The effects of budget emphasis, participation and organizational commitment on job satisfaction: Evidence from the financial services sector

Research on the impact of performance evaluative style on managers' behavior suggests that organizational interest is best served if a high budget emphasis evaluative style is used in a high participatory environment, whilst a low budget emphasis evaluative style is used in a low participatory environment. However, research results are not always consistent. This may be due to the omission of the influence of organizational commitment on managers' behavior. Highly committed managers are likely to strive for organizational goals and interests whereas lowly committed managers are likely to strive for personal goals and interests. These conflicting attitudes are likely to affect the relationships among budget emphasis, budgetary participation and managers' behavior. Highly committed managers, striving for organizational goals, may react favorably to the compatible combinations of high (low) budget emphasis and high (low) budgetary participation. In contrast, lowly committed managers, striving for personal goals, may prefer other combinations of budget emphasis and budgetary participation. Based on a sample of 112 financial services sector managers, these expectations are supported by the results of this study.