Organisational Culture and Budgetary Control : A Case Study from UK Local Government

The relationship between organisational culture and financial control systems (FCSs) is one of increasing interest (Dent 1987, Bourn and Ezzamel 1987, Ferguson and Lapsley 1988, Birnberg and Snodgrass 1988, Broadbent 1992, Harrison 1992). Many of these studies have looked at the interaction between culture and FCSs, in public sector organisations. They have used a variety of definitions of culture, though all refer to values and/or beliefs as central to the concept. It seems reasonable to hypothesise that the core beliefs of an organisation will be reflected in the design and operation of the FCS. In testing this broad hypothesis previous research has been informed by either the interpretive paradigm or the functional paradigm. This paper is an attempt to explore the possibilities of working within the functional paradigm and particularly to explore the use of contingency theory in understanding the relationship between organisational culture and financial control. Further, the research uses canonical correlation analysis to investigate the complex contingent relationship as suggested by Williams, McIntosh and Moore (1990)