Bottom-up (top-down) rolling budgeting and job autonomy: consequences for the role of role overload and managerial performance

Drawing on job demands-control theory, this study examined how bottom-up (BU) versus top-down (TD) approaches for implementing a rolling budget can impact lower-level managers’ performance. The analysis of survey data of 98 solar firms in Taiwan demonstrated that BU relative to TD rolling-budget approaches in three phases of the budgeting process (namely, the issuance of guidelines, development of the budget proposals, and negotiation of final budgets) increased self-perceived role overload among lower and middle-level managers. Further, the difference between BU and TD rolling-budget approaches in their effect on perceptions of role overload will be smaller when job autonomy is higher in the two phases of the budgeting process (namely, development of the budget proposals and negotiation of final budgets). Lastly, role overload was found to play a full mediating role in the relationship between rolling-budget approaches, and self-perceived performance in all three phases of the budget process. Overall, these insights suggest that in order to fully understand the consequences of rolling budgets, we should consider both job autonomy and role overload.