The effects of perceived accounting competence, Machiavellianism, past budgeting behavior, and beliefs about the effectiveness of past budgeting behavior on budgetary attitude: an empirical analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine variables hypothesized to influence budgetary attitude. The variables selected were perceived accounting competence, Machiavellianism, past budgeting behavior, and beliefs about the consequences of past budgeting behavior.

Studies of budgetary attitude have made significant contributions in the area of managerial accounting theory, and have focused on all aspects of the budgeting process. To avoid possible limitations of previous research, two focuses on budgetary attitude were selected for this study. The first focus was on attitude s toward the budget's value as a managerial tool. The second focus was on attitudes toward involvement in budgeting processes.

The subjects in this study were 282 budgetees of a large state university. The subjects completed and returned a measurement instrument which provided input data pertaining to the study's variables of interest. Tests of the research hypotheses involving these variables were performed using structural equation modeling with LISREL.

Research findings indicate that budgetary attitude is strongly influenced by positive beliefs concerning the effectiveness of straightforward behaviors are most frequestly hel by individuals high in perceived competence who have frequently engaged in straightforward budgeting behaviors in the past. Straightforward budgeting behaviors refer tot the detailed compilation of accounting information and theh formation of the data do provide strong evidence that high Machiavellian individuals engage heavily in manipulative budgeting behaviors, and regard such involvement as being highly effective. However, the data do not support the hypothesis that beliefs about the effectiveness of manipulative behaviors positively influence budgetary attitude. Manipulative behaviors pertain to the political and social aspects of budgetary involvement and do not necessarily require a minimum level of accounting competence. The general implication of these findings is that increasing perceived accounting competence and directing manipulative behaviors toward collaboration would make budgeting processes more effective.