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BUDGETARY CONTROL OF HOSPITALS — RITUAL RHETORICS AND RATIONALIZED MYTHS?
Author(s) -
Pettersen Inger Johanne
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
financial accountability and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.661
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1468-0408
pISSN - 0267-4424
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0408.1995.tb00405.x
Subject(s) - mythology , control (management) , public administration , political science , economics , history , management , classics
A nationwide survey study of all governmental hospitals in Norway during the period 1989‐ 1991 showed a systematic decoupling between budgets (ex‐ante) and accounting information (ex‐post). Within a normative frame, this decoupling questions the budgets as instruments for management control. Institutional theory, on the other hand, postulates that separation between plans and action occurs because plans are external legitimation of governmental organizations' existence, while accounting information is output of action. Accordingly, plans can be seen as ceremonies and rituals rather than strategic documents. However, the paper argues that for the purpose of management control in hospitals, the action‐system and the decision‐system should be integrated. To improve this integration, the logic of the action‐system, represented by the service‐producers (physicians and nurses) and the logic of the decision‐system (the politicians and the administrators) should be bridged by communicative action. Thus, the quality of the budget as a device for management control depends on the communicative action taking place during the budgetary process.