The association between budget goal clarity and managerial performance in Iraqi oil refinery: the role of budget goal difficulty and budget participation

Abstract

This paper examines empirically the impact of budget goal clarity on managerial performance via two mediating variables - budget goal difficulty and budget participation in the context of oil refineries of Iraq. The study has employed path model to explain the impact of budget goal clarity on managerial performance in the presence of two mediating variables. Data were collected through a questionnaire based survey from 171 managers proportionately drawn from eight sub-refineries of North Refineries Company (NRC) of Iraq following stratified random sampling technique. The findings of the study indicate that the direct influence of budget goal clarity on managerial performance is positive and significant. The indirect influence of budget clarity is, however, found to be more than the direct influence. The study finds that budget participation significantly moderates the association between budget goal clarity and managerial performance. But the study fails to disentangle any significant influence of budget goal difficulty as a moderating variable in influencing managerial performance of NRC.