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Organisational Decentralisation and Budgetary Devolution In Local Government: A Case of Middle Management Autonomy?
Author(s) -
Keen Linda
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
human resource management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.44
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1748-8583
pISSN - 0954-5395
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-8583.1994.tb00368.x
Subject(s) - devolution (biology) , decentralization , autonomy , middle management , business , human resource management , local government , government (linguistics) , control (management) , public administration , management control system , human resources , management accounting , public relations , economics , accounting , management , marketing , political science , sociology , linguistics , philosophy , anthropology , law , market economy , human evolution
Linda Keen, who is Lecturer in Human Resource Management at the Canterbury Business School, uses a case study investigation of a local authority well advanced in its adoption of the ‘new’ devolved management systems, to identify the views of middle managers themselves about the extent to which devolved budgeting had brought about a real increase in their managerial autonomy, focusing on key elements of budgetary devolution identified in the literature, including the roles of devolved finance staff. She concludes that increases in these managers’ budgetary responsibilities were generally not accompanied by corresponding increases in their autonomy over budgetary management decisions, and identifies a number of human resource management issues, arising from this non‐alignment, in relation to management control systems, and training, motivation and reward management strategies.