Leadership, Budget Participation, Budgetary Fairness, and Organizational Commitment

Abstract This study examines how leadership style, budget participation, and perceptions of budgetary fairness influence an important employee outcome, organizational commitment. In the proposed model, the leadership style of the superior, specifically consideration, is linked to subordinate participation in the budgeting process. Both leadership style and budget participation, in turn, influence employee beliefs about budgetary fairness, that is, beliefs concerning the procedural and distributive justice of the budgeting system. Finally, the justice of the budgeting system and its antecedents (leadership and budget participation) affect organizational commitment. Results from a survey of supervisors and managers in several firms support the proposed model.