Budget-Related Behavior in Public Sector Organizations: Some Empirical Evidence

• Main Authors: Williams, John Joseph, Macintosh, N.B., Moore, John
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1990
• Subjects: Accounting; Corporate Finance
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soa_research/704; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(90)90006-G
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The current research contributes to contingency studies of management accounting and control systems in 3 ways: 1. It explores the relationship between managers' budgeting behavior and departmental performance in public sector organizations. 2. It examines the moderating effects of departmental task interdependency on this relationship. 3. It attempts to uncover the specific patterns of budget-related behavior (BRB) and performance characteristics that are most influential in this relationship. Twenty-two public sector organizations in Canada were solicited for participation in the study. At a broad level, the findings provide evidence in support of the contingency notation of a fit between budgeting behavior and departmental performance in the context of task interdependency. The inference is that there may be a universal set of BRB factors that apply to both public and private sectors.