Budgeting Games: An Analysis of Budgetary Participation in Statutory Authorities

The purpose of this study is to test the generalizability of the research by Collins, Munter and Finn (1987) as it relates to the relationship of leadership style, games and role stress on the attitude to budgets of middle management in statutory authorities within N.S.W, Australia. The leadership styles positive and punitive were found to have explanatory power of the variance in budgetary attitude. Role stress was found to be negatively correlated. The gameplay patterns of, time, devious and incremental were positively correlated with attitude toward achieving budgets. The devious gameplay was especially linked to leadership styles. A notable distinction with the findings of Collins, Munter and Finn (1987), was that positive leadership style significantly reduced role stress and promoted positive budgetary attitude in middle management. In particular, a middle manager with a positive budgetary attitude and low role stress was more likely to have a superior with a positive leadership style. In addition, the finding of this study provides some support for the literature that questions the validity of the political rhetoric for privatisation of government authorities