HMEF 5093 Quantitative Research Methodology Assignment 2

2. A. CRITIQUE OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH STUDY)This paper is an academic critique of an article written by Utami & Supriyadi (2013) titled: Flexible Working Arrangement and Stress Management Training in Mitigating Auditors Burnout: An Experimental Study.This study developed Aimer's and Kaplan's research (2002) by adding a stress management training variable as a burnout mitigating variable. This research employed an experimental method, as suggested by Courdes' and Dougherty's (1993), in order to give an insight into causes, consequences, and ways of mitigating burnout to increase research validity. The objective of this study was to experimentally test the effectiveness of two burnout mitigating strategies on auditors' job outcomes. The two strategies were a flexible work arrangement and stress management training. Furthermore, this study is carried out to continue and at the same time fill in the gap from Fogarty et al., (2000); Murtiasri and Ghozali, (2006); and Jones et al., (2010) previous studies. In respect of it, most previous studies were based on limited survey data. These previous studies have been proving that burnout has impacts on job outcomes. Their findings are lower job satisfaction, higher turnover intention and diminished performance. As saying by Utami & Supriyadi (2013), these previous studies did not including the factors that are able to mitigate burnout so a study is carried out to complement this deficit. The authors have been clearly, concisely, and explicitly indicated their hypotheses regarding the outcomes of the research. The hypotheses related to impacts of flexible work arrangements as an extrinsic support on job satisfaction, turnover intention, and auditors' outcomes as follows:

HI: Flexible work arrangements mitigate the negative impacts of bumout condition on auditors'

job satisfaction.

H2: Flexible work arrangements mitigate the negative impacts of bumout condition on auditors'

turnover intention.

H3: Flexible work arrangements mitigate the negative impacts of bumout condition on auditors'

performance.Then, the hypotheses related to the impacts of stress management training as an extrinsic support on job satisfaction, turnover intention, and auditors' performance as follows:H4: Stress management training mitigates the negative impacts of burnout condition on auditors

'job satisfaction.

H5: Stress management training mitigates the negative impacts of burnout condition on auditors

'turnover intention.

H6: Stress management training mitigates the negative impacts of burnout condition on auditors 'performance.

As according to Utami & Supriyadi (2013), in this study, researchers expect the combination of accounting firms' two extrinsic policies, flexible work management and stress management burnout altogether will effectively mitigate the negative impacts of burnout conditions on auditors' job satisfaction, turnover intention, and performance. Hence, the researchers formulate the following hypotheses to be examined in this study.

H7: In a burnout condition, auditors who receive flexible work arrangements and stress

management training will achieve the highest job satisfaction.

H8: In a burnout condition, auditors who receive flexible work arrangements and stress

management training will achieve the lowest turnover intention.

H9: In a burnout condition, auditors who receive flexible work arrangements and stress

management training will achieve the best performance.The implicit aspect within these hypotheses is that a true causal relationship will exist between the independent and dependent variables. That is, application of flexible work arrangements and training of management stress will resulting in the highest job satisfaction and performance, and the lowest turnover intention. While this seems to be a simplistic suggestion, but if proven true, the implications of this study in working area will then increasing the productivity and auditor or employee performance. In addition, the study will prove the validity of the notion that employee not only need inservicing but that they can benefit from it. What is perhaps most valuable about these hypotheses is that they are clearly testable via the observational tool (SPSS) developed for the study. The effectiveness test of burnout mitigating strategies on job outcomes (job satisfaction, turnover intention and performance) can be identified and detected by comparing the response between flexible work arrangement and non-flexible work arrangement groups.

After the identification of the hypotheses, the researcher should present the theoretical framework (Bassett and Bassett, 2003). It can be also a conceptual model that is used as a guide for the study (Conkin Dale, 2005). According to Miles and Huberman (1994), it also can act as themes from the literature that are conceptually mapped and used to set boundaries for the research. This study has been carried out according to the role stress model. In this model, performance is a consequence resulting from role pressure and job satisfaction and turnover intention. According to Kalbers and Fogarty (1996), performance is a measurement of efficiency and effectiveness of job achievement. It can be defined as evaluation towards a job done through direct supervisors, colleagues, one's own, and direct subordinates. Greene and Organ (1973) have been discussed low performance related to role pressure in Rebele and Michaels (1990). Based on Jackson and Schler, 1985, job performance depends on personal's interaction and nurture of mutual relationships towards each other, and possibly influenced by role conflict and ambiguity of some jobs which have to be done.The research design in this study was clearly described and explained and was appropriate to address the research objectives and research justification information for the study was given. This study employed the factorial research design. According to Prof Dr John in his book Quantitative Research Methodology, factorial design allows the study of two or more independent variables simultaneously and their interactive effects on the dependent variable. This study employs a 2x2 between-subject experimental design. The experimental design matrix is depicted in Table I. Table 1 shows a four group experiment, consist of: Group 1: flexible work management -stress management training; Group 2: non flexible work management - stress management training; Group 3: flexible work management without stress management training and. Group 4 non flexible work management-without stress management training (control group).

Table provided by: Utami & Supriyadi (2013)In this study, independent variables or treatments were burnout and burnout mitigating strategies. These strategies are flexible work managements and stress management training. The burnout variable employs one dimension that is emotional exhaustion represented by questions from the l98lMaslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) instrument. Auditors' job outcomes' variable is the dependent variable. It is measured by three dimensions: job satisfaction, turnover intention, and job performance. In this study, extraneous variables can be found in demographics of participants, which are gender, age, year of study, ability and academic achievements. These individual characteristic personal data are used as independent variables, and then the extraneous variable was also appeared. By increasing the number of independent variables, the potential threats to internal validity could have reduced. The numerous potential threats tointernal validity need to be addressed and minimized where possible.(Campbell, 1963, 1969; Campbell & Stanley, 1963; Cook & Campbell, 1979).The test of the effectiveness of the randomization procedure was carried out in eliminating individual's characteristic by using One-Way Anova. The results showed there (table 2) are no significant differences among them. Thus all participants fulfill the requirement of getting further treatments in one of four treatment groups allocated randomly. The random assignment used in this study is a powerful tool though it does nothing to decrease the amount of error that occurs as a result of extraneous variables, but it equalizes it between groups and thus provided more reliable and valid results. So, it can be said that, the design of the study was described in detail. Thereafter the research design was appropriate to address the research objectives and research hypotheses.

Table provided by: Utami & Supriyadi (2013)For the population and sample, the background of the subjects used and also the method used to collect data had been mentioned by the author. Moreover, the sample drawn was described for their demography as in Table 2. The samples are the 48 students who have taken Auditing and Auditing Practice courses in one of the largest private universities in Indonesia, and been treated as novice auditors being the research subjects. This University is chosen since not only it has a big accounting major, but also is a private university which cooperates with three, big four accounting firms (PriceWaterhouse Coopers, KPMG, and Delloitte).

Table provided by: Utami & Supriyadi (2013)As reported by Utami & Supriyadi (2013), participants' involvement in this study is voluntary by signing up to the administration office after researchers announcing this experimental study plan, a month before it is finally carried out. Firstly, all 48 participants are put under burnout conditions first then randomly assigned to four groups. Each group consists of 12 participants. Each group gets a treatment of flexible work management, stress management training, a combination of flexible work management and stress management training, or control group which gets neither treatment. However there is no information of overall population size and the distribution of the sample.While for the sample, only the voluntary and novice auditor took part in the baseline study. The sample is not representative and cannot generalize to larger group. The sample cannot represent the entire auditor even only auditor in that University. The result is unreliable and is unable to refer to other non-volunteer and also sophisticated auditor. Researchers often study only samples for the sake of efficiency and then generalizes their results to the population of interest (Pyrczak, 2008, p. 55). This study of sampling had some similar as what to being said by Pyrczak. By sampling only the voluntary, they excluded others non-volunteer auditor that didnt take part in the experiment when the study was conducted. Therefore, valid generalizations about the entire University population could not be drawn from this sample. So, their conclusions cannot be generalized to any larger group especially sophisticated auditor out of the University. However, sometime social systems are beyond researchers ability to recruit wider sampling.Furthermore, in respect of this study, the development of the instruments was described and there was the reliability and validity of the figures given. As said by Utami & Supriyadi (2013), the instruments used in this study are substantive test in order to make adjusting entries in 120 minutes to create auditors' burnout conditions. At the end of the first task, all of the participants have to complete and submit the summary of adjusting entries on the working sheet provided. The questionnaire is the main tool used to collect data in this study.To increase reliability and validity as well as lesson the biases, past research questionnaire were adopted. The manipulation check questionnaire uses the emotional exhaustion dimension of burnout instrument from Maslach and Folkman (1981), that consists of four questions with measurement scale of 1 (fully disagree) up to measurement scale of 7 (fully agree). The job satisfaction instrument in this study is adopted from Andre's, Bissel's and Penar's work (1999) consisting of ten questions with answers in a seven score Likert scale. The performance variable is measured by auditors' ability to answer correctly which audit tasks were completed and several basic questions about accounting treatment towards problems that arise in the audit assignments. Last, turnover intention is measured by using three questions from Jones et al. (2010). Sometimes validity is resulting from respondents'abilityto provide accurate information.This study administered questionnaire required only a short time to complete. This procedure did not raise respondent fatigueanditem difficulty. A pilot survey is usually carried out among a small sample before a full-scale industry-wide survey is implemented (Lim and Low, 1992). Walker (1997) suggested that pilot studies help to clarify research question boundaries, and make the research more focused. In accordance to this, a pilot test is conducted to test the validity of tasks and experimental protocols by involving participants, who are accounting tutors, in one of private universities in Indonesia, where the experiment is conducted. Moreover, the stress management training" experimental treatments conducted in a class for 1,5 hours by a professional motivator.The research procedures and the data collection procedures were clear discussed. The experimental procedure and assignment were developed based on substantive test materials in an audit practice course. To attract the participants, researchers also give information in the announcement that this experiment task is an interesting audit assignment for auditor wannabes and each participant is promised a monetary incentive and certificates from the university. The procedures followed in acquiring participants in this study initially were not chosen at random as the participants' involvement in this study by voluntary after researchers announcing this experimental study plan, a month before it is finally carried out. However, participants fulfill the requirement of getting further treatments in one of four treatment groups allocated randomly. Also, bias can be expected in the intervention. The extraneous variables for example demographical characteristics of gender, age, semester, and GPA were identified and have been tested for its effectiveness of the randomization as showed in Table 2 above. There is personal suggestion for the research procedure. The sample can be randomly chosen and should include the entire auditor from that University not only the voluntary to yield a more reliable result from the study so that the result can apply for larger group. In this study, pilot test is conducted to test the validity of tasks and experimental protocols by involving accounting tutors in that university. Each participant's task in each group is completing a working trial balance working sheet following by filling out a questionnaire of job satisfaction, turnover intention, outcomes measurement, demography data, and manipulation check according to the experimental treatment they are assigned. In the last part, participants from all groups are gathered together for debriefing and door prize drawing of four 4GB-USB. As for the framework of data analysis, the data analysis technique was appropriate for the study and able to provide answers to the hypotheses. According to the analyzing of the study, there are the close linking and relationship between the two burnout mitigating strategies (flexible work arrangement and stress management training) and auditors' job outcomes or between the independent and dependent variable. There is a strong belief that flexible work arrangement and stress management training has the potential to mitigate the burnout and leading to auditor positive job outcomes. In respect to this study, the statistical tests undertaken were clearly report. The statistical procedures were appropriately used and the variables operationally were defined. For the item scale documentation, the values of mean, Standard, Correlation of item with scale Derivation, Cronbachs if item is deleted have reported for each scale used in the analysis. There are also explanations of why these tests were used and following by tests to measure relationships and differences between variables (Clegg, 1990). According to Clegg, (1990), usually identify the lowest level of significance as Ps 0.05 (P = probability). To test the effectiveness of the randomization procedure, a differential test is conducted among four treatment groups. As mentioned above, the result of a One-Way Anova from demographical characteristics is presented in Table 4. SPSS is used to in the data quality test result covers reliability and validity tests are provided in Table 5. Table 5 shows that all variables are reliable and valid with cronbach alpha of 0.956 for job satisfaction and 0.932 for turnover intention. The Hypotheses Testing also carried out by using SPSS. The great thing is, there is suggestion from authors for future research in this study. According to Connell Meehan (1999), the researcher should make relevant and meaningful suggestions for future research in the area. The authors have fulfilled this requirement in this study. The writers stated and suggested that, not all of the experimental case materials cover audit working sheets. Further research is expected to improve the experiment materials by giving assignments that are more consistent with the practice, including presentation of audit evidence samples, use of audit procedures, as well as making more real-world adjusting entries in audit assignments. The researchers also suggested that further research may develop burnout mitigation by giving audit assignments to a team, but the measurement of burnout response may be done individually. This will be interesting to examine because it is more consistent with general audit practice. A personal suggestion is that the further study can involve sophisticated auditor from the firm. They should take part in this kind of study to yield the reliability result and this result might help in the real working area in reducing the burnout and turnover intention as well as increase the employees performances. B. Conclusion

As conclusion, over all, the researchers are able to perform a good research article. For suggestion, researchers can improve the survey article with the proper chosen of data collect procedure or proper sampling technique. As in this study, the sample was not randomly choose and this excluded others auditor in that University. While for the sample, only the voluntary and novice auditor took part in the baseline study. The sample is not representative. Also, there is no information of overall population size and the distribution of the sample.This study clearly, concisely, and explicitly indicated their hypotheses regarding the outcomes of the research. The implicit aspect within these hypotheses is that a true causal relationship will exist between the independent and dependent variables. This study has been carried out according to the role stress model. In this model, performance is a consequence resulting from role pressure and job satisfaction and turnover intention. The research design in this study was clearly described and explained and was appropriate to address the research objectives and research justification information for the study was given. Furthermore, in respect of this study, the development of the instruments was described and there was the reliability and validity of the figures given. As for the framework of data analysis, the data analysis technique was appropriate for the study and able to provide answers to the hypotheses. Finally, the authors suggested that, further research is expected to improve the experiment materials by giving assignments that are more consistent with the practice. The authors concluded that a novice auditors' performance rises when burnout is mitigated by flexible work arrangements. Therefore, in order to improve auditors' outcomes an accounting firm must pay attention to the mechanism of professional auditors' management through regular management training and using of flexible work arrangement.

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Figure 1: provided by Utami & Supriyadi (2013)

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