Auditor turnover remains a persistent concern for regulatory bodies and auditing firms. Past research on auditors’ turnover intention has explored various factors influencing auditors’ turnover intention, including job satisfaction, organisational commitment, work overload and work–life balance. However, the potential role of motivation in mitigating the adverse effects of work overload and work–life imbalance has been overlooked. Our study addresses this gap in the existing literature by revealing the crucial role of motivation and identifying differences between Big4 and Non‐Big4 firms. Using questionnaire data from 301 auditors, analysed using structural equation modelling, we find that work overload is positively but indirectly related to turnover intention via work–life balance. Additionally, organisational commitment (job satisfaction) is directly (indirectly) and negatively related to turnover intention. Moreover, and considering that, due to work overload, a lack of work–life balance can be responsible for increasing auditors’ turnover intention, our study suggests that motivation can mitigate this effect. Finally, our study suggests that work–life balance can directly reduce turnover intention for Big4 firms, while for Non‐Big4 firms this reduction can only occur via organisational commitment (a channel that is weaker for Big4 firms).

中文翻译：

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工作超负荷、工作与生活平衡与审计师离职意向：动机的调节作用

审计师流动率仍然是监管机构和审计公司持续关注的一个问题。以往对审计师离职意向的研究探讨了影响审计师离职意向的各种因素，包括工作满意度、组织承诺、工作超负荷以及工作与生活平衡等。然而，动机在减轻工作超负荷和工作与生活不平衡的不利影响方面的潜在作用却被忽视了。我们的研究通过揭示动机的关键作用并识别四大公司和非四大公司之间的差异来解决现有文献中的这一差距。使用来自 301 名审计师的问卷数据，并使用结构方程模型进行分析，我们发现工作超负荷通过工作与生活的平衡与离职意向呈正相关但间接相关。此外，组织承诺（工作满意度）与离职倾向直接（间接）负相关。此外，考虑到由于工作超负荷、工作与生活缺乏平衡可能会增加审计师的离职倾向，我们的研究表明，动机可以减轻这种影响。最后，我们的研究表明，工作与生活的平衡可以直接降低四大公司的离职意愿，而对于非四大公司来说，这种减少只能通过组织承诺（对于四大公司而言较弱的渠道）来实现。