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Budgeting as practice and knowing in action: experimenting with Bourdieu's theory of practice: an empirical evidence from a public university

Asian Journal of Accounting Research

ISSN : 2459-9700

Article publication date: 11 February 2021

Issue publication date: 7 September 2021

The present study aims to explore how various doings, strategic actions and power relations stemming from internal agents are instrumental in (re)constituting the different forms and meanings of budgeting in a specific field.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses a single-case study method based on a Sri Lankan public university. Data are collected using interviews, documentary evidence and observations.

The empirical evidence suggested that internal agents are crucial, and they are the producers of budgetary practice as they possess practical knowledge and power relations in the field where they operate. The case data demonstrate that organisational agents do have real essence as active and acting to produce effects in budgeting practices, and the significance of exploring the singularity of multiple agents in terms of their viewpoints, trajectories, dispositions and power relations, who may form, sustain or interrupt budgetary practices in a given setting.

Research limitations/implications

As the research is directed towards the selection of in-depth enquiry of specific setting infused with culture, values, perception and ideology, it might cause to diminish the researcher's analytical objectivity and independence of the research.

Practical implications

As budgetary practices are product of human interaction, it is important to note that practitioners should be concerned with what agents do in actual practice and their inactions, influences and power relations in budgeting practices, which might not align with the structural forces enlisted in the budgeting. It would be of interest for future empirical research to explore the interplay between the diverse interests of organisational agents and agents beyond the individual organisations.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature on management control practices by documenting the importance of understanding the “practice” through relational thinking of all three concepts is emphasised, such interrelated theoretical insights are seldom used to understand accounting practices. This research emphasises the importance of bringing out the microprocessual facets of management control to open up its non-conscious, non-strategic and non-rationalist forms.

• Budgeting practice
• Practical knowledge
• Power relations

Seneviratne, C.P. and Martino, A.L. (2021), "Budgeting as practice and knowing in action: experimenting with Bourdieu's theory of practice: an empirical evidence from a public university", Asian Journal of Accounting Research , Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 309-323. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJAR-08-2020-0075

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Chaturika Priyadarshani Seneviratne and Ashan Lester Martino

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Background of the study

Budgets are vital in management control processes and generally considered as formal, structural controlling mechanisms enlisted to support the controlling use. Thus, the budget is primarily considered as a coercive tool to assist management to coerce employees' compliance and effort ( Aleksandrov et al. , 2018 ; Horngren et al. , 2014 ; Lambovska et al. , 2019 ; Simons, 1994 ; Sponem and Lambert, 2016 ). However, budgets are not only a diagnostic tool to serve a routine controlling use with a coercive orientation but a mode of coordinating and communicating the strategic priorities of the organisation ( Abernethy and Brownell, 1999 ; O'grady, 2019 ). In the study of a rolling budget, viewing the process from enabling perspective, Henttu-Aho (2016) emphasises that new budgetary practice enables to build a holistic view of the totality of control and supply more relevant information about organisation in a more realistic manner while improving the flexibility and effectiveness of the budgetary work. In public sector organisations, diverse aspect of budgeting including diagnostic and enabling uses are investigated within the effort of complying with statutorily obligations to improve the efficiency ( Jakobsen and Pallesen, 2017 ; Mkasiwa, 2019 ).

By moving beyond the technical–rational function of budgeting as a means of affecting control, the budget is considered as a “multi-faceted phenomenon” in public sector organisations ( Covaleski et al. , 2013 ). Within the wider depiction of budgetary control as a socially constructed phenomenon, an array of research focusses on how budgets are instrumental in shaping behaviour and how budgets emerge as a response to governmental reforms, multiple logics and strategic behaviour in public organisational settings ( Aleksandrov et al. , 2018 ; Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Covaleski and Dirsmith, 1983 , 1986 ; Covaleski et al. , 2013 ; Ezzamel et al. , 2012 ; Harun et al. , 2020 ; Moll and Hoque, 2011 ).

In what ways are specific patterns of dispositions and power relations attuned with the taken-for-granted (doxical) elements in constituting/reconstituting budgetary control practices?

What are the strategies of action [1] of internal agents, how do strategies of action or series of moves emanate from the “practical sense” of budgeting and are deployed in constituting/reconstituting budgetary control practices in a specific field?

This article results from a study of budgetary practice by deploying a qualitative in-depth case study approach in a one large Sri Lankan public university, and the paper differs from prior research in two aspects. First, this study contributes to the management accounting literature by investigating how the impacts stemming from the micro level, including specific practices, competing interests and diverse power relations of internal agents, can shape budgetary control practices of a specific setting. Second, the current study emphasises the significance of understanding the budgetary practice and its practical logic, as opposed to formal, conscious and strategic forms of a public university.

Theoretical framework

The notion of “practice” shares a common theme as the “understanding of how people act in organizational context and relations between the actions people take and the structures of organizational life” ( Feldman and Orlikowski, 2011 , p. 1240). Based on sociological perspectives, Bourdieu formulated a practice theory based on relational thinking to understand the social world in an alternative way ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ). According to Bourdieu, habitus, capital and field are necessarily interconnected, interdependent and co-constructed, conceptually and empirically ( Grenfell, 2008 ). Bourdieu presented an equation to summarise the practice as a result of relations between one's disposition (habitus) and position in the field, which is primarily determined by endowed capital within the contemporary state of play in a particular social domain in its pragmatic sense ( Bourdieu, 2013 , p. 95): ( Habitus × Capital ) + Field = Practice .

In any field, people's behaviour/activities (what people do) are governed by an array of dispositions (practical senses), dubbed as “habitus” ( Bourdieu, 1990 ). Habitus is considered as a practical feel or practical mastery for the game agents' strategic actions are informed by habitus in a given field are not imputed by rational or conscious choice ( Bourdieu, 1990 ; Hurtado, 2010 ) but beyond the deliberate control ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ; Wacquant, 1998 ). Generally, social practices are denoted as strategies, and particular types of social actions or strategies of different groups are generated by that particular group's habitus ( Hurtado, 2010 ).

Central to assertions put forth by Bourdieu (1990) , social space is dubbed as the “field” in which people undertake diverse activities, ruled according to specific interests and its own stakes. The notion of field is created as an attempt to conceptualise a configuration of a network, of objective relations between positions ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ), hierarchically endowed with diverse types of capital. “Doxa” is defined as a set of pre-reflexive, commonly shared, unquestioned, taken-for-granted understandings, spontaneous perceptions and opinions prevailing across the social space determining the natural practice and sense of limits of habitus of the agents in a particular field ( Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ; Grenfell, 2008 ). Agents in dominant positions in the field are granted the power to mould or shape the doxic elements prevailing in the field ( Bourdieu, 1977 ; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ).

As “capital does not exist and function except in relation to a field” ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 101), field situates agents in the field of forces, power relations and desires towards practices. Capital is the stake or weapon mobilised in ongoing power balancing between actors and considered as an outcome of the ongoing position-takings in everyday work ( Bjerregaard and Klitmøller, 2016 ; Chudzikowski and Mayrhofer, 2011 ; Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008 ; Maclean et al. , 2012 ; Schneidhofer et al. , 2015 ). In the theory of power relations, Bourdieu terms “species of capital” as a diverse range of materials and other types of resources accrued by agents in achieving a privileged position in a particular social space ( Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ). Cultural capital, economic capital and social capital are recognised as different forms of capital or resources.

Baxter and Chua (2008) empirically narrated the chief financial officer’s (CFO) practical involvement in terms of habitus in organisational projects and the unorthodox management accounting practices implemented in the organisational setting. In a different context, Lodhia and Jacobs (2013) used Bourdieu's triad concepts of field, habitus and capital in a public sector department in Australia to examine the practical logics of internal practices produced at an individual level in environmental reporting. Goddard (2004) investigated the association between accounting, governance and accountability in local government in the UK, emphasising Bourdieu's notion of habitus. Célérier and Botey (2015) reported a socio-ethnographic study on how participatory budgeting was characterised by accountability practices favouring the election of councillors with distinctive capitals, who were “dominated-dominants dominating the dominated” amongst the budgeting participants. By taking an ethnographic approach, Bourdieu's interdependent relation between habitus, capital and field was used by Jayasinghe and Wickramasinghe (2011) to capture how a particular structural logic governed the resource allocation mechanism of the village. The study by Xu and Xu (2008) investigated interactions and relations between social actors in the field of Chinese banking to demonstrate how actors in social positions possess diverse resources, power and capital, leading some to dominate others.

Strategy as a practice has been merged in a distinctive approach to study organisational strategy and strategising, inclusive of strategic management, decision-making and managerial work ( Gomez, 2010 ; Hurtado, 2010 ; Jarzabkowski et al. , 2007 ; Whittington, 1996 , 2006 ). Hutaibat (2019) used Bourdieu's theory of practice in a Jordanian higher education sector to examine the perceptions of actors in the field, regarding strategising, accounting for strategic management and power structures. Drawing insights from Bourdieusian perspective, Bjerregaard and Klitmøller (2016) examined how subsidiary actors accommodate, actively support and resist various parts of an HQ-mandated management control system in a multinational corporation in a Mexican special economic zone.

Overall, while the above research has been influential in informing the application of the Bourdieusian threefolded concepts to explore the dynamics of individuals, our study aims to explore the internal agents' practical actions, providing a sense of the practices in budgetary controls which were being enacted through the agents who are situated in diverse positions in a field study of a public university.

Research setting, method and design

Based on the research questions and theoretical considerations, this study is founded on qualitative data, applying a single-case study strategy. According to Bourdieu's methodological principles, a one large Sri Lankan public university, i.e. University Sigma is selected as “determinate place in social space”, ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 214) and data are collected over a period of six months during 2014/2015. It is a period in which University Sigma is receptive as it is moving towards an outcome-oriented culture and striving to achieve the standards of a world-class university, under the strategic plan of the Ministry of Higher Education (MHE) of Sri Lanka in 2010. As the performance-based initiatives have been reinforced through the circulation of finance circulars informing all universities that additional funds will be released based on the performance, initial steps have been taken to change the strategic performance management system, along with university budgeting to create high-performing state-owned universities.

Currently, University Sigma operates under the Universities Act No. 16 of 1978, which provides powers to the University Grants Commission (UGC) to intervene directly in university's routine and non-routine operations. University Sigma must comply with the rules and regulations enforced by the UGC and MHE and is subject to the usual public sector financial regulations of the Treasury and Ministry of Finance and Planning. This affects the university's ability to set salaries, retain income generated, sell assets and reinvest the proceeds and raise capital through loans from banks. The governance structure of University Sigma consists of four official boards: the administrative council, the senate (academic board), faculty boards and postgraduate academic boards. Amongst these, the university council is the primary governing body. Other than the chancellor, the main officers of the university are recognised in the University Act as the vice chancellor, registrar, librarian, bursar (treasurer) and the deans of faculties. The vice chancellor is the chief executive officer and principal academic officer who entitled to convene, be present and speak at any meeting of University Sigma.

A total of 35 in-depth interviews were conducted with diverse agents at various hierarchical levels within the research organisation, and interviewees were selected based on the importance of their role with respect to budgetary control. To complete the interview, time varies from 40 min to 120 min. Leaning on the theoretical lens of Bourdieu's practice theory, broad questions were formulated to guide the pilot interviews. Being capitalised on the insights made initially, questions for the subsequent interview questions were refined, capturing the richness of the field. Interview and non-participant observational data were supplemented by different archival records to reinforce the interviewee findings. Moreover, complementing the interviews, direct observations were carried out and field notes were compared to reconfirm and add more insights into interviewee comments.

Thematic analysis is commenced as a prerequisite to making sense, verifications and drawing conclusions from the empirical findings. The interviews were transcribed and then the transcripts were closely examined, key themes highlighted and coding carried out. Once themes have been finalised, templates were prepared for each and every theme to tag and place the information from interview transcripts, observational notes, field notes and archival documents into the identified categories. Thus, to bring the richness of the phenomena under study, the theoretical framework also becomes an important guide in searching for the patterns amongst the coded field evidence and thereby the sense-making process and drawing conclusions were essentially integrated with the theoretical underpinnings of Bourdieu's theory of social actions.

Budgeting control: knowing in practice

The next section discusses how budget as a means of affecting control and also to facilitate the attainment of imposed strategic priorities take place confronting complexities, concerns and conflicting goals amongst the multiple agents within a public university setting.

Individual/group power on the university budget preparation

The budgeting process is officially initiated in the month of August, with the acceptance of the finance circular of the budget call from the UGC. After this, the university bursar communicates the budgetary guidelines to faculty deans, faculty bursars, the registrar and all heads of the service units as a prerequisite to embark on the journey of the budget preparation. The budget committee consists of the deans of the faculties, senior financial and administrative officers (bursars and registrars), the librarian and all other heads of service units of University Sigma and it coordinates the planning phase. The budget committee is chaired by the vice chancellor, who is supposed to act as chair; however, a university bursar is accountable for all deliberations, ranging from the planning to controlling facets in the budgeting process.

We don't have any guarantee whether we'll be given the necessary funds that we requested through the budgetary allocations. So, our staff may not be motivated to participate actively in the planning processes. So why should we prepare our plans if there is no assurance of getting the requested funds?

Consistent with Bourdieu, acknowledging the fact that habitus could be reflected in all practices, the particular action patterns of academic members in budget planning is understood by referring to the deeply embedded doxic experiences that are self-evident within the existing relations of a specific setting ( Lau, 2004 ). According to Hutaibat (2019) , academics tend towards the passively supporting for a proposal collection phase depending upon their doxa and their relation to the more power structure which is embedded in a specific setting. As departmental agents believe that the submission of their proposals will not be fruitful due to possible funding constraints, such regularities potentially impact on making sense of particular action patterns of agents [1] in a specific context ( Grenfell, 2008 ). In a similar vein, another member of an academic department spelled out the underlying reason for their passive participation in the budgetary planning process, “What is the point of spending quite a lot of time in preparing the budget proposals if we can get small amount comparative to what we request?” As above, words provide evidence that actions and perceptions of general academics are habituated by the realities perceived and regularities pursued in relation to the difficulty of getting intended monetary allocations in the particular social space ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ). According to Vaughan (2002), when understanding practical actions, people's habitus is not merely informed by surroundings of their early lives but also by the doxa that remains as unquestioned opinions and perceptions to determine the “sense of limits” of agents participating in the budgeting practice ( Grenfell, 2008 , p. 120).

Persuaded by the importance of capturing the profound aspect of overall habitus of general academics (doxa), the interviews conducted with administration/financial officers of University Sigma highlighted the implicit power that academics possessed based on the doxic understanding that persists in the specific social setting. Hence, from the theoretical point of view, as “doxa” in the organisational setting is necessary for symbolic power ( Hurtado, 2010 ), it causes to attune the habitus of the agents in the research setting under study. A senior project officer reiterated a sense of disappointment, reflecting that doxa refers to capital concerning the symbolic power of academic agents ( Kloot, 2009 , p. 472) and how possession of symbolic power tends to influence the initial planning stage. Alongside symbolic capital informed by doxa, departmental academics are endowed with not only an institutionalised form of cultural capital, in terms of certificates, skills and knowledge, but also intellectual capital, termed “scientific renown” [2] , associated with scholarly reputation on research ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 76). In the public higher education field, those with the institutionalised form of cultural capital, together with intellectual capital, are considered to be “advantaged at the outset as the field depends mainly on such forms of capitals” ( Grenfell, 2008 , p. 69). Since such forms of capitals are valued by the social agents who operate in that social space, they become symbolic capital in the specific field.

Hence, as confessed by several interviewees, general academics are assigned with symbolic authority that situates them in a privileged position of power at Sigma, enabling them to secure benefits and enhance their stake in the social area ( Bjerregaard and Klitmøller, 2016 ; Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Hurtado, 2010 ). Given that general academics are granted the power to shape understanding in relation to budgetary practice, in applying the rules and procedures of the practice in the university setting ( Bourdieu, 1977 ; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ), they tend to impose their doxical understanding on the control practice, even while overlooking the accepted procedures to be accomplished in budgetary planning ( Kloot, 2009 ).

Therefore, corresponding with Bourdieu's assertions, it could be argued that general academics are not mere preprogrammed automatons governed by immutable and unchanging laws as their practices are minimally determined by the specific rules and requirements of budgetary practice. As Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) asserted, based on the distinct profiles of capital (power resources) associated with agents in the research organisation, a distinction is drawn between dominant and dominated positions ( Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ). Within the field, winners/losers and dominancy of the field are determined by the volume and structure of resources associated with different agents; agents possessing more capital relevant to a particular field are considered dominant, with greater possibility in actions to be executed. Dominant agents pursue conservation strategies to preserve the hierarchical principles and safeguard their positions in the hierarchy; in contrast, subversion strategies are pursued by dominated agents to transform the existing system of authority for their benefit ( Wacquant, 1998 ). Thus, as the general academics are situated in the dominant positions, holding symbolic power to secure their stake within the power configuration of University Sigma ( Célérier and Botey, 2015 ), their symbolic power exacerbates goal conflicts amongst other agents being potentially problematic for effective planning of the university budget ( Bjerregaard and Klitmøller, 2016 ). At University Sigma, capacity over interpreting some budgeting procedures is transferred from agents of the university top management to general academics rather by losing the power to obtain the desired contribution from general academics in the planning phase ( Mutiganda et al. , 2013 ).

Against a backdrop where pervasive power relations operate at the bottom level of the social space, it was difficult to determine whether deans have the capacity to exercise power over agents at the departmental level in enforcing their participation in the planning phase. Top faculty agents hold significant academic capital [3] , which is acquired and maintained by taking a top position in the management hierarchy of the university and enables domination of other positions ( Kloot, 2009 ). Such academic capital mainly depends on the principle of legitimation, corresponding to the fact that the organisational hierarchy is well aligned with social power ( Kloot, 2009 ). Given that, faculty deans are identified as powerful or dominant agents, possessing broad power resources and organisational capital, providing the ability to act as “master” in terms of the rules and procedures of planning and other operational matters associated with the budgetary process ( Bourdieu, 2005 ).

In terms of capturing actual practices of key university agents in the planning phase, this revealed that the faculty dean's actions, interests and perceptions are derived as adherence to the sense of what is appropriate and proper in a given situation ( Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ). According to Célérier and Botey (2015) , being an influential agent in the faculty, the faculty dean has the liberty to decide and accommodate the activities in the faculty budget, without referring to subordinate agents' proposals (the heads of departments). Based on the endowed social networks, the faculty dean has the capacity to obtain necessary funds for the budget proposals that he included in faculty budgets according to his discretion, bypassing the granted budget allocations.

Substantiating the above insights, faculty dean 2 described how agents tend to act on the practical understanding of the logic of budgeting, which determines the “doable and thinkable” limits over the phase of budget planning ( Grenfell, 2008 , pp. 54–59; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ). As the top faculty officers possessing practical expertise in planning and operational issues pertinent to the faculty budgetary process, they tend to minimise lapses which arise due to insufficient participation from the academic departments. Irrespective of the formal budget procedures, they act with the tacit knowing of the way of things happen in the particular social space, to achieve the full potential of the faculty through budgetary planning ( Gomez, 2010 ). Thus, the field empirical evidence revealed that due to insufficient participation of departmental agents in gathering necessary input to prepare the budget, budget planning is centred in the hands of the bursar and dean of the faculty.

In the second phase, the programme budget [4] is prepared by considering budget proposals included in the budget call. As stipulated by the UGC in the budget specimen, the accounting rationale of linking performance indicators, action plans and monetary allocations is to intensify the controlling aspect of the university budget. Moreover, by reiterating the negative consequences of passive participation of academic departments in the initial budget planning, university bursar 1 highlighted the challenge of identifying key performance indicators and linking such measures accurately to ensure employees' behaviour aligned with targets stipulated in the university budget ( Widener, 2007 ).

From an accounting perspective, planning is considered as an important aspect of budgetary process because it is related to the subsequent control phase in the organisational control process. However, in the absence of realistic information from the bottom level as senior bursars at the university level tend to act without clear strategic intentions linking desired outcomes and budgetary allocations. They tend to preserve the existing order in preparing the budget in compliance with the UGC, in spite of the underlying accounting logic of prioritising and linking strategic aims with the estimated financial disbursements. Hence, the budget as a “control tool” is not effective in the planning process ( Covaleski et al. , 2013 , p. 338); rather, planning merely fulfils compliance controls, to avoid any explicit violation of budget guidelines imposed by higher education authorities ( Cunningham, 2004 ).

Practical logics of actions in managing the university budget

Examining human conduct around the programme budget reveals that it is a product of individual strategic choice in a university setting ( Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ). Speaking about the pervasive engagement undertaken in fulfilling the requests for financial disbursements made by diverse organisational agents, either within or beyond the given programme budget, university bursar 1 continued, “Budget is a guideline. But we can do more work even beyond the budget if we really want to work in improving the status of university”. Many interviews with bursars at different hierarchical and faculty levels reflected the need to take spontaneous actions without being merely confined to the programme budget ( Bourdieu, 1990 ; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ). Acknowledging this, a senior assistant bursar of the finance division noted, “Even though some of the activities are not in a budget plan, there are possibilities to meet those requests with the special approval”. According to Bourdieu's terminology, in fulfilling the diverse requests made by internal agents, bursars pursue “immanent necessity”, without being restricted to the preprogrammed disbursement levels ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ).

Noting that budgetary requests are facilitated in a manner compatible with the budget guidelines, an assistant bursar said, “In many instances, we had to handle requests for financial disbursements on situational basis without violating the fundamental budget guidelines”. Thus, bursars have developed a strong practical mastery in the art of managing the university budgetary process, without explicitly violating the budgetary rules and guidelines on stipulated strategic objectives and budget limits in day-to-day operations ( Baxter and Chua, 2008 ). In accordance with these insights, university bursar 1 noted the significance of undertaking actions based on reasonableness and the effort she made in handling such requests from the departmental level.

In particular, a university bursar is endowed with “technically-based bureaucratic capital” and “bureaucratic capital of experience” through acquiring knowledge of regulations and more rationalised procedures and techniques pertinent to the budgetary practices over a longer period ( Bourdieu, 2005 , p. 117). Therefore, based on the wider positional capacities, the university bursar is capable of reconsidering whether to facilitate ad hoc financial disbursement requests made by the faculty bursar that are not appropriately tabled in the programme budget or for which allocated funds are not adequate. Thus, the dispositions of bursars are set up by unconscious learning and also incorporating embedded field values in the practice of university budgeting.

In compliance with the budgetary guidelines, the university bursar may strive to obtain special approval from the finance committee of University Sigma to fulfil requests of a recurrent nature beyond the programme budget. In another instance, a university bursar noted how she struggled to get approval for disbursements of a capital nature from the UGC, which was supposed to be approved by the finance committee and council of University Sigma. From a practice perspective, rules do not always bring an end to actions; rather, agents negotiate the rules with the necessary authorities in order to facilitate the accomplishment of certain actions, by overseeing budgetary limits strategically in the social space under study ( Swartz, 2002 ). Seen in this light, the university bursar is an individual who is capable of justifying certain actions or requests to the higher authorities of the university (i.e. the finance committee and council), which are not in fact explicitly specified in university budget but accepted by higher authorities of university as appropriate ( King, 2000 ).

Consistent with Inghilleri (2005) , it is evident that the strategic actions pursued by bursars depend on the knowledge gathered to “know” how budgetary controls operate, embodied in the negotiating the official budgetary rules to minimise adverse effects, for their own conservation in a university setting. However, field evidence vividly reflects how tension is triggered between the need to fulfil the ad hoc requests with necessary monetary disbursements outside to the budget and the necessity to comply with budgetary limits and procedures. As bursar 6 noted, “However by satisfying our staff's requests, we should be compliance with budgetary rules and guidelines. We have to manage both sides”. Further substantiating these views, bursar 4 voiced her grievances about how the symbolic power of departmental agents creates conflicting interests in managing the budget within the pre-planned budget limits ( Semeen et al. , 2016 ). According to Farjaudon and Morales (2013) , it is clear that the dominated, i.e. bursars may “participate in the pursuit of dominant interests, possibly unknowingly or in the belief that they are pursuing their own interests” (p. 155).

The given nature of bursars' practices could be understood as a practical logic of the way that things happen in the budgetary process in the specific research setting under study. Therefore, without strictly adhering to programme budgets, agents may pursue strategies premised on a practical sense of budgetary practice to produce certain actions in the social space under enquiry ( McDonough, 2006 ). Interviewees at the finance division revealed that, irrespective of the requests made beyond the budget, bursars tend to capitalise on their practical mastery of budgetary functions to fulfil requests not only to satisfy the departmental or faculty-level agents but to maintain or enhance personal credibility amongst members of University Sigma ( Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ).

As revealed in the interviews with financial officers, university financial officers have devised strategies to ensure the continuity of university operations increasing the capabilities of University Sigma and to maintain or develop credibility towards bursars by negotiating budgetary rules with the necessary authorities ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ). Hence, being the embodiment of “immanent regularities and tendencies” relating to the budgeting practice ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 138), the specific perceptions and actions of university bursars are attuned to expedite activities as planned in the university budget. This is consistent with the exploration of Baxter and Chua (2008) , who characterised the CFO's habitus from a technical accounting angle, allowing a demonstration of the competencies in managing a diverse range of activities of different lines of business in a large company.

Being an agent responsible for the overall university budgetary process, the university bursar (top financial officer) explained how her individual practices are frequently inscribed with social determination attached to the position where she operates ( King, 2005 ). However, there are instances where the university bursar engaged in budgetary process significantly depends on her discretion to realise the targets in the university budget. Thus, day-to-day individual actions are not simply constrained by the external constraints; instead, they are informed by the deeply ingrained past experiences and restraints offered by the present conditions ( Swartz, 2002 ). Although the budget is considered a mechanism to exert control over the agents who are expected to operate within the predefined limits, these limits can be exploited by the specific practical actions of the bursars ( Ahrens and Chapman, 2004 ; Wouters and Wilderom, 2008 ). Without explicitly violating the rules of budgetary practice, bursars place great emphasis on enabling the situations by going beyond the pre-planned budgetary limits in line with their “sense of practice” to ensure the best for University Sigma ( Grenfell, 2008 ; Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ; Raedeke et al. , 2003 ; Swartz, 2002 ).

Concluding discussion

The paper has examined in what ways do field, capital and habitus interplay to determine individual strategies of actions (practices) reflected through perceptions, appreciations, tensions and conflicting interests and how do they influence budgetary control practice. In conclusion, the empirical evidence suggested that practices are not conscious or mechanistic obedience to a rigid set of rules, guidelines and procedures of budgetary control; instead, their specific practices are attuned with “practical sense” or “taken-for-granted sense” of the regular budgetary practice prevailing in the public university setting ( Bourdieu, 1990 ; Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 ; Hutaibat, 2019 ). Further, Bourdieu's theorisation of social practices illustrated how individuals/groups are enabled to choose strategies of actions in budgetary control as a product of specific dispositions and interests associated with the particular power position in a given field ( Battilana, 2006 ; Boedker, 2010 ; Carter et al. , 2011 ; Hutaibat, 2019 ; Khanchel and Kahla, 2013 ; Vaughan, 2008 ). Taking into account Bourdieu's practice insights, as the dispositions of general academics are informed by symbolic power, doxa and self-evident understanding in the particular setting, the subversion strategies are evident in the budget-setting phase ( Célérier and Botey, 2015 ; Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008 ; Emirbayer and Williams, 2005 ; Hutaibat, 2019 ; Semeen et al. , 2016 ).

As Hutaibat (2019) asserted different forms of capital create power structures of the specific field, such power diversity and power relations are evident amongst the agents of University Sigma. Further, being consistent with Carter et al. (2011) who suggested that power structures are capable of influencing the strategising, accounting and decision- making, it is evident that budgeting practices are shaped by key university agents (i.e. deans) and their experiences. Similarly, being situated in the subservient position in the university power configuration, finance/administrative officers tend to silently accept the budgetary rules in the policy-laden context by indicating successive strategies.

As with the findings of Lodhia and Jacobs (2013) , particularly finance/administrative officers are skilful agents with a strong sense of practical mastery in the art of operating the budgetary process. By negotiating the rules of budgetary practice, their actions typically emanate from the “immanent necessary” to sustain the enlisted coercive tendencies in support of achieving control in the budgetary process ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ; Swartz, 2002 ). However, based on the sense of practice, with a vested interest in compliance with the existing order of control practice to ensure survival in the current position in the university hierarchy, there could be instances where agents may act by giving an appearance of obeying rules in the actual budgetary practice ( Lamaison and Bourdieu, 1986 ).

When probing the practices of internal agents, it is suggested that budgetary practice is often driven by financial/administrative agents who are situated at subservient positions in the university field. In conclusion, the case data on institutionally imposed budgeting practice suggested that the micro effects stemming from multiple agents who pursue competing interests, mutually opposed strategies and power relations are significant in understanding variability in budgetary practice in a public university setting ( Al-Htaybat and Von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2018 ).

It is discerned through this study that differing positions in the power configuration, access to resources in the field and dispositions of individuals determine the nature and extent of effects that agents can produce on management control practices ( Battilana, 2006 ; Khanchel and Ben Kahla, 2013 ; Lodhia and Jacobs, 2013 ; Vaughan, 2008 ). In line with Vaughan's (2008) assertion, “social location was crucial to the outcome” (p. 76); the study suggested that an individual's position in the organisational power hierarchy is essential in understanding how their perceptions, appreciations and power relations are enabled to deploy specific practices and exert power in an organisational setting. Consistent with Emirbayer and Williams (2005) , the field analysis provides understanding on the mutually opposing interests and strategies of internal agents pursuing conservation, subversion and successive strategies in management control practice, depending on the degree of dominated or dominant poles recognised in the power configuration ( Emirbayer and Johnson, 2008 ; Vaughan, 2008 ).

The most compelling implication for practitioners arising from the study is the importance of understanding that management controls are not all they seem to be; rather, they could operate differently, in irrational, unconscious or non-strategic ways, in the actual practice of the budgetary process. It is vital to understand that management controls (i.e. budgeting) are commonly shaped by the micro-facets stemming from the individual/group level of the specific organisational setting. Thus, the study provides insights about the need to explore below the surface as management control practice is seldom as it appears to be.

As several agents interact in management control practices in diverse ways, agents are generally recognised according to the nature of their duties and professional capacity in the Sigma setting. The first category is identified as agents who are predominantly academics, who currently hold top administrative positions in the faculty or university level in the research setting. In order to denote the positions that carry these characteristics, we use the term “key university official”. The second category is identified as agents who purely hold middle- and top-level administrative and administration of finance positions, such as the university registrar and bursar. The third category is denoted as “academic member”, with a primary role dealing with teaching, learning and research.

Scientific renown refers to intellectual or scientific capital deriving from scholarly reputation and is not necessarily connected to position within the institution ( Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992 , p. 76).

Obtaining and maintaining the top hierarchical position enables domination of other positions and holders of different capital.

In this phase, the budget preparation changes from a “needs” basis to an “availability” basis.

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Further reading

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Budgeting Strategies and Its Impact to the Financial Decision-Making of Grade 12 ABM Students in Bestlink College of the Philippines School Year 2018-2019

• Rene Nicculo S. Deloso
• Maria Theress A. Gales
• Gloria Marie C. Labasan
• Juvie B. Boneo
• Rosario Janyll H. Laceda
• Crystel-Joy S. Tamon

This study aims to identify how students manage their finances in a very effective way. Budgeting allowances is one of the problems of most students; some tend to manage their allowances and some do not. The essence of this research is to open the minds of the students about the vital role of having budgeting strategies in their daily financial management. This study also helps parents to assist the students in budgeting the allowances they give. This study was limited only in Bestlink College of the Philippines during the school year 2018-2019. A qualitative method was used in the study. Using a descriptive research design, it focused on the assessment of 50 ABM Grade 12 students. There were four budgeting strategies such as DIY (Do It Yourself), plan your weekly meals, use a piggy bank, and set aside your wants to need, making an impact on their financial decision making in terms of School Expense, Food, Savings, and Other Expense/Wants. Data were collected by distributing questionnaires to the target respondents using purposive sampling. The results of the study revealed that Budgeting strategies such as DIY (Do It Yourself), plan your weekly meals, use of a piggy bank, and set aside your wants to need has an impact on the financial decision-making of ABM Grade 12 Students in terms of the aforecited variables. (1) School Expenses–Budgeting strategies help the students decide whether to print their documents or to write it, also they think to use recyclable materials to make school projects. (2) Food –Budgeting strategies help the students to decide if they should bring their food or buy the cheapest food in the canteen. (3) Savings –Budgeting strategies help the students save their excess money and think about their priority rather than their wants. (4) Other Expenses/Wants –Budgeting strategies help the students buy their wants with the use of their savings. The results demonstrate the need for the teachers and School Administrators to monitor the expenses of the students in their academics. The school must conduct a seminar that will help the students know the significance of Budgeting Strategies in their daily financial decision making. Parents should be the first ones to teach their children how to properly manage their money.

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• v.52(9); 2023 Sep
• PMC10682572

Budgeting in Healthcare Systems and Organizations: A Systematic Review

Abbas homauni.

1. Department of Health Management and Economics, School of Medicine, Aja University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Nader Markazi-Moghaddam

2. Critical Care Quality Improvement Research Center, Shahid Modarres Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Ali Mosadeghkhah

3. Department of Endocrinology, Aja University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran

Majid Noori

4. Infectious Diseases Research Center, Aja University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Kourosh Abbasiyan

Sanaz zargar balaye jame, associated data.

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Background:

Budgeting is the process resource allocation to produce the best output according to the revenue levels involved. Among the constraints that healthcare organizations, including hospitals, both in the public and private sectors, grapple with is budgetary constraints. Therefore, cost control and resource management should be considered in healthcare organizations under such circumstances.

We aimed to identify methods of budgeting in healthcare systems and organizations as a systematic review. To extract and analyze the data, a form was designed by the researcher to define budgeting methods proposed in the literature and to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and dimensions. The search was conducted in Google Scholar, Web of science, Pub med and Scopus databases covering the period 1990–2022.

Overall, 33 articles were included in the study for extraction and final analysis. The study results were reported in four main themes: healthcare system budgeting, capital budgeting, global budgeting, and performance-based budgeting.

Conclusion:

Each budgeting approach has its own pros and cons and requires meeting certain requirements. These approaches are selected and implemented depending on each country’s infrastructure and conditions as well as its organizations. These infrastructures need to be thoroughly examined before implementing any budgeting method, and then a budgeting method should be selected accordingly.

Introduction

A budget is a key lever in organizational planning and management ( 1 ). It can be defined as an estimate of revenues/expenditures over a given time ( 2 ). Budgeting is the process of resource allocation to produce the best outputs according to the revenue levels involved ( 3 ). If done properly, budgeting can help managers better manage and control the organization ( 4 ). As a management planning/control tool, budgeting helps coordinate activity concentration and control in organizations. Budgeting shows financial management orientation to organizations. Therefore, every organization has revenue and expenses that need budget and budgeting ( 5 ).

The health (healthcare) sector is considered as one of the basic sectors in the process of economic ( 6 ) and social development in each country ( 7 ).

The bulk of countries’ budgets goes to the healthcare system. About 10% of the GDP of many countries is allocated to the healthcare system ( 8 ). Moreover, examining the costs of healthcare systems and organizations indicates an increase in the costs allocated to healthcare services ( 9 ). This can be due to several reasons, including population aging and the adoption of state-of-the-art healthcare technologies ( 10 ). The improved quality of healthcare services is a double-edged sword, both increasing life expectancy and making the aging population in need of more healthcare, which, in turn, increases the cost of healthcare services. Accordingly, policymakers are increasingly motivated to reduce healthcare costs ( 11 ).

Numerous studies have been conducted on healthcare cost control over the past three decades, and various economic models have been developed for this purpose, especially in hospitals. These models are more focused on cost structure, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and cost-benefit analysis. Numerous measures have been taken to control the cost of healthcare systems and organizations in recent years, including changing accounting approaches, a modified approach to budgeting, and service cost control in hospitals and other healthcare organizations ( 12 ).

Among the constraints that healthcare organizations, including hospitals, both in the public and private sectors, grapple with is budgetary constraints ( 13 ). Therefore, cost control and resource management should be considered in healthcare organizations under such circumstances. They need to consider budget/resource management such that the quality of healthcare services is not affected as their actions directly affect human health ( 14 ).

Various budgeting methods have been addressed in many previous studies In global budgeting, a certain amount of budget is allocated to services offered to a given population for a certain time (usually one year). The global budgeting method has its advantages and disadvantages, which will be mentioned below. Many studies have evaluated the performance of the global budgeting approach and its practical results ( 15 – 18 ).

Furthermore, the capital budgeting approach is employed to meet capital needs in healthcare organizations ( 19 ). Surgical operations are becoming more complex and reliant on specialized equipment and techniques, necessitating increased investment by hospitals and other healthcare organizations ( 20 ). During normal periods, a large portion of hospitals’ capital budget and investment decisions relating to the capital raising practices required to provide replacement/upgrade costs for outdated equipment and facilities. In many hospitals, specifically older hospitals, a lot of capital is needed to upgrade the existing physical space, including facilities and equipment, reduced liquidity and increased the debt ratio with financial problems, and the bankruptcy of these hospitals. Therefore, funding seems to be essential for healthcare organizations, especially hospitals ( 21 ).

Performance-based budgeting (also called program budgeting) is another budgeting approach that has recently gained popularity. It is a planning, budgeting, and evaluation system that emphasizes the association between budget spent and outcomes. It has been widely discussed in the budgeting literature. This approach has certain features, such as flexible budgeting associated with performance goals and program outcome measures ( 22 ).

Despite all efforts to improve budgeting practices in the healthcare systems and organizations, the healthcare system still seems to suffer from increased costs and inefficient resource utilization. We aimed to explore budgeting methods, dimensions, and strengths and weaknesses, as well as to provide several solutions to improve it.

We aimed to identify methods of budgeting in healthcare systems and organizations as a systematic review. For this purpose, the keywords Hospital OR teaching hospital OR poly clinic OR clinic OR public hospital OR non-profit hospital OR health OR health system OR health care system OR healthcare OR health service OR healthcare service AND budget OR budgeting OR budgeting model OR cost estimation OR income estimation OR revenue estimation OR financial management OR capital budgeting OR global budgeting OR periodic financial forecast OR resource allocation OR budget planning OR budget process OR budget format OR budget framework OR budgeting planning OR operational budgeting OR operational budgeting model OR budget forecast OR operational based budgeting OR zero based budgeting OR budgeting component OR operational budgeting component OR performance budgeting OR personnel budgeting OR equipment budgeting OR employee budgeting OR budget allocation OR zero based budget OR contract-based budgeting OR performance-based budgeting OR budgeting steps OR activity-based budgeting OR population budgeting OR facility budgeting OR case-mix budgeting OR global budgeting OR line by line budgeting OR policy budgeting OR project budgeting, as well as the Google Scholar, Pub Med, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were used. The period of studies was from 1990-2022. The final papers were selected for inclusion in a three-step process. In the first step, the titles of all articles were reviewed, and articles unrelated to the research subject were excluded. In the second stage, the abstracts were studied, and irrelevant articles were excluded. Finally, the remaining articles were read in full text, and articles tailored to the research purpose were included in the study.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

• Articles and reports published from 1990–2022
• Studies written in Persian or English
• Articles and reports on budgeting in the healthcare system or healthcare organizations
• Articles and reports on the budgeting process, budgeting approaches, and their strengths and weaknesses

Articles that did not have the above characteristics were excluded from the study.

Data extraction/analysis method

To extract and analyze the data, a form was designed by the researcher to define budgeting methods proposed in the literature and to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and dimensions. The information on each budgeting method was then put on the form. Fig. 1 illustrates the article selection process:

article selection process

Overall, 33 articles were included in the study for extraction and final analysis. Table 1 lists various budgeting methods identified in the literature:

Various methods of budgeting in healthcare systems

Budgeting in healthcare systems

To ensure health budgeting is in line with health priorities, health planning beneficiaries must be strategically involved in the process and be prepared to support it ( 23 ). Department and operating unit managers in healthcare organizations are regarded as the main budget-makers (budgeteers) of these organizations, involved in budgeting ( 24 ). A standard budget cycle consists of four phases:

• Preparation and submission;
• Approval (authorization);
• Audit and evaluation (authorization) ( 25 ).

The following principles must be followed for successful budget planning and execution in healthcare systems and organizations:

Employees’ and managers’ participation in the budgeting process can enhance their commitment to budget execution ( 26 ).Part of the budgeting process should be delegated to managers to do budgeting with their employees’ assistance ( 27 ).The need for identifying and preventing various biases in the budgeting process in hospitals and healthcare organizations, including unintentional cognitive bias (due to cognitive errors, information asymmetry, and limited information), intentional bias (upward bias and reciprocity bias), and blame avoidance approach ( 28 ).One of the possible errors when budgeting is mere cost control and disregarding service quality. Cost control is a double-edged sword, leading to a decline in service quality and customer dissatisfaction ( 29 ).

Budget performance feedback should be provided to managers and officials periodically so that they can timely identify budget variance and modify their performance ( 26 ). Budgeters should consider their stakeholder satisfaction when budgeting because stakeholders are the organization’s key customers whose dissatisfaction can significantly damage the organization ( 30 ). Among the criteria used in the studies are national priorities (preferences), essential services, historical budget, health needs, the feasibility analysis of international priorities (preferences), personal relationships, and generation of income ( 31 ).

Table 2 lists the methods/approaches identified in a healthcare system as well as the dimensions/characteristics and practical results of implementing each of them.

Budgeting methods/approaches in the healthcare system

This study analyzed the different budgeting methods used in healthcare systems. Various studies have examined the method of global budgeting. In Roberts study, the application of the global budgeting method does not directly affect the increase of primary healthcare and the decrease of hospital services ( 16 ). Cost control measures resulting from the global budget with a significant impact on physician performance included lowering the average prescription drug costs for outpatients and limiting access to examinations, drugs, and surgeries. Decreased patient satisfaction was associated with decreased admission of patients with deteriorating conditions, decreased access to commercial drugs, and increased patients’ total cost due to an increased number of referrals ( 36 ). In Berenson study, maintaining services quality through executing global budgeting was emphasized As Petrou study, also global budgeting execution must be accompanied by explicit service coverage guidelines ( 33 ). In Dredge Report, the benefits of global budgeting were introduced, which in this sense is consistent with Petrou study. As in the previous study, this study also discussed applying historical, normative, and per capita approaches.

This study enumerates other benefits of global budgeting, including the elimination of inessential services and improved service coordination/planning, in addition to its previous benefits ( 32 ).

Global budgets can provide strong financial incentives for cost control. Properly structured, the global budget can guarantee some degree of financial stability for hospitals, especially in rural areas. This study also enumerates global budgeting services, including covered services, covered patient population, solutions to ensure third-party payer participation, base year budgeting method, updating base year budget in the next taxable years, identifying any base budget adjustment, budget management method. The mechanism for calculating market share changes, monitoring hospital performance and the general system, and developing/implementing a contract between the global budget hospitals and the institution (s) that administer the global budget system. One research suggestion was that pay for performance (P4P) could be increased by implementing supplemental incentive programs to ensure that service quality is not compromised by providers trying to control prices ( 34 ).

GB could further contribute to reducing healthcare costs and increasing healthcare quality compared to FFS. Regarding service volume, while the length of stay (LOS) and monthly hospital admissions decreased the number of drugs in each case and cases containing antibiotics remained unchanged ( 39 ). Moreover, executing global budgeting in Maryland was associated with ED admissions significantly reduced compared to hospitals under payment service structure ( 40 ). Although the results of another study showed that, the global budget system was associated with longer length of stay, higher healthcare costs, and higher healthcare quality in patients treated for acute pancreatitis ( 41 ).

Another approach to budgeting is capital budgeting, addressed in four studies, the results of Ho study showed that the repayment method was the main criterion for evaluating long-term hospital investment projects in a sample of small hospitals in the United States. There are also a considerable number of hospitals whose approach seems to be incorrectly dealing with the effects of inflation. On the other hand, sample hospitals seem to be aware of the need for tangible and intangible costs/benefits ( 42 ).

Physicians have an important role in developing and validating offers in most healthcare systems. Physicians who play do not significantly contribute to the success of their preferred hospital, direct investment costs, and budget deficit compensation do not affect healthcare systems in multiple institutions ( 21 ).

As hospitals are likely to benefit from multiple funding sources to meet their general capital budget, the projects evaluated by them are expected to cover the average cost of capital (called weighted average cost of capital (WACC)). WACC refers to the rate at which obstacles must be overcome before being accepted by the finance team and implemented by the company. The severity of the COVID-19 crisis is likely to be much greater in smaller hospitals with less access to different financial resources rather than larger hospitals or hospital systems likely to have significant financial resources and good relationships with financial service providers for financing ( 44 ).

Another approach to budgeting is performance-based budgeting. In this approach, the technical elements of performance-based budgeting are setting short-term, medium-term, and strategic goals. In the early 2000s, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) defined the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as a framework for guiding public sector planning and budgeting, especially in low- and middle-income countries. One of the lessons learned from the Kenyan experience is that LMICs that adopt PPBs should develop clear guidelines for implementing and updating financial management systems to align with the PBB framework ( 46 ). The importance of MTEF in performance-based budgeting was addressed ( 3 ). It is difficult to align planning and budgeting in Kenya. This can be attributed to several factors, including poor oversight of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, institutionalized segregation of rapidly changing planning/budgeting, planning and budgeting environments, lack of reliable goal-setting data, and poor involvement of key stakeholders in the process. Including a top-down approach to goal-setting. Increasing the effectiveness of performance-based budgeting requires the institutional integration of planning and budgeting processes into a shared cycle/framework with shared reporting lines, data recovery, and local input for information on appropriate and realistic settings ( 49 ).

Flexibility with responsiveness, are the key features of performance-based budgeting. Public healthcare budgets and expenditures could be categorized and clearly described descriptively. A framework can also be provided to support program budgeting and performance measurement. Public health policymakers/specialists may then initiate an important discussion to prioritize actions and outcomes ( 50 ).

The steps of setting up a performance-based budgeting system were described, including changing the accounting approach from cash to accrual, developing a cost price system, executing performance-based budgeting, productivity management, evidence-based analysis, and decision making ( 47 ). Moreover, despite adequate admission and cost-effective execution of performance-based budgeting, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) lacks the necessary capabilities and authority. SUMS lacked sufficient infrastructure to execute performance-based budgeting while conducting research ( 51 ).

Managers and heads of operational units and departments are considered the main decision-makers of hospitals that should be involved in the budgeting process ( 28 ). The involvement of budget executors in budgeting was also discussed in one study ( 25 ). The importance of participation in budgeting was discussed in another study. The budget participation (followed by budget control and feedback) and budget complexity had the greatest and least impact on budget performance in Kenyan state-owned hospitals ( 26 ). In Kenya, delegation of authority allows local prioritization and public participation in planning and budgeting in the healthcare sector, leading to an increase in equal opportunities for local resource allocation. In this study, health policymakers were recommended to develop a broad understanding of countries’ political context while designing and implementing technical strategies for decentralizing the healthcare sector ( 27 ). In the budgeting process, providing budget feedback to department/unit managers and supervisors is second only to participation. Since budget feedback information is effective in monitoring, controlling, and encouraging budget managers, budget feedback will positively affect managers’ budget incentives (sense of success and promotion). The presence of a division manager in budgetary planning indicates the high capability of the organization for budget execution. In addition, the advice of the division manager and the consideration of his views in budgetary planning will lead to an increase in the positive/acceptable attitude towards budget participation, which will have a positive effect on the budget incentive ( 24 ).

The stages of budgeting in healthcare systems in Ghana were described in Arthur study, including informing the goals, identifying limiting factors, initial budgeting based on goals and limiting factors, budget negotiation (a participatory process), budget approval, budget participation, and budget management ( 29 ).

Eight budgeting methods in healthcare organizations, including population-based, facility-based, case mix-based, global, line-by-line, policy-based, project-based, and ministerial discretion. ( 31 ).

The following conclusions were drawn from a study:

• - Hospital-level prioritization can be improved by aligning budgeting and planning, combining the clear role of decision-making structures, and applying explicit and formal decision-making criteria.
• - Hospital-level prioritization methods can be improved in terms of efficiency and equality in decision making and yielding intermediate results, including stakeholder satisfaction/understanding, changed priorities, and implemented decisions.
• - Cooperation includes the following conditional democratic principles: participation/empowerment of stakeholders, transparency, use of evidence, reconsideration, and application/combination of community values. It can improve hospital-level prioritization practices ( 23 ).

The healthcare system is one of the most expensive sectors in any country; therefore, it is necessary to monitor closely this sector’s costs. The experience of different countries has shown that just increasing the costs of the healthcare system does not necessarily lead to improving public health. Therefore, the method of budget allocation to different health departments is very important. Healthcare systems and organizations use different budgeting approaches, three of described in this study. Each budgeting method has its own pros and cons and must meet certain requirements. Each of these methods is selected and implemented depending on the infrastructure and conditions of each country and its organizations. For this purpose, before implementing any of the methods above, these infrastructures are first analyzed, and then one of the abovementioned methods is selected accordingly.

Journalism Ethics considerations

Ethical issues (Including plagiarism, informed consent, misconduct, data fabrication and/or falsification, double publication and/or submission, redundancy, etc.) have been completely observed by the authors.

Availability of data and materials

Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to the study participants for their time and viewpoints. This study was not supported by any financial sources

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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Hate Budgeting? Here's How to Reframe It

Budgeting can seem like a drag but it's actually the key to unlocking more of what you want.

Hate Budgeting? Here's How to Reframe It

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To guard against this pitfall, experts suggest assessing your expenses and following a detailed budget.

Key Takeaways

• Budgeting can feel like a chore that results in deprivation.
• Experts recommend reframing it as a tool that helps you get more of what you want.
• In reality, budgeting helps you plan for the future and enjoy the present.
• Frameworks, goal setting, budgeting tools and more can help you start and stick to your budget.

Is budgeting a can of worms that you'd rather keep closed? Many find it restrictive and prefer to spend as they please without worrying about strict limits.

The problem comes, however, when you run out of money between paychecks or can't afford larger purchases like a down payment on a house. Considering that 62% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, according to a November 2023 survey by Lending Club, these situations aren't far-fetched.

So, is there a way to budget without feeling restricted or deprived? Many experts say yes.

How to Reframe Budgeting

Overall, budgeting enables more awareness so you're not left wondering where your money goes each month. Further, it allows you to decide what you want your future to look like.

"Think of budgeting as a gateway to building wealth and establishing long-term financial stability. Saving allows you to make progress toward short- and long-term goals, whether it’s buying a home or retiring," Mary Hines Droesch, the head of consumer and small business products at Bank of America, said in an email. But it's not all delayed gratification.

"Spending mindfully and cutting back in some areas doesn't mean that you can’t enjoy an occasional latte in the morning before work or a celebratory steak dinner at your favorite restaurant," Droesch said.

Andrea Woroch, a consumer and money-saving expert, recommends considering budgeting as a tool that helps you get more of what you want.

"For instance, a budget can reveal that you're overspending on certain monthly bills and offer savings in other areas without causing much sacrifice," Woroch said in an email.

Uncovering those savings can allow you to spend more on things you thought you couldn't afford, she said. For example, perhaps you can afford more traveling or a monthly massage.

Melissa Murphy Pavone, a certified financial planner and the director of investments at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., also recommends focusing on the benefits of budgeting rather than the sacrifices. "I work with my clients to shift the focus to optimizing what is coming in and getting to allocate what is going out," she said in an email.

Tips to Make a Budget Work for You

Once you see budgeting more positively, how can you make it work for you? Try these four strategies:

1. Set Financial Goals

Droesch recommended setting achievable financial goals.

"Whether you want to take that dream vacation or buy a car, goal setting can be a key motivator," Droesch said.

And the more specific you are with your goal setting, the better. "Align your goals to a specific timeline and work out how much you need to save each month to ensure that your aim is realistic," she said.

It can also help to share your goals with people close to you. Droesch pointed out that discussing your financial goals with someone you trust and occasionally checking in with them can help keep you accountable.

2. Start With a Framework

How much of your income should you be saving for your goals?

"Take 50% of your after-tax income to cover needs like rent and utilities or debt repayments, 30% to cover wants, like dining out, and 20% to be put into savings," Droesch said.

While you may need to make adjustments to these allocations over time, the 50/30/20 rule is a good starting point.

3. Beware of Lifestyle Inflation

Growing income allows you to fast-track the path to your goals. However, you'll have to overcome the temptation to spend it all on lifestyle upgrades.

"Many people get into a poor financial cycle of lifestyle inflation which means they take on bigger expenses and spend more when they make more. This takes away from the opportunity to build savings, invest and build wealth," Woroch said.

To guard against this pitfall, Woroch suggested assessing your expenses and following a detailed budget . Whenever you get a raise or cash windfall , revisit your budget and decide how you can best spend it.

4. Use Budgeting Tools

Lastly, Woroch recommended using technology to help you set goals, track progress and hold yourself accountable.

"For example, GoodBudget uses the cash envelope method that assigns different digital envelopes for various expenses and a certain dollar amount for each. You then use those dollars to pay bills or cover purchases that fall into their respective categories. Ultimately, this helps you stick to your spending plan without much thought," Woroch said.

She also shared that there are tools to help reduce your expenses for you.

"Trim (asktrim.com) will identify subscriptions and cancel the ones you don't need. And, BillShark negotiates rates with monthly service providers," she added.

5 Best Free Budgeting Apps

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SF Program Isn't Just 'Free Beer' for Unhoused. It's Backed Up by Research

Please try again

Over the last few days, social media commenters and conservative news outlets have piled on after AI entrepreneur Adam Nathan asked his followers on X, formerly Twitter, “Did you know San Francisco spends $2 million a year on a ‘Managed Alcohol Program?’’’

Nathan, the founder of AI marketing company Blaze and chair of the Salvation Army San Francisco Metro Advisory Board, posted last Tuesday describing the program as “giving out free beer” to unhoused people with alcohol use disorder.

Tech executive Garry Tan, who has often criticized San Francisco’s harm reduction policies for drug use, replied to the thread, calling the program “harm acceleration.” A Fox News headline declared it “buys vodka shots for homeless alcoholics.”

But while providing alcohol to people with alcohol use disorder can seem counterintuitive, research shows that such harm reduction strategies can be helpful, according to Keanan Joyner, a professor and researcher in the Clinical Research on Externalizing and Addiction Mechanisms Lab at UC Berkeley.

“The science is very clear at this point that harm reduction as a general strategy for treating alcohol and other drug use disorders is very effective. It’s a very positive thing,” Joyner said.

San Francisco’s Managed Alcohol Program, or MAP, provides housing, three meals a day, nurse-administered alcohol — usually in the form of beer or vodka — dosed to keep clients at a “safe level of intoxication,” and enrichment activities. It started in 2020 as public health officials responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its goal isn’t to reduce patients’ alcohol use or lead to abstinence but to increase their safety and overall quality of life.

Nathan, who did not immediately respond to KQED’s attempts to reach out for comment, said in his thread on X that while some studies and explanations support MAP, the concept “just doesn’t feel right.”

Joyner said that feeling isn’t uncommon, making harm reduction strategies for alcohol and substance use disorders the “most difficult topic for academics who study this.”

However, harm reduction strategies can result in fewer missed work days, trips to the emergency room, ambulance rides, and other disruptions to daily life for those with alcohol use disorder.

“This program seems good,” Joyner said. “I think it’s very good at doing what it’s intending to do, which is to reduce drinking levels to a manageable level without inducing severe withdrawal.”

According to San Francisco’s Department of Public Health, an internal analysis of MAP found a fourfold reduction in the usage of emergency department services by clients in the six months after their intake compared to the six months prior. It also reported that clients called emergency medical systems and visited the hospital half as often.

The program is run out of a 20-bed facility on the grounds of a former hotel and bar in the Tenderloin, where clients live in a “closed campus” environment under the supervision of staff.

The site’s bar, which has taps that previously dispensed beer and cannot be removed due to the leasing agreement, is one element that opponents of the program have taken issue with. So is its funding.

“Why isn’t every public health dollar not going to prevention and treatment?” Nathan wrote in one of the posts in his X thread.

Funding programs like MAP, however, can actually have monetary benefits to the public, especially since not all people with alcohol use disorder are willing to go through abstinence-based treatment programs, Joyner said.

He explained that when someone uninsured goes to the emergency room for withdrawal, an injury or other medical emergency related to alcohol use, “the city quote-unquote ‘pays.’”

“When you’re trying to consider the cost of implementing programs [like MAP], you’re not doing it against zero,” Joyner said. “How many people are going to show up in our emergency departments and ambulances? How much money does that cost? You’re comparing that amount of money to the amount of money that you’re spending on funding towards this type of program.”

A 2022 analysis by the Department of Public Health estimated that in the six months it tracked MAP’s impact, the program saved approximately $1.7 million. MAP costs over $5 million annually, and the department said it is in the process of finding this funding through Medi-Cal reimbursement.

The program is not without its shortcomings. MAP has served just 55 clients in its four years of operation, and a presentation from last October showed that although clients used fewer emergency services while in the program, some who left the facility returned to relatively frequent utilization of these services.

Still, public health officials believe the program is effective.

“This is a program for a really small but highly vulnerable subsection of the population of people with alcohol use disorder — really severe and pretty end-stage alcohol use,” Dr. Joanna Eveland, the chief medical officer for SFDPH’s Whole Person Integrated Care Program, told KQED.

“Within the SF Department of Public Health, we like to be data-driven, and the data we have for this program really support a significant decrease in [emergency medical services] utilization,” Eveland said. “Having freed up the resources that were taking people to the emergency room three, four or five times a day, now those are resources that we can use to support more people getting on the road to recovery through other SFDPH services.”

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Cost of living help and a future made in Australia

Investing in a future made in australia.

Investing in a Future Made in Australia and the skills to make it a reality

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Attracting investment in key industries

Making Australians the beneficiaries of change

A Future Made in Australia is about creating new jobs and opportunities for every part of our country by maximising the economic and industrial benefits of the move to net zero and securing Australia’s place in a changing global economic and strategic landscape.

The Government’s $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia package will help facilitate the private sector investment required for Australia to be an indispensable part of the global economy.

For more information refer to the Future Made in Australia fact sheet [PDF 438KB]

Better deploying capital in priority areas

The Future Made in Australia package will realise Australia’s potential to become a renewable energy superpower, value‑add to our resources and strengthen economic security by better attracting and enabling investment in priority areas. The Government will create a Future Made in Australia Act and establish a National Interest Framework that identifies priority industries and ensures investments associated with them are responsible and targeted.

The Framework will have a focus on industries that contribute to the net zero transformation where Australia has a comparative advantage, and where Australia has national interest imperatives related to economic resilience and security.

Strengthening and streamlining approvals

This Budget provides a faster pathway to better decisions on environmental, energy, planning, cultural heritage and foreign investment approvals.

This includes:

• $134.2 million to better prioritise approvals for renewable energy projects of national significance, and support faster decisions on environment, cultural heritage and planning approvals.
• Working with the states and territories through the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council to accelerate electricity grid connections.
• $20.7 million to improve engagement with communities impacted by the energy transition and accelerate the delivery of key energy projects.
• $15.7 million to strengthen scrutiny of high‑risk foreign investment proposals, enhance monitoring and enforcement activities and support faster decisions.

The Government will also encourage foreign investment by providing refunds of 75 per cent of application fees for unsuccessful competitive bids.

Promoting sustainable finance

The Government is committing $17.3 million to mobilise private sector investment in sustainable activities. This includes extending Australia’s sustainable finance taxonomy to the agriculture sector and developing a labelling regime for financial products marketed as sustainable.

The Government will also examine opportunities to improve data quality and provide $1.3 million to develop and issue guidance for best practice transition plans.

Making Australia a renewable energy superpower

Powering australia with cheaper, cleaner, more reliable energy.

Australia’s potential to produce abundant renewable energy is a powerful source of comparative advantage. To realise this, the Government is unlocking more than $65 billion of investment in renewable capacity through the Capacity Investment Scheme by 2030.

This Budget helps Australians benefit from cheaper, cleaner energy sooner by investing $27.7 million to integrate consumer energy resources like batteries and solar into the grid.

The New Vehicle Efficiency Standard will save Australians around $95 billion at the bowser by 2050 and reduce transport emissions.

Unlocking investment in net zero industries and jobs

This Budget accelerates growth of new industries by establishing the $1.7 billion Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund and delivering a 10‑year extension of funding to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. It also delivers the $44.4 million Energy Industry Jobs Plan and $134.2 million for skills and employment support in key regions.

The Future Made in Australia package establishes time‑limited incentives to invest in new industries. The Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive will make Australia’s pipeline of hydrogen projects commercial sooner, at an estimated cost of $6.7 billion over the decade. This Budget also expands the Hydrogen Headstart program by $1.3 billion.

Boosting demand for Australia’s green exports

The Government is making it easier for businesses and trading partners to source low‑emissions products by building better markets and product standards for green products.

This Budget provides $32.2 million to fast‑track the initial phase of the Guarantee of Origin scheme, focused on renewable hydrogen, and bring forward the expansion of the scheme to accredit the emissions content of green metals and low‑carbon liquid fuels. The Government is also working closely with trading partners to identify opportunities to drive greater supply chain transparency and better market recognition of high environmental, social and governance standards in the critical minerals sector.

Realising the opportunities of the net zero transformation

Australia is committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and is developing six sector plans covering:

• electricity and energy
• agriculture and land
• the built environment.

This Budget continues investment in effective emissions abatement, including through $63.8 million to support emissions reduction efforts in the agriculture and land sector.

The Government is also investing $399 million to establish the Net Zero Economy Authority and support the economy‑wide net zero transformation. This Budget also invests an additional $48 million in reforms to the Australian Carbon Credit Unit scheme and $20.7 million to improve community engagement.

Strengthening resources and economic security

Backing a strong resources sector.

The Government is investing $8.8 billion over the decade to add more value to our resources and strengthen critical minerals supply chains. This Budget establishes a production tax incentive for processing and refining critical minerals at an estimated cost of $7 billion over the decade. It commits up to $1.2 billion in strategic critical minerals projects through the Critical Minerals Facility and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility, and pre‑feasibility studies for common user precincts.

This is in addition to $566.1 million to support Geoscience Australia to map all of Australia’s critical minerals, strategic materials, groundwater and other resources essential for the transition to net zero.

Manufacturing clean energy technologies

The Government is committing $1.5 billion to manufacturing clean energy technologies, including the $1 billion Solar Sunshot and $523.2 million Battery Breakthrough Initiative. These investments will be delivered by ARENA.

Strengthening supply chains

To support the delivery of the 82 per cent renewable energy target, the Government has formed the National Renewable Energy Supply Chain Action Plan with states and territories. The Government will invest an additional $14.3 million working with trade partners to support global rules on unfair trade practices and to negotiate benchmarks for trade in high quality critical minerals.

Digital, science and innovation

Investing in new technologies and capabilities.

The Government is investing $466.4 million to partner with PsiQuantum and the Queensland Government to build the world’s first commercial‑scale quantum computer in Brisbane.

The Government will undertake a strategic examination of Australia’s research and development (R&D) system with $38.2 million invested in a range of science, technology, engineering, and maths programs.

The Government is providing $448.7 million to partner with the United States in the Landsat Next satellite program to provide access to critical data to monitor the earth’s climate, agricultural production, and natural disasters.

Modernising and digitising industries

This Budget commits $288.1 million to support Australia’s Digital ID System. A National Robotics Strategy will also be released to promote the responsible production and adoption of robotics and automation technologies for advanced manufacturing in Australia.

Reforming tertiary education

The Government is committing $1.6 billion over 5 years, and an additional $2.7 billion from 2028–29 to 2034–35 to reform the tertiary education system and deliver Australia's future workforce.

This includes $1.1 billion for reforms to university funding and tertiary system governance.

Over $500 million will be provided for skills and training in priority industries and to support women’s participation in these sectors.

The Government will set a tertiary attainment target of 80 per cent of the working‑age population by 2050.

Supporting students on placements

The Government will establish Commonwealth Prac Payments (CPP) for students undertaking mandatory placements. From 1 July 2025, the payment will provide more than 73,000 eligible students, including teachers, nurses, midwives and social workers with $319.50 per week during their placements.

Felicity is a full‑time student receiving Youth Allowance, living by herself. She is studying a Bachelor of Nursing and must stop paid work during her mandatory prac placement. During her prac, Felicity receives $712.05 per week from the Government including: $319.50 of CPP, $285.55 of Youth Allowance (YA), $103.50 of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) and $3.50 of Energy Supplement.

Felicity receives $351.55 a week more than she would have in 2023 before indexation and the changes to YA, CRA and CPP in the current and 2023–24 Budget

Broadening access to university

From January 2026, needs‑based funding will provide per student funding contributions for under‑represented students. The Government will also provide $350.3 million to fully fund university enabling courses and increase pathways for prospective students to university.

Skills pipeline for priority industries

Skills and training for Future Made in Australia industries

The Government will expand eligibility to the New Energy Apprenticeships Program to include work in the clean energy sector, including in construction and advanced manufacturing. This will provide access to $10,000 incentive payments and support our target of 10,000 new energy apprentices.

The Government will commit $30 million to turbocharge the VET teaching workforce for clean energy courses and $50 million to upgrade and expand clean energy training facilities.

The Government will invest $55.6 million to establish the Building Women’s Careers program to support women’s participation in key industries including clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

Supporting apprentices and building the construction workforce

The $5,000 support payments to apprentices in priority occupations will be maintained for another 12 months to 1 July 2025, up from $3,000 in the absence of any changes. Employers of these apprentices will receive a $5,000 hiring incentive, up from $4,000 in the absence of changes. This will provide certainty to apprentices while the Strategic Review of the Apprenticeship Incentive System is underway.

The Government will also invest $88.8 million to deliver 20,000 new fee‑free TAFE places including pre‑apprenticeships in courses relevant to the construction sector. The Government will provide $1.8 million to deliver streamlined skills assessments for around 1,900 migrants from comparable countries to work in Australia’s housing construction industry.

Strengthening our defence industry capability

An integrated and focused approach to defending Australia

The Government is investing an additional $50.3 billion over ten years to implement the 2024 National Defence Strategy to meet Australia’s strategic needs.

Overall funding for Defence will reach $765 billion over the decade. Defence’s Integrated Investment Program has been rebuilt to create a focused Australian Defence Force, accelerate delivery of priority capabilities, and provide certainty to grow Australia’s defence industry. This includes funding for the Royal Australian Navy’s surface combatant fleet and establishing a guided weapons and explosive ordnance manufacturing capability earlier.

The Government is reforming Defence’s budget to support the National Defence Strategy and delivery of priority capabilities.

Developing defence industry and skills

Industry development grants funding of $165.7 million will also help businesses to scale up and deliver the Sovereign Defence Industrial Priorities, which include continuous naval shipbuilding and sustainment, and development and integration of autonomous systems.

The Government is providing $101.8 million to attract and retain the skilled industrial workforce to support Australian shipbuilding and delivery of conventionally armed, nuclear powered submarines. This includes a pilot apprenticeship program in shipbuilding trades and technologies.

Investing in civil maritime capabilities

The Government is providing $123.8 million to maintain and enhance civil maritime security capabilities. This includes $71.2 million to increase the Australian Border Force’s on‑water response and aerial surveillance capabilities.

Securing Australia’s place in the world

Strengthening relationships and simplifying trade

A stable, prosperous and resilient Pacific region

The Government is delivering over $2 billion in development assistance to the Pacific in 2024–25. This includes the Australia‑Tuvalu Falepili Union.

Investing in our relationship with Southeast Asia

Following the launch of Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, the Government is committing $505.9 million to deepen ties with the region.

Australia recently celebrated 50 years of partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). At the ASEAN‑Australia Special Summit, the Government announced a range of new and expanded initiatives, including a $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility to boost Australian trade and investment.

Simplifying trade

The Government will abolish 457 nuisance tariffs from 1 July 2024, streamlining $8.5 billion in annual trade and eliminating tariffs on goods such as toothbrushes, fridges, dishwashers, clothing and sanitary products.

The Government will provide $29.9 million to coordinate trade simplification and deliver the Digital Trade Accelerator program, and $10.9 million to enhance the Go Global Toolkit to support exporters.

The Government is expanding the Australia‑India Business Exchange, diversifying trade and helping more Australian businesses build commercial ties with India and across South Asia. There will be $2 million to support Australian agricultural exporters entering the Chinese markets.

Support for small businesses

Helping small businesses

This Budget’s Small Business Statement reaffirms the Government’s commitment to deliver a better deal for small businesses, with $641.4 million in targeted support.

For more information refer to the small business fact sheet [PDF 0.98MB]

Improving cash flow

The Government is providing $290 million to extend the $20,000 instant asset write‑off for 12 months. There will be $25.3 million to improve payment times to small businesses and $23.3 million to increase eInvoicing adoption.

Easing cost pressures and reducing the administrative burden

This Budget provides $3.5 billion of energy bill relief, including rebates of $325 to around one million small businesses.

The Government is reducing the administrative burden for small business by abolishing 457 nuisance tariffs and delivering $10 million to provide additional support for small business employers administering the Paid Parental Leave scheme.

Supporting confidence and resilience in the small business sector

This Budget invests a further $10.8 million in tailored, free and confidential financial and mental wellbeing supports for small business owners.

The Government is providing $20.5 million to the Fair Work Ombudsman to help small businesses understand and comply with recent workplace relations changes.

There will be $3 million to implement the Government’s response to the Review of the Franchising Code of Conduct, including remaking and enhancing the Code, and an additional $2.6 million to support more small businesses through alternative dispute resolution.

A more resilient Australia

Preparing for the future

The Government is preparing Australia for future droughts and heightened risk of natural disasters.

Disaster resilience and preparedness

The Government will provide $138.7 million to improve Australia’s response and resilience to natural hazards and disasters. Support includes: funding for the National Emergency Management Agency to supply communities with vital goods, equipment, and temporary accommodation during an emergency, aerial firefighting capability, and mental health support. This is in addition to the $11.4 billion previously committed for Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements for the states and territories.

The Government is establishing a pilot program for Australia’s Strategic Fleet. These vessels will improve Australia’s capacity to respond and support communities and supply chains during crises.

Preparing for drought and climate change

This Budget provides $174.6 million from the National Water Grid Fund to deliver new water infrastructure projects that will enhance water security, boost agricultural production and help drought proof regional communities.

The Government will provide $519.1 million from its Future Drought Fund to help farmers and rural communities manage the impacts of climate change and prepare for future droughts.

This investment will build the drought resilience of more farmers like Victorian cropper Ed Rickard.

The Fund supported Ed in developing a better farm business plan, which identified his need for weather stations and soil moisture probes. It also helped him implement a succession plan that ensured his farm’s long-term viability.

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