229 / 372
臺大管理論叢
第
26
卷第
2
期
229
Social Pressures, Commitments and Tax Officials’ Dysfunctional
Behaviors: An Experimental Study
Summary
The high turnover among tax officials in Taiwan has become more apparent in recent
years. This high turnover of tax officials might lead to a decline in audit quality. In addition
to heavy workloads which contribute to job stress (Wang, 2001; Wu, 2001; Liu, 2005), social
pressures, including superior pressure and peer pressure, may also lead to dysfunctional
behaviors of tax officials (i.e., a reduction in audit quality or an increase in turnover
intention). Moreover, organizational commitment and professional commitment of tax
officials might be the key to countering the negative impacts of high social pressures (Lord
and DeZoort, 2001). It has been documented in previous studies that social pressures have a
negative effect on auditors’ behaviors. On the other hand, a high level of commitment has a
positive effect on their behaviors. (Peecher, 1996; Jeffrey et al., 1996; Lord and DeZoort,
2001; Chen, 2001; Thorne et al., 2004). Nonetheless, domestic research on pressures on tax
officials has focused primarily on job stress (Wang, 2001; Wu, 2001; Liu, 2005) and seldom
addresses the effects of social pressures. Moreover, extant research on the commitment of tax
officials is limited to organizational commitment (Wu, 2001; Yang, 2003) with little
coverage on professional commitment, even though it is important for professionals.
This study thus contends that social pressures are the key factors responsible for
dysfunctional behaviors of tax officials, and the study suggests that in addition to
organizational commitment, professional commitment should be seriously considered in the
research of commitment of tax officials. The purpose of this study is to investigate how
social pressures are related to audit quality and turnover intention of tax officials, and
whether these relations are moderated by organizational commitment and professional
commitment. This study argues that social pressures cause tax officials to behave
dysfunctionally; such behavior may include reduced audit quality and increased turnover
intention. Furthermore, tax officials with high organizational commitment and professional
commitment are more capable of resisting inappropriate social pressures and avoiding the
above-mentioned dysfunctional behaviors.
An experiment was conducted on basic-level tax officials at several branches of the
Kuo-Chih Cheng
, Professor, Department of Accounting, National Changhua University of Education
Shao-Hsi Chung
, Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, Meiho University
Feng-Yu Ni
, Professor, Department of Business Administration, National Sun Yat-sen University