DEVOLVED BUDGETARY MANAGEMENT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: LESSONS FROM A SHIRE COUNTY |
| |
| Authors: | LA Keen MP Murphy |
| |
| Institution: | The authors are from the Canterbury Business School, University of Kent at Canterbury. They would like to thank Professors Richard Scase and John Glynn of Canterbury Business School and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. |
| |
| Abstract: | The changing environment of public sector organisations has, in recent years, focused attention on the management processes employed to achieve effective service delivery as economically and efficiently as possible. One approach has been the importation into the public sector ofa number ofprivate sector management strategies and practices, most notably those based on devolved bud- getary management principles. This paper analyses the approach of a large local authority to the implementation of devolved budgetary management, based, in large part, on interviews with line managers to whom budgets were devolved. It examines the process of devolution within the authority and the reactions of line managers to that process. It concludes that while the implementation of truly devolved budgetary management is an important, and perhaps essential, managerial technique in the 'new' local government environment, it should not be implemented in ways which ignore the differ- ences between public and private sector organisations and between different local authority departments. |
| |
| Keywords: | devolved budgetary management responsibility accounting local government |
|
|
