Enabling Cognitive Effects of Vertical Information Sharing on Psychological Capital, Managerial Attitudes, and Performance.
| Autor | Machado, Fernanda Souto |
| Cargo | Research Article |
INTRODUCTION
The corporate budget is one of the tools used by managers for the planning and control of processes, being one of the most investigated topics in management accounting (Zonatto, Nascimento, et al., 2020), which requires concrete, clear, and available information in the exact moment for decision-making among all those involved in its elaboration and execution (Lavarda & Almeida, 2013). The relationship of superiors with their subordinates can encourage them to contribute to the definition of their budgets, develop a commitment to work, motivate, and improve their managerial performance (Mia & Patiar, 2002). Organizations that emphasize the participation of subordinates in the budget process involve a greater association of subordinates with budgetary and organizational objectives (Lunardi, Zonatto, & Nascimento, 2019).
According to Adler and Borys (1996), by stimulating autonomy and control, it is also stimulated motivation and satisfaction in people, helping them deal with the eventualities of their work and obtain better performance in the tasks under their responsibility. This feeling of involvement can expand the sharing of knowledge and skills between levels within the company (Adler & Borys, 1996) and generate cognitive effects that can provide a sense of mastery and transparency in the execution of tasks (Lunardi et al., 2019). Several cognitive and personal behavioral and environmental factors can influence people's action at work and result in an impact on their managerial performance in the budgetary context (Zonatto, 2014), such as psychological capital, managerial attitudes, and work involvement, aspects that influence, to some extent, the managerial performance of controllers in the budgetary context, becoming an essential topic for investigation.
Studies in the accounting area that seek to investigate the psychological capital of people and its influence on managerial performance are incipient (Degenhart, Zonatto, & Lavarda, 2022; Saithong-In & Ussahawanitchakit, 2016; Schlup, Beck, & Zonatto, 2021; Venkatesh & Blaskovich, 2012; Zonatto, Nascimento, et al., 2020). There are also few studies in the budgetary context that seek to analyze the positive aspects of people at work (Schlup et al., 2021). Psychological capital is composed of four positive psychological dimensions of a cognitive nature: self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007), being the mental states of people that influence their attitudes and behaviors, which affect their managerial performance (Alessandri, Consiglio, Luthans, & Borgogni, 2018; Lunardi et al., 2019; Degenhart et al., 2022), which is consistent with the enabling approach proposed by Adler and Borys (1996), which aims to motivate and influence people, as well as people's actions and behavior, improving their capabilities to leverage their performance.
Thus, a research opportunity identified in the literature consists of analyzing the enabling cognitive effects of these capacities with other intervening variables (Degenhart et al., 2022; Nascimento, Zonatto, Degenhart, & Lunardi, 2019), such as managerial attitudes toward budget and involvement at work, essential employee attitudes (Moynihan & Pandey, 2007), as predictors of managerial performance (Degenhart et al., 2022). As it is a flexible construct to external influences, which includes aspects related to human cognition, knowing the antecedents of psychological capital that can reflect on better managerial attitudes and performance triggers an opportunity for intervention in the work context, helping organizations develop methods to strengthen the psychological capital of people (Newman, Ucbasaran, Zhu, & Hirst, 2014), how to invest in management practices that manage the sharing of information in the organization, which has been addressed in the literature as an important factor influencing cognitive and behavioral aspects of managers in the budgetary context, being able to positively influence their performance at work (Lunardi, Zonatto, & Nascimento, 2020).
The relationship between such variables was not investigated under the configuration proposed in this research, a theoretical gap that stimulates this study. Sharing information in the budgetary context allows managers with budgetary responsibility to better understand working conditions, allocated and available resources, and set goals and objectives, in addition to making better decisions in the face of environmental uncertainties (Mia & Patiar, 2002). Interaction and information exchange motivate people to put more effort into their tasks and achieve better performance (Castanha, Beuren, & Gasparetto, 2020). For this reason, it is believed that they tend to reflect positively on the psychological capital of controllers and their managerial attitudes. Such assumptions reflect on the cognitive and motivational effects of information sharing, which positively reflect on managerial performance in the budgetary context (Zonatto, Bauer, et al., 2020). In this sense, the problem question that guides the research is: What are the enabling cognitive effects of vertical information sharing on psychological capital, managerial attitudes, and performance?
Based on this problem, the objective of this research is to analyze the enabling cognitive effects of vertical information sharing on psychological capital, managerial attitudes, and managerial performance of professional controllers. With the shared information, the psychological capabilities of these professionals are expected to be promoted by stimulating their beliefs of self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism, enhancing their involvement at work, and positively reflecting on attitudes that can promote their self-efficacy performance of the tasks under their responsibility. Given this, the research innovates by contributing to the understanding of the enabling effects of vertical information sharing on psychological capital, as well as the understanding of the interactions between these variables and two important managerial attitudes, which, in some way, reflect on managerial performance in the budgetary context.
Given the configuration proposed for analysis, the literature has partially addressed these relationships. The effects of psychological capital on work involvement were not observed, as well as information sharing as an antecedent to psychological capital, and their interactions as predictors of managerial performance in the budgetary context. Evidence in budget research has suggested that there is a set of factors that can influence the behavior of people at work and their performance, not just one (Dani, Zonatto, & Diehl, 2017; Derfuss, 2016), which is why there are conflicts of results identified in this literature, since the interactions established in the budgetary context, in different organizational environments, can affect managers differently. It is necessary to consider, when approaching topics related to cognitive aspects and mental states, such as psychological capital, that people tend to differ in their psychological capacities, which may explain such results.
Therefore, providing new evidence on such relationships allows us to understand how such interactions occur, promoting or inhibiting managerial attitudes that should reflect positively on managerial performance, or providing an explanation for the understanding of when this does not occur, a relevant contribution of this research. Thus, this study has an important implication for knowledge on the subject, seeking to find evidence to expand the research developed in the behavioral area of accounting. The results contribute to a better understanding of the controllers on the conditions to improve their performance at work, as well as the organization to which they belong. This occurs through the qualification of management processes and the identification of adequate conditions for the resolution of organizational problems and the search for joint solutions to common problems. The analysis of these factors added to the variable 'managerial attitudes' concerning the budget and involvement in work can help organizations choose the best budget management practices that leverage these elements.
THEORETICAL BASIS
Enabling cognitive effects of vertical information sharing
The budget has been used as a management control mechanism that influences the behavior and mind of managers, constituting an important area of study in the behavioral investigation of accounting (Lunardi et al., 2020). When the budget process takes place jointly between superiors and subordinates, there is greater interaction and communication among all, so the dissemination of information is greater (Lavarda & Almeida, 2013), which characterizes the enabling cognitive effects of budget processes. According to Parker and Kyj (2006), although budgetary participation can facilitate information sharing, another factor for the exchange to take place is motivation, which is influenced by the commitment of the subordinates to the organization.
Those who want the company's success are more likely to provide information that can be used to improve their performance and that of the organization (Parker & Kyj, 2006). The relationship between subordinates and superiors and budgetary participation can be encouraged by the organization's older managers, aiming at a positive influence on subordinates' performance (Mia & Patiar, 2002). For Merchant (2007), greater participation of middle and low management in activities related to the budget can improve communication, generating an interactive dialogue in which information is disseminated (Parker & Kyj, 2006). Information sharing involves the level at which people make their knowledge available to their superiors (Parker & Kyj, 2006), which is a strategy to resolve information asymmetry and greater information awareness (Clarkson, Jacobsen, & Batcheller, 2007).
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