Joviality (JOV) .001 -1.56 .434 .845 .910
Attentiveness
(ATTN) -.052 -1.10 .434 .845 .902
Insomnia (INS) -579 -.912 .434 .845 .879
Fatigue (FAT) -.089 -1.11 .434 .845 .883
Hostility (HOS) -.416 -1.14 .434 .845 .928
Table-2: Normality and Reliability Test (Appendix-B, p. 39 & 33).
We have considered Cronbach's Alpha (table-2) in our study because it is a measurement scale for reliability (Pallant, 2013). It measures the internal consistency, meaning that, how closely our questions in each variable are related. It should be noted that in most of the social science researches, a reliability coefficient of .70 or higher is always desirable which works as a rule of thumb (ibid). In our case, Cronbach's Alpha for all the variables is above .80, suggesting that the questions in these variables have relatively high internal consistency.
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3.6 Analyses & Results
3.6.1 Correlations
Table-3 presents correlations between different variables that have been used in this study.
We are considering correlation analysis because it depicts the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two variables. In our case, we are witnessing a positive relationship between insomnia and fatigue (.902) and hostility (.884) which are supporting our hypothesis 1 and 2. It is worthwhile to note that there is a high probability of multicolinearity in the fatigue variable because it has a very strong correlation which is above .90. Moderate multicolinearity is not much of a concern, however, strong multicolinearity is a sign of problem because it may create confusion by providing strange results that misleads the interpretation. In the table-3, insomnia also have a negative relationship with joviality (-.264) and attentiveness (-.484) which are align with hypothesis 3 and 4.
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Job Satisfaction (JS) -
2. Joviality (JOV) .840 -
3. Attentiveness (ATTN) .810 .858 -
4. Insomnia (INS) -.277 -.264 -.484 -
5. Fatigue (FAT) -.168 -.194 -.388 .902 -
6. Hostility (HOS) -.411 -.521 -.682 .884 .790 - Table-3: Pearson Correlation Matrix between Variables (Appendix-B, p. 73).
Lastly, hypothesis 5 to 9 are also supported by the evidences presented in the table, meaning,
insomnia (-.277), fatigue (-.168) and hostility (-.411) have a negative relationship with job
satisfaction and joviality (.840) and attentiveness (.810) have a positive relationship with job
satisfaction. This correlation analysis shows a strong relationship between variables except
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insomnia and fatigue. It should be noted that all the correlations are significant at .05 level which suggest the level of confidence in the results presented in the table-3.
3.6.2 Regression Analyses
We have utilized simple regression analysis in order to test our hypothesis regarding insomnia. Table-4 shows results of four regression models which are supporting our hypotheses. It means that joviality (β1 = -.26; p < .1) and attentiveness (β1 = -.48; p < .1) have a negative relationship with insomnia as predicted in hypothesis 1 and 2. Our results are also supporting hypothesis 3 and 4 as the findings presented in the table-4 shows a positive relationship between insomnia and fatigue (β1 = .90; p < .1) and hostility (β1 = .88; p < .1). It should be noted that our decision rule regarding accepting or rejecting null hypothesis was depended on Alpha value which was .1. The reason behind considering alpha value as .1 is that it is most reasonable in this case as we have 29 observations which represent a very small sample size (Pallant, 2013).
Model R
square
Standardized Coefficient
F
value Sig. T
value Sig. VIF
1. Joviality (Y) vs Insomnia (X) .1 -.26 2.0 .1 -1.4 .1 1
2. Attentiveness (Y) vs Insomnia (X) .2 -.48 8.5 .0 -2.9 .0 1
3. Fatigue (Y) vs Insomnia (X) .8 .90 118.0 .0 10.9 .0 1
4. Hostility (Y) vs Insomnia (X) .8 .88 96.2 .0 9.8 .0 1
Table-4: Results of Simple Regression Analyses against Insomnia (Appendix-B, p. 86).
It is obvious from the interpretation that we only reporting standardized coefficients (beta)
and ignoring unstandardized ones. This is because, it is important to consider beta values
when comparing associations of different variables (Pallant, 2013). In addition, beta values
for each of the different variables are converted to the same scale which facilitates appropriate
comparison. Furthermore, R square value for each model depicts promising results as they are
moderately high, except the first model. It means that in model-1, insomnia explains only 10
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per cent of the variance in joviality. In model-2, insomnia explains 20 per cent of the variance in attentiveness. In model-3, insomnia explains 80 per cent of the variance in fatigue. In model-4, insomnia also explains 80 per cent of the variance in hostility. It should also be noted that there are no existence of multicolinearity as VIF value for each model is below 10 (Pallant, 2013).
Model R
square
Standardized Coefficient
F
value Sig. T
value Sig. VIF 5. Job Satisfaction (Y) vs
Joviality (X) .7 .84 64,8 .0 8.0 .0 1
6. Job Satisfaction (Y) vs
Attentiveness (X) .7 .81 51.6 .0 7.2 .0 1
7. Job Satisfaction (Y) vs
Insomnia (X) .1 -.28 2.2 .1 -1.5 .1 1
8. Job Satisfaction (Y) vs
Fatigue (X) .3 -.17 7.8 .0 -.9 .0 1
9. Job Satisfaction (Y) vs
Hostility (X) .2 -.41 5.5 .0 -2.3 .0 1
Table-5: Results of Simple Regression Analyses against Job Satisfaction (Appendix-B, p. 74).
In table-5, we have job satisfaction as dependent variable and predictors were insomnia,
attentiveness, joviality, hostility and fatigue. After running simple regression for each
predictor against job satisfaction, we have found significant results which are presented in this
table. For detailed information regarding the table, refer to Appendix-B, p. 74. This table
shows five simple regression models which are supporting our hypotheses. It implies that
joviality (β1 = .84; p < .1) and attentiveness (β1 = .81; p < .1) are associated with feelings of
higher job satisfaction as predicted in hypothesis 5 and 6. On the other hand, job satisfaction
is negatively associated with insomnia (β1 = -.28; p < .1), fatigue β1 = -.17; p < .1) and
hostility (β1 = -.41; p < .1) which are supporting hypothesis 7, 8 and 9. It should be noted that
our findings are presented based standardized coefficients and alpha value which was
considered as .1 due to small sample size (Pallant, 2013). R square values in the table-5 are
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showing the explaining ability of the predictors. It means that in model 5 joviality and in
model 6 attentiveness, both are explaining 70 per cent of the variance in job satisfaction. In
model 7, insomnia explains 10 per cent per cent of the variance in job satisfaction. In model 8,
fatigue explains 30 per cent of the variance in job satisfaction. Lastly in model 9, hostility
explains 20 per cent of the variance in job satisfaction. In addition, it is worthwhile to note
that the variance inflation factor of all predictors is below 10 indicating absence of
multicolinearity.
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