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Riahi-Belkaoui's research shows that U.S. firms, and possibly firms elsewhere, resort to the underutilization of their resources, a phenomenon known as organizational and budgetary slack. In this, the first exhaustive study of slack, the author identifies and explains the phenomenon and its causes, explicates the characteristics of organizations afflicted by it, and suggests ways to remedy it. In doing so, he also analyzes the role of the multidivisional structure and the performance plan in the creation of slack, and the distortion of information that accompanies it. A challenging study for organizational behavior theorists and for organization planners and top management in the private and public sectors.
List of contents
Exhibits and Figure
Preface
Organizational and Budgetary Slack
Properties of Organizational Slack in the U.S. Context
Organizational Slack and Multidivisional Structure: The Contingency of Diversification Strategy
Organizational Slack and Performance Plan Adoption
Slack Budgeting, Information Distortion, and Self-Esteem
Slack Budgeting and Information Distortion: The Impact of Accountability and Self-Monitoring
Index
About the author
AHMED BELKAOUI is Professor of Accounting at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a recognized authority on accounting. He has served as a consultant to corporations, institutions, and governments throughout the world. Among his recent books are Human Information Processing in Accounting (Quorum, 1989), Industrial Bonds and the Rating Process, International Accounting, Socio-Economic Accounting, Public Policy and the Problems and Practices of Accounting, and The Learning Curve (all published by Quorum Books). He is the author of more than 70 articles and reviews.
