The Moderating Effect of Moral Identity on the Relationship between Emotional Exhaustion and Budget Slack

Emotional exhaustion, as a kind of exhausted negative psychological state, have an impact on individual work behavior, job performance, turnover rate, job satisfaction and so on. In the practice, the negative impact of budget slack on budget management cannot be ignored. The existence of budget slack makes the budget fail to achieve its proper function, which violates the planning function of the budget. The budget slack conceals the real resource demand, profitability and financial situation of the enterprise, which makes it impossible for the owner to make an accurate judgment and decision. However, the impact of emotional exhaustion on budget slack is unknown. This paper introduces the psychological state of emotional exhaustion into budget research and explores the causes of budget slack from internal psychology. Our results imply that when subordinates are emotionally exhausted, they tend to give up their insistence on honesty and prefer a relaxed budget. In addition, the moral identity negatively moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and budget slack of subordinate.