The Impact of Pressure for IFRS Transparency and the Moderating Role of Personal Resilience on the Anxiety Symptoms of Financial Managers in Vietnamese Commercial Banks

This study explores the "human cost" behind the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Vietnam, one of the emerging markets in the pioneering phase of adoption. The objective of the study is to develop and test a moderated model to clarify the conditional impact mechanism of the pressure for IFRS transparency on the anxiety symptoms of financial managers, while also considering the role of personal resilience and the organizational context. Using a quantitative method with a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 424 mid-level financial managers in Vietnamese commercial banks. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis were used to test the research hypotheses. The research findings show that, when considering the entire sample, IFRS pressure does not have a significant direct impact on anxiety. However, this impact is deeply conditional and dependent on personal resources. Specifically, in the low-resilience group, IFRS pressure is a statistically significant detrimental factor, whereas in the high-resilience group, this effect is completely nullified. The study also indicates that the organizational context plays a moderating role, with the impact of pressure being most pronounced in state-owned banks and almost negligible in foreign banks. The main conclusion of the study is that the impact of IFRS pressure on mental health is not a constant, but a variable shaped by both the individual's psychological "shield" and the organizational environment. Theoretically, the study enriches the JD-R model by demonstrating a complex cross-over interaction effect. Practically, these findings provide a scientific basis for banks to shift their focus from eliminating pressure to building resilience capacity for their staff, while also suggesting to policymakers the importance of managing cultural change in the IFRS adoption roadmap.Keywords: Anxiety symptoms; commercial banks; International Financial Reporting Standards; IFRS; resilience; Vietnam.