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臺大管理論叢
第
26
卷第
2
期
231
the Ministry of Finance should pay attention to the effect of social pressures on audit quality
and turnover rate of tax officials. The negative effect of superior pressure on the behaviors of
tax officials is especially serious. This implies that improvement of tax officials’ audit quality
and turnover rate can be more effectively achieved by reducing inappropriate social
pressures and increasing their anti-pressure capability. Hence, we suggest that the authorities
concerned set up a compliant channel within the organization to address social pressures.
Also, stress management training should be provided for prospective as well as current tax
officials. Besides, as suggested by previous studies, taxation agencies should implement an
adequate promotion mechanism to increase the morale of tax officials. This will result in the
alleviation of peer pressure. In this study, we also found that professional commitment was
more effective than organizational commitment in the reduction of the turnover rate of tax
officials. This finding highlights the importance of professional commitment. Therefore, we
suggest that professional ethics education should be included in the financial and taxation
education curriculum at college level. It is important to nurture a sense of morality and
integrity in college students who may eventually be involved in taxation affairs for the
government. Besides, professional ethics should also be stressed in the training of tax
officials, both before and during their services. This is an effective approach to the
strengthening of their ability to cope with social pressures.
This study, however, has a few limitations which need to be noted. First, the participants
of the experiment were tax officials of the tax administration; the results might not be
generalizable to personnel of other professions or other organizations. Secondly, the audit
quality questionnaire was developed based on expert opinions; it may not be applicable to
the research of audit quality in other areas. Third of all, the experimental scenarios might not
fully conform to real-world situations. Finally, we designed the experimental scenarios based
on pressures for business tax officials. In order to avoid errors in responses provided by
participants who had stress experiences in similar scenarios, we managed to exclude tax
officials responsible for business tax collection. However, 14 business tax officials were still
included in the experiment.
This study investigated occupational stress of tax officials. In addition to job stress in
previous studies, this study further explored the effects of social pressures on tax officials.
Like job stress, social pressures significantly increase the turnover intentions of tax officials.
In the analysis of the effect of organizational commitment on the relationship between work
pressures and turnover intention of tax officials, Wu (2001) demonstrated that organizational
commitment would moderate the relationship between job stress and turnover intention.