The interactive effect of budget emphasis, participation and task difficulty on managerial performance: a cross‐cultural study

Abstract

Examines the three‐way interaction between budget emphasis, participation and task difficulty affecting managerial performance within the framework suggested by Harrison (1992) with a sample of 197 functional heads from Singaporean and Australian manufacturing companies. The results support a three‐way interaction between budget emphasis, budgetary participation and task difficulty affecting managerial performance and second, cultural differences between Singapore and Australia (pertaining to power distance) which interact neither with budgetary participation nor budget emphasis. The results also suggest that high budgetary participation (regardless of budget emphasis) in high task difficulty situations and high budget emphasis (regardless of budgetary participation) in low task difficulty situations are associated with improved managerial performance in Singapore and Australia.