Budgetary process in uncertain contexts: a study of state-owned enterprises in Bangladesh

The purpose of this paper is to explore how the budgetary process is used to manage technical and institutional environments. The study was carried out in two-state-owned organisations in Bangladesh. The conditions in Bangladesh are such that all state-owned enterprises face a bureaucratic environment. However, the two organisations were selected to provide examples of higher and lower uncertainties in this context. The findings suggest that in conditions of high uncertainty budgeting is more oriented towards the management of external relationships with significant institutional actors, than with the management of the organisation itself. Budgets are relatively uncoupled from detailed aspects of the organisational task. In more moderate conditions of uncertainty, budgeting appears to be more functionally implicated in the management of the organisational task.