Feeling well by being together: Study of Swedish auditors

As guardians of the public interest, auditors represent a unique occupational group. The group that has shown to experience high level of stress and overload is often being associated with environmentally imposed responsibility as well as organizationally imposed performance demands. It is the latter aspects, represented by the concept of organizational culture, that is being highlighted in this paper and its relationship to auditor's well-being

The paper aims to explore organizational culture as an antecedent of auditors' well-being, which is assumed to have important consequences for the quality of auditors' work.

This study is based on a survey of 207 Swedish auditors. Using established and validated instruments measuring aspects of organizational culture and personal well-being, the study employed correlations and multiple regression analysis in testing the relationship between the two.

The results of the study suggest that an increasing degree of collectivistic organizational culture has a positive relationship with three aspects of well-being: Job satisfaction, life balance and life satisfaction.

This study is the first attempt to explore well-being of auditors and its antecedents represented by organizational culture. Contrary to the expectation that auditors take an individualistic approach to their work, this study establishes that auditors feel best in a work environment characterized by a collectivist organizational culture.