Search results

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating effect of playing devious games on the relationship between budget‐emphasis in performance evaluation and attitudes towards the budgetary process.

A survey questionnaire was selected. A hierarchical regression was used to analyze the data gathered from 216 Taiwanese managers in listed companies.

The results indicate that playing devious games to obtain extra budget requests moderated the relationships of budget‐emphasis in performance evaluation and attitudes towards the budgetary process. The relationships were strong and positive when playing devious games was low, and weak when playing devious games was high.

The study depends on manager questionnaire responses and thus variations in emotional responses are a concern. In addition, it remains problematic to question managers regarding their engagement in dysfunctional behaviors because managers may not wish to publicize their gaming strategies.

Managers playing devious games to obtain extra budget requests is a significant factor to be considered in attitudes towards the budgetary process. Superiors should communicate with these managers to better understand the purposes of the budget proposals before deciding how to allocate budget resources.

The findings should be useful to superiors in understanding how managerial game‐playing behaviors impact on the relationship between budget‐emphasis in performance evaluation and attitudes towards the budgetary process.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the budgeting process in a local church from a social capital perspective. The social capital provides novel insights into the construction of budgets and its social aspects. A qualitative case study was adopted, with an interpretive methodology. Semi-structured interviews were used to interview 14 managers involved in the budgeting process at a local independent church. The interview data were supplemented by documentary evidence. Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998) framework of social capital was used to analyse the data. The main finding was that budgeting was found to be a social process – that can best be explained by social capital theory. There may be an element of self-selection, as the church agreed to participate in the study and chose to allow a researcher to examine social aspects of its budgeting process. The chapter contributes to both social capital theory and church literature. Social capital provides novel insights into the construction of budgets and its social aspects. In addition, contemporary budgeting practices are studied in a church in a denomination and country not previously studied.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes organizations can adopt to move beyond budgeting. We show how these changes can be understood as modes of adaptive performance management that explains the ways in which organizations move beyond budgeting to become more adaptive. The proposed modes are then used to derive propositions for future research.

Methodology/approach: We follow a conceptual approach through an analysis of the beyond budgeting principles using the management and systems literatures on radical decentralization. We theorize how organizations can enhance their adaptability to environmental uncertainty through changes to their management structure and control processes.

Findings: We show that organizations can move beyond budgeting by decentralizing within or beyond their management structure and modifying or removing their budget-based control processes. We propose that beyond budgeting can be conceptualized as four modes of adaptive performance management: better budgeting, advanced budgeting, restricted budgeting, and nonbudgeting.

Research limitations/implications: The four modes of adaptive performance management can be used in future research to consider how changes to management structures and budget-based control processes can enhance the organizational adaptability needed to manage environmental uncertainty.

Practical implications: We show that while the nonbudgeting mode may be most suited to organizations facing high levels of environmental uncertainty, organizations facing low–to-moderate levels of environmental uncertainty can achieve sufficient levels of adaptability with less extensive changes to management structure and budget-based control processes.

Originality/value: The four modes of adaptive performance management reflect different approaches for dealing with environmental uncertainty. Positioning nonbudgeting as one mode and identifying alternate modes of adaptive performance management provides a basis for comparing and understanding the changes organizations make to move beyond budgeting.

This study contributes to the management accounting (MA) literature by exploring the effect of managers’ perception of justice in the budgeting process (as a subsystem of MA) on their satisfaction and motivation to achieve organizational objectives. Drawing on the Habermasian concept of deliberative democracy, which underscores the importance of gaining legitimacy to achieve desirable outcomes, our analysis focuses on seven constructs related to situational and intrinsic participation, procedural and distributive justice, and attitude on two outcome constructs: satisfaction and motivation. We surveyed managers with an accounting background who are directly involved in the budgeting process and analyzed our data using partial least squares-based path analysis–structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of this study indicate that both dimensions of justice – distributive and procedural – are positively associated with participation, and in turn, positively impact satisfaction and motivation. Contrary to expectations, managers’ influence on the final budget does not seem to be as important as we expected. Budgeting is an important managerial function that involves setting targets based on an organization’s strategy and allocating resources for its execution. Such a fundamental process requires managers’ participation at various levels to ensure that the process is fair and just. Our study’s findings imply that justice perceptions are an essential fabric of organizational processes that drive human behavior. Specifically, our findings reveal that perception of justice influences participation and satisfaction and motivation.

The purpose of this study is to characterise types of practices – or “routings” as they are denoted in this paper – that have been developed to incorporate non-financial inscriptions, representing value-in-kind (VIK) sponsorship resources, into accounting systems.

This study adopts field-based research, utilising Latour's (1999) concept of “circulating reference”, to illustrate how VIK (non-cash) resources were managed in an Australian sporting organization.

This paper contributes to our understanding of: first, how accounting infrastructure is constituted and stabilised by a network of multiple and overlapping accounting practices; second, how VIK resources are allocated and managed via local practices; and third, the importance of “budget relief” as a method of valuation in accounting practice.

Our paper has implications for understanding how financial and non-financial accounting inscriptions are related in practice, requiring both integration and separation within networks of multiple and overlapping routings of accounting practices.

Our work highlights previously unexplored accounting practices, which assist in the process of utilizing VIK resources in the context of a sporting organization.

Traditional budgets are seen by practitioners as being incapable of meeting the demands of the competitive environment and are criticized for impeding efficient resource allocation and encouraging dysfunctional behaviour such as myopic decision making and budget games. However, budgeting is still regarded as an organizational imperative and there is little empirical evidence that organizations alter their existing budgeting practices. To understand this paradox, a deeper understanding is needed of the process by which organizations decide on altering and renewing budgeting practices. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework which identifies the factors that play a role in the acceptance of changes to the budgeting process.

The third author developed a model called the evolutionary adoption framework (EAF), which looks at four aspects that play a role in the process of accepting a management control practice by organisational members, in the sense that they are going to use the adjusted practice: activities in the adoption process, motives of the persons involved, constraints that may influence the activities, and order and interaction of activities. The EAF was applied on four Dutch organizations – two of which were contemplating or already changing the budgeting process and two who were not – to identify which factors are most important when making the decision to accept the changed process. By selecting two organizations that were considering or actually making a change to their budgeting process and two organizations that were not considering or undergoing such a change, it was possible to obtain valuable information about the factors from the mutual comparison.

The research results confirm there is a paradox of a high degree of criticism on traditional budgeting and a low number of organizations that adopt adjusted practices. It seems that there needs to be a certain level of dissatisfaction within an organization before it starts to examine its current situation and search for alternatives. As such, it seems that some momentum for change needs to exist before changes are considered, rather than that organizations are continuously looking for the best possible alternative to their budgeting process. A lack of a need for change – because the process is considered satisfactorily efficient – is the most important factor why organizations are not considering changes to their budgeting process, followed by cognitive and preconscious constraints.

The paper contributes to the accounting literature as it provides evidence on the factors that could influence the acceptance of changes in the budgeting process. Knowing these factors will increase the chance that managers can successfully introduce and implement an adjusted budgeting process.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the emergence processes of accounting change in the Jordanian Ministry of Finance as well as the Jordanian public sector within its socio-economic contexts, as brought about by public and fiscal reforms. The study explains the ways in which accounting change dynamics can emerge on the basis of interaction between “external” origins and “internal” accounts; which identifies that accounting is both shaped by, and shaping, wider socio-economic and political processes.

The paper uses an interpretive case study approach. The study adopts institutional and structuration theory as a theoretical lens and uses triangulation in data collection, including interviews, observations and documents and archival records.

The paper concludes that the new budgeting systems together with the Results-Based Management emerged as a result of interaction between “external” origins and “internal” accounts. It also highlights the interaction between these levels from one side, and the accounting and organizational change from the other side. The study confirms that factors other than economic may also play an influential role in the emergence of accounting change. It also concludes that there is a radical change of accounting systems in the case study (Ministry of Finance), which is not only a cosmetic change in accounting but is also represented in the actual working practices. The study also confirms that accounting is not a static phenomenon, but one that changes over time to reflect new systems and practices.

The paper has important implications for institutional research on accounting change and public sector reforms in responding to recent calls to bridge the gap between the extra- and intra-organizational levels of analysis. Hence, it has essential implications for the way in which successful change can be defined in accounting and organizational change literature. It also identifies that management accounting is both shaped by, and shapes, wider socio-economic and political processes, which has important implications for the methods of studying management accounting change.

The paper is one of the few case studies in the accounting literature to analyze the practical issues organizations face when changing their method of budgeting as influenced by public sector and fiscal reforms. The study contributes to both accounting literature and institutional theory by providing further understanding and “thick explanation” of the dynamics of accounting change in the public sector.

Australian public sector organisations are faced with their greatest challenge in decades, as public sector reforms essentially re‐examine the role of the State in the economy. These changes have led to a shift away from a traditional administrative approach of public sector organisations to one that fosters managerialism and economic rationalism, the underlying philosophies of new public management. Queensland, the Northeastern state of Australia, has experienced a period of government committed to change and reform specifically related to corporatisation and a national competition policy. Aims to address this issue.

To understand the effect of changes in budgeting, the researcher explores the processes of change over a period of time as they occur, through the use of a case study approach. The processual approach adopted for the study is consistent with old institutional economic theory, which is used to inform the findings.

It was found that indiscriminate changes to the budgeting process, together with the introduction of a transfer pricing system, caused considerable resistance. Streamlining was introduced late in the study, which, for the most part, despite the embeddedness of the earlier system, overcame many of the obstacles identified with relation to the budgeting process, while the conflict as a result of the transfer pricing system remained an unresolved and thorny issue.

The implications for organisational change management suggest the consideration of embedded institutions within an organisation, while determining the processes and directions of change. The implications for reform setters and the Queensland electricity supply industry are such that the short‐term goal of cost‐efficiency may not necessarily be in the best interest of the overall long‐term benefits to the community.

State budgeting processes and decision making have been the subject of numerous research efforts. Such studies have been based upon the premise that improved budget processes will improve budget decisions and resource allocations. Among the specific topics of such studies have been the nature and focus of state budgetary processes and innovations as well as inquiries into the training and background of state budgeting personnel. This study focused on the perceived contributions of budget theory, processes and concepts by state budget practitioners. The inquiry also analyzed the differences between state budget directors and their staffs regarding such "perceived" contributions. The results indicate a high degree on similarity of perceived values of the various budget theories, processes and concepts by both groups. Budget process and evaluation concepts were identified as valued concepts which enhanced their budget preparation and execution skills. Both groups indicated a high value for revenue and expenditure forecasting. Such high values probably result, in part, from the fiscal stress encountered by state governments over the past decade. Overall, the study further clarifies which budgeting concepts and processes are most highly valued by state budget practitioners. In addition, the results provide insights for the design of budgeting and financial management courses in public administration and professional development programs.

The federal budgeting process is wrought with conflict that makes it nearly impossible for the budget to be passed on time, or so it seems. One aspect overlooked is the effects of statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rules. The cursory evidence indicates PAYGO may be beneficial under certain circumstances. The analysis relies on an Autoregressive-Moving-Average (ARMA) time series model with data from appropriations bills signed into law from fiscal years 1994 to 2014. The findings indicate mixed effects for PAYGO statutes with a shorter budgeting timeline under the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, but a longer timeline under the Statutory PAYGO Act of 2010. Additional findings suggest substantive relationships between the length of the budgeting process and party polarization, presidential leadership, and the economy.