Budgeting Functions and Conflicts: An Analysis

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This assignment will summatively assess the following learning outcome:

Understand the behavioural aspects of budgeting with regard to recent thinking.

Assessment Criteria – See brief on next page

Marking Scheme For information on how marks are awarded for particular elements of this assignment see the coursework brief.

Marked work will be returned in class. You can expect to have marked work returnedto you within 10 working days after the submission date. If for any reason, there is a delay you will be kept informed. Marks and feedback will be provided online. Marks willhave been internally moderated only and will therefore be provisional; your mark will be formally agreed later in the year once the external examiner has completed his / her review.

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Budgeting is one of the most important planning and control tools used by firmstoday. However, many business executives and academics feel that budgeting often serves multiple purposes which may potentially be conflicting and not becongruent.

For example, budgets used for planning may not be suitable for performance evaluation like determining bonus payments. For effective planning, more realistic budgets are needed while for performance evaluation, “stretched”budgets are required to motivate performance.

Discuss whether you agree with the statement “that various budgeting functions are often in conflict, and therefore, the budgets used for these different purposes should differ to resolve these conflicts”.

You must provide an informed (i.e., researched) opinion by reading relevant academic journal articles as well as other references.

Please adopt the following structures for your essay as marks will be awarded accordingly: