دانلود رایگان مقاله نظارت بر کنترل بودجه در سازمان های دولتی در زمان آشفتگی بودجه

abstract

In the public sector, budget deviations are an important performance dimension. Because of political and institutional pressures, it is crucial that public sector organizations neither overspend, nor underspend. Budget deviations actualize the issue of tight budget control. In this article we hypothesize that when public sector organizations face budget turbulence, the implementation of tight budget control is a functional response that increases the likelihood of meeting budget targets. Our study, combining survey and archival data from 196 Swedish municipalities, confirms our hypothesis. If budget turbulence is substantial, public sector organizations benefit from tight budget control as they seek to control budget deviations, but if turbulence is only marginal, they can conduct activities in the same manner as last year and additional direction from tight controls has no effect on budget deviations. A more general contribution of the paper is the evaluation of the effect of environment and tight budgetary control fit on budgetary performance.

5. Concluding

discussion One argument for this study was the general lack of studies on the relationship between budget control and budget deviations in public sector organizations. Therefore, an important finding of our study is its support of our hypothesis about tight budget control in public sector organizations. The effect of tight budget control on budget deviations is contingent upon the level of budget turbulence. More precisely, in situations when budgets for some reason expand or contract substantially, and when small budget deviations are a priority, tight budget control is an effective device. By studying and finding evidence for positive and intended effects of tight budget control, this study adds to the budget literature, which is biased towards focusing on the dysfunctional effects of tight budget controls (Hartmann, 2000; Marginson and Ogden, 2005). This knowledge is important since the public sector is still an area in which budgets and budget controls are paramount in many areas and where economic turbulence from time to time makes public sector organizations face control challenges. The ability to control budget deviations is crucial for public sector organizations and our results clearly speak to the managerial relevance of implementing tight budget control for cost control purposes when facing budget turbulence. The results, however, equally suggest that tightening the budget control system in situations of low budget turbulence does not lead to better cost control and thus challenge the idea that tight budget control is universally effective when precision in budget compliance is important.