Antecedents of Psychological Well-Being among Swedish Audit Firm Employees

The attractiveness of audit firms as employers appears to have decreased in recent years and the audit profession is currently experiencing high employee turnover. A shortage of personnel increases the risk of long-term stress and illness. This paper therefore proposes audit firm employees’ well-being as an important research topic and explores the antecedents of well-being of Swedish audit firm employees in comparison with those of other business professionals. Based on a nationwide survey of members of the Swedish association of business professionals, with a focus on psychological well-being (measured through General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12)), the study shows that the psychological well-being of the professionals in this study generally aligns with the results from similar studies in a Swedish context. However, the findings indicate that audit industry respondents have the lowest psychological well-being and that employer change, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction were the strongest antecedents of their psychological well-being.