The Pros and Cons of Participative Budgeting

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Participative Budgeting

Participative Budgeting is the situation in which budgets are designed and set after input from subordinate managers, instead of merely being imposed. The idea behind this sort of budgeting is to assign responsibility to subordinate managers and place a form of personal ownership on the final budget. Nearly two decades of management accounting research has resulted in equivocal findings on the consequences and effects of participative budgeting (Lindquist 1995). Participative budgeting certainly has various advantages, these include the transferral of information from subordinate to superior increased job satisfaction for the subordinate, budgetary responsibility and goal congruence. Its disadvantages include budgetary slack and negative motivation, however it is the conditions in which participative budgeting takes place determines whether the budgeting process is successful. The conditions are dependent on various factors such as the level of participation, level of subordinate influence, the extent to which budgetary slack takes place, volatility, job related information, and the complexity of the budget.

Participative budgeting has the advantage of transferring information from the subordinate to their superior This knowledge is likely to be more reliable and accurate as the subordinate has direct contact with the activity and therefore is in the best position to make budget estimates. Participative Budgeting also gives subordinates the opportunity to discuss organisational issues with superiors, in which an exchange of information and ideas can help to solve problems and agree future actions (Nouri & Parker 1998). This transferral of information is important particularly when dealing with a matter of high task difficulty as, the more difficult a task, the greater the need for consultation with subordinates. Participative budgeting has a higher performance rate when dealing with more difficult and more volatile tasks than non consultative budgeting (Lau & Tan 1998)

The disadvantage of subordinate/superior information transferral is, of course, that the information supplied by the subordinate may not be entirely accurate; the budget estimations may be overstated to make the subordinate’s job easier to achieve. The difference between the true estimated budget and the overstated budget is ...

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...an agreement, in which the superior may have a final say in the matter, this too can be detrimental to the business because it only serves to lower the morale of the manager, and confidence in the work he or she is trying to achieve. Secondly the attitudes of the negotiators can greatly affect the outcome. For example, if one negotiator has a competitive behaviour rather than a cooperative behaviour then it will most likely make the other negotiator adopt a more competitive attitude and thus decrease the likelihood of inducing counteroffers that can lead to an agreement (Fisher, Fredrickson & Peffer 2000). Negotiations can also cause those involved who disagree in significant and irreconcilable ways to accentuate those differences (Hilton 1994).

In conclusion, the advantages of participative budgeting include an increase and transferral of information, an increase in subordinate morale and job satisfaction, the development of negotiation skills and goal congruence. However these advantages only come into full affect when particular conditions are present, without these conditions it may turn into a disadvantage through budgetary slack, low job satisfaction and responsibility.

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