Beyond Budgeting: Distinguishing Modes of Adaptive Performance Management

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the changes organizations can adopt to move beyond budgeting. We show how these changes can be understood as modes of adaptive performance management which explain the ways in which organizations move beyond budgeting to become more adaptive. The proposed modes are then used to derive propositions for future research. Methodology/approach – We follow a conceptual approach through an analysis of the beyond budgeting principles using the management and systems literatures on radical decentralization. We theorize how organizations can enhance their adaptability to environmental uncertainty through changes to their management structure and control processes. Findings – We show that organizations can move beyond budgeting by decentralizing within or beyond their management structure and modifying or removing their budget-based control processes. We propose that beyond budgeting can be conceptualized as four modes of adaptive performance management: better budgeting, advanced budgeting, restricted budgeting and non-budgeting. Research limitations/implications – The four modes of adaptive performance management can be used in future research to consider how changes to management structures and budget-based control processes can enhance the organizational adaptability needed to manage environmental uncertainty. Practical implications – We show that while the non-budgeting mode may be most suited to organizations facing high levels of environmental uncertainty, organizations facing low to moderate levels of environmental uncertainty can achieve sufficient levels of adaptability with less extensive changes to management structure and budget-based control processes. Originality/value – The four modes of adaptive performance management reflect different approaches for dealing with environmental uncertainty. Positioning non-budgeting as one mode, and identifying alternate modes of adaptive performance management, provides a basis for comparing and understanding the changes organizations make to move beyond budgeting.