Comments on Weick.

The article presents the author's opinions on an article by Karl E. Weick, published in the April 1, 1983 issue of the periodical "Accounting Review," which argued that stress is an important accompaniment of corporate accounting practices. That article by Weick was titled: "Stress in Accounting Systems." According to Weick, accountants and auditors work under tremendous stress. The first important feature of the stress concept is that its consequences are specified in terms of observable performance metrics. In the short term, the consequences of stress relate primarily to cognitive performance. There is also a sequence of physiological and psychological consequences, which in the long term can produce serious health problems. An important feature of the stress concept is that, as Weick has aptly demonstrated, accounting is closely involved with many of the antecedents of stress. Given the well-defined antecedents and consequences of stress, it is possible to specify explicit remedies which may be implemented if the benefits of the remedies outweigh their costs.