Budgetary information and Behavioral Management Accounting perspectives in Italian Public Healthcare Organizations
Abstract
Following the reforms pushed by the new public management (NPM), the national budgeting and accountability systems introduced in the public healthcare organizations (PHOs) have imposed new economic control criteria on doctors heading of operational units and their broader involvement in PHOs’ management. The hybrid nature of doctor-managers may generate risks of role ambiguity, which could induce dysfunctional behaviors in the pursuit of budgetary goals. Studies focused on paths for the effective implementation of doctor-manager hybrid professionalism within PHOs’ budgeting practices highlight the advantages deriving from valuing budgetary information. Particularly, a greater involvement of these budget holders in the feature design of budgetary information can increase their goal congruence with the organization. These dynamics can be valued in the behavioral management accounting (BMA) studies on participative budgeting. Adopting the organizational support theory, this paper analyzes the impact of doctor-managers’ perception of organizational support (POS) on their budgetary participation, both directly and via the indirect effect of satisfaction on budgetary information. A survey was conducted on a sample of 332 doctor-managers of the Italian PHOs. Results show that: POS affects positively budgetary participation and satisfaction with budgetary information; the latter, in turn, affects positively budgetary participation. The study contributes to BMA research on the role of organizational factors, linked to doctor-managers’ involvement in PHOs’ participative budgeting practices.
Keywords: Behavioral management accounting, Organizational support, Budgetary information, Participative budgeting, Public healthcare Organizations
