Effects of Job Involvement, Managerial Attitudes, and Information Sharing on Controllers Performance in the Budgetary Context.
| Autor | Lunardi, Micheli Aparecida |
1 Introduction
Budget participation refers to the extent to which managers participate in budget preparation and influence budget objectives in their areas of responsibility (Kenis, 1979). Behavioral studies on budget participation gained momentum in the work of Argyris (1952), who provided qualitative evidence that the budget can negatively affect the mental state and behavior of employees.
According to Katz and Kahn (1978) and Diefendorff, Brown, Kamin, and Lord (2002), the effective functioning of an organization requires employees not only to perform their prescribed roles but also involves behaviors that go beyond formal obligations. An organization's budget processes can lead to an increase in a subordinate's involvement with the organization, which can then result in higher performance in the subordinate's tasks (Macinati and Rizzo, 2016; Shields and Shields, 1998).
The subordinate's involvement in the budget process has important cognitive effects that can promote the emergence of feelings of ownership and clarity in the performance of his/ her functions. Engagement at work increases motivational processes that in turn influence job performance as well as other relevant outcomes in this context (Diefendorff et al., 2002), such as managerial attitudes and the propensity of individuals to share private information with their superiors. It is believed that greater manager involvement in work can positively influence these relationships.
For Moynihan and Pandey (2007), job involvement can be highlighted as an important attitude of employees. However, budgets improperly applied can lead to dysfunctional behaviors and negative attitudes among organizational members (Argyris, 1952). Most of the studies developed on this topic have focused on whether high budget participation leads to better performance and attitudes at work (Govindarajan, 1989).
With regard to attitudes, Milani (1975) found that participation was positively and significantly associated with the managerial attitudes of the subordinates, which suggests that under conditions of greater budgetary participation, it becomes possible to improve the involvement of managers in the work. However, the evidence for the relationship between budget participation and managerial performance has presented conflicting and inconclusive results among some studies (Dani, Zonatto, and Diehl, 2017; Derfuss, 2016), suggesting that there are other intervening variables that determine the effects of participation on performance.
In this context, one research gap identified in the literature involves the intervening effects of workforce involvement in the relationship between budget participation and managerial performance. It is understood that participation alone is not able to ensure that subordinate managers will perform better, which is when they make more effort when carrying out their tasks, engaging with their work activities to ensure that established objectives can be achieved.
Thus, it is possible that, under conditions of greater budgetary participation, a higher level of managerial involvement in work occurs, which can result in managers' proactive management attitudes towards the budget, as well as positively influencing their propensity to share information with their superiors, which can result in better managerial performance. However, such relationships have not been investigated in the accounting behavioral literature, the motivation for which this study was developed.
In view of the above, the research question that guides this research is: What are the intervening effects of job involvement, managerial attitudes, and information sharing in the relationship between the budget participation and managerial performance of controllers? The main objective of this research is to investigate the intervening effects of job involvement, managerial attitudes, and information sharing in the relationship between the budget participation and managerial performance of controllers of companies operating in Brazil.
In this investigation, the research subject is the manager responsible for the Controllership unit, which constitutes an organizational unit subordinate to a superior management division in the organization, with budgetary management responsibilities. therefore, his/her hierarchical level in the organization is mid-level. Controlling is an important area of management support in organizations, providing a source of information. Thus, the controller is one of the managers who enable the attainment of organizational objectives (Sathe, 1983). Zonatto (2014) and Palomino and Frezatti (2016) highlight the paucity of studies developed specifically using a sample of controllers, which constitutes an opportunity for new studies.
Managers' perception that an organization's success may be partially linked to employee involvement in organizational processes, such as the budget, has led to a continuing interest of managers and researchers in analyzing employee involvement in relation to managerial performance (Vandenberg, Richardson, and Eastman, 1999). Worker involvement in the budget can contribute to greater clarity of the role of individuals in organizational activities since involvement can provide information that allows them to understand the expectations associated with their role, tasks, and responsibilities (Macinati and Rizzo, 2016).
Although budgets are often criticized by researchers and tool users, they are still widely used in most organizations (Libby and Lindsay, 2010). However, the budget tends to be less criticized when the subordinate's level of involvement and worker involvement during the budget process is high (Sponem and Lambert, 2010). Budgetary participation has been studied more frequently in international literature (Lavarda and Fank, 2014). In Brazil, behavioral research associated with budget participation and managerial performance is scarce, which makes the application of this study relevant (Dani et al., 2017; Santos et al., 2014).
Likewise, other studies developed under the configuration proposed in this research were not identified in the literature reviewed. therefore, it is hoped that this study will contribute to the existing knowledge related to this subject, providing evidence of the effects of the budget participation of controllers of companies that operate in Brazil on their job involvement. Also, it is expected to produce evidence of the direct and indirect effects of this involvement in the relationship between budget participation and managerial performance, mediated by the managerial attitudes of these professionals in relation to the budget and their willingness to share information with their superiors.
2 Theoretical basis and research hypotheses
2.1 Budget Participation, Work Involvement, and Management Performance
In most organizations, budgeting plays a crucial role in planning and control, resource allocation, and coordination (Hannan, Rankin, and Towry, 2010). The business budget as a control tool has become an important instrument for organizations, due to, among other reasons, the need to maintain a balance between financial forecasts and the results actually achieved by department managers (Santos et al., 2014).
For Milani (1975) and Bruns and Waterhouse (1975), budgeting is one of the many administrative activities that evidence certain types of human reactions. Nouri and Parker (1998) argued that when subordinates become involved in budgeting, they become familiar with budget objectives. Consequently, there is an increase in their association not only with the budget objectives but also with all the organizational objectives.
Budgetary participation allows subordinates to better understand the budgeting process (Dani, Zonatto, and Diehl, 2017; Derfuss, 2016; Nouri and Parker, 1998). Shields and Shields (1998) suggested that the budget participation process increases subordinate confidence, control, and subordinate involvement with the organization (Chong, Eggleton, and Leong, 2006).
Job involvement relates to the cognitive belief that the work meets the needs of the worker. It represents the degree to which an individual identifies with his or her work, both at work and outside it (Brown, 1996). Christian, Garza, and Slaughter (2011) explain that job involvement relates to how much work can meet the needs of an individual. It is the level of identification of the individual with the work performed (Cavalcante, Siqueira, and Kuniyoshi, 2014; Siqueira, 2008).
Thus, based on the above, the first hypothesis investigated seeks to analyze the direct relationship between the budget participation of controllers of companies operating in Brazil and their involvement in the work: H1: Budgetary participation is positively related to job involvement.
The importance of developing human resources policies and practices, high-performance work systems, and high job involvement has been demonstrated in the literature on strategic human resources management (Oliveira and Rocha, 2017). However, empirical research on engagement at work does not seem to support claims of the influence of worker involvement in the budget process on managerial performance.
The evidence produced by Brown and Leigh (1996) indicates a possible correlation between engagement at work and the managerial performance of subordinates. Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter, and Taris (2008) point out that one of the reasons why workers develop better managerial performance in an organization is due to the creation of job involvement.
Other researchers have been interested in the relationship between job involvement and organizational variables (Kanungo, 1982). Although engagement at work is considered a key factor that influences important individual and organizational outcomes (Lawler, 1986), the study by Brown (1996) showed a non-significant relationship between subordinate engagement at work and managerial performance.
Thus, for this research, it is...
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