Budget Allocation in a Uk University: Contrasting Periods of Resource Availability With Resource Scarcity*

Ezzamel, Mahmoud; Bourn, Michael

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1995.tb00778.x

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This made them to have power, similar to the cultural capital which they used in intervening the relationship between the resource recipients and administrators. Therefore, similar to the previous studies, the findings show that the university budgetary process was embedded with power (Covaleski and Dirsmith, 1988a;Ezzamel and Bourn, 1995;Deering, 2015;Pfeffer and Moore, 1980;Thomas, 2000;Gumport, 1993). Powerful members of the budget task group were collectively misrecognized, and yet, they misrecognized themselves as members of the "budget committee."…”

Section: Budgetary Practices In a Tanzanian Universitysupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Covaleski and Dirsmith (1988a) also observed that internally powerful sub-units had a significant impact on a new budgetary approach. Similarly, Ezzamel and Bourn (1995) found that negotiations over budget increments or decrements were driven by both workloads and power criteria. Deering (2015) found that Midwestern University's budget model was self-described as dean-centric as deans had a great deal of power, while the central administration was forced to be consultative in its approach to colleges.…”

Section: Budgetary Practices In Amentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Covaleski and Dirsmith (1988b) investigated a university's budget as an important component of its formal structure that it uses in attempts to achieve legitimacy. Despite legitimacy, the power and role of organizational actors are also vital variables in resource allocation, and are therefore significant in the university budgeting process (Covaleski and Dirsmith, 1988a;Ezzamel and Bourn, 1995;Deering, 2015;Pfeffer and…”

Section: Previous Literature On University Budgetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there is historical power struggle between resource recipients and administrators in a university setting when budgeting is decentralized (Goodwin and De Gouw, 1997;Moll and Hoque, 2011;Jalali Aliabadi et al, 2019). The role of actors is important when there is power struggle among individual actors within organizations (Covaleski and Dirsmith, 1988a;Ezzamel and Bourn, 1995;Deering, 2015;Pfeffer and Moore, 1980;Thomas, 2000;Pfeffer, 1981;Gumport, 1993;Lepori et al, 2013;Moll and Hoque, 2011;Jalali Aliabadi et al, 2019;Deering and S a, 2018;Schick, 1985). Therefore, Bourdieu's theory was appropriate for this study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Budgetary practices in a Tanzanian University: Bourdieu's theory

Mkasiwa

2020

JPBAFM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis paper explores budgetary practices in a Tanzanian university after decentralization.MethodologyData were collected through interviews, document analysis, and observation. Moreover, Bourdieu's theory was used in open and axial coding procedures for data analysis.FindingsThe findings show that decentralized budgeting was a disillusionment. Administrators failed to transfer financial authority to resource recipients. Budgetary practices were shaped by the social structure/budget cycle (field), resources possessed by budgetary actors (capital) and the sincerity patterns of actors in budgetary practices (habitus). Most resource recipients had insincerity in budgeting habitus deploying subversive strategy, while the minority had sincerity in budgeting habitus, deploying submissive strategy. On the other hand, administrators had sincerity and insincerity in budgeting habitus, deploying conservative strategy.Practical implicationsIn order to enhance effective decentralization, resource recipients should be provided with adequate financial resources and budgeting skills. Furthermore, they should be trusted and recognized. Moreover, in order to shape budgeting strategies and practices towards achieving organizational objectives, managements should identify and work on internal, external and technical budgetary constraints. In addition, they should promote sincerity in budgeting habitus as habitus can be created, altered, and reproduced through knowledge.Originality/ValueThis is the first paper to investigate budgetary practices in a university setting, employing all Bourdieu's six theoretical concepts. It contributes to Bourdieu's theory by introducing a submissive strategy. In addition, it introduces “episteme” concept as the opposite of “doxa.” Moreover, the paper responds to the call by Deering and Sá (2018) to investigate what guides budgetary practices in a university setting. The paper has also demonstrated the role of approval organs and subordinates which were neglected in prior studies. It proposes a theory of budgetary practice in a University setting when budgeting is decentralized. It thus responds to the call to investigate and theorize the role of actors in calculative practices (such as budgeting) in a University setting (Argento et al., 2020; Aleksandrov, 2020; Grossi et al., 2020; Ozdil and Hoque, 2017).

show abstract

Section: Budgetary Practices In a Tanzanian Universitysupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Budgetary Practices In Amentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Previous Literature On University Budgetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Budgetary practices in a Tanzanian University: Bourdieu's theory

Mkasiwa

2020

JPBAFM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Finally, the real value of central government grants to local authorities in England fell in over half of the financial years covered by our analysis (see, Department of Environment, various years). It has been argued that cuts in resources are an important antecedent of budgetary instability (for example Ezzamel and Bourn 1995;Greenwood 1984). Our third hypothesis concerning environmental turbulence is therefore that the explanatory power of incrementalism is weaker in years of grant reductions.…”

Section: (C) Environmental Turbulence and Incrementalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing The Limits of Incrementalism: An Empirical Analysis of Expenditure Decisions by English Local Authorities, 1981–1996

Boyne

Ashworth

Powell³

2000

Public Administration

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Studies of budgetary outputs in public organizations are dominated by the theory of incrementalism. This perspective suggests that expenditure decisions are based on simple rules of thumb. We evaluate the validity of incrementalism by examining the annual spending decisions of 403 English local authorities over 15 budgetary cycles. Two budgetary norms are tested empirically: protect the real level of service provision, and follow central expenditure guidelines. Each of these norms is translated into two decision rules: marginality, or the size of deviations from the norm, and regularity, which refers to the consistency of such deviations over time. Few of the statistical results support the hypothesis that local expenditure decisions are dominated by general budgetary norms or specific decision rules. Our evidence therefore casts doubt on the validity of incrementalism as a theory of local budgetary outputs, and as an explanation of spending decisions in the public sector as a whole.

show abstract