Don’t Blame the Budget Process: An Exploration of Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Ethics

The budgeting process has been criticized to the point that some authors have suggested that budgets should be eliminated may lead executives to do “whatever it takes” to meet the analyst expectations, including turning a “blind eye” to potentially unethical behavior. Accordingly, the ethical ramifications of the budget process must be ascertained. Once the ethical issues associated with these forecasts have been addressed in a moral manner, there are a number of steps that managers can take to improve the budget process. The end result can be a budget process that encourages managers to plan to consider the stakeholders involved provides information for improved decision-making, increases and enhances communication and coordination among departments, and sets clear “benchmarks” for performance evaluation. Recommendations for a more efficient, effective, as well as ethical budgetary, decision-making process are provided.