The roles of motivation and budgeting participation level in the relationship between favorable supervisory feedback environments and budget gaming

This study examines whether motivation and the budgeting participation level mediate the relationship between favorable supervisory feedback environments (FSFEs) and behavior of budget gaming. The model’s adequacy was evaluated with structural modeling, and hypothesis testing was conducted using partial least squares. Data were collected through questionnaires via mail, personal facilities and hyperlinks. Out of 235 surveys from operational managers in the retail sector in the West Java province, Indonesia, 205 processable questionnaires were gathered, and the results indicated that FSFEs enhance intrinsic motivation and autonomous extrinsic motivation, which in turn increase the budgeting participation level and reduce budget gaming. The study’s results also indicate that both types of motivation and the budgeting participation level mediate the influence of FSFEs on behavior of budget gaming. Furthermore, the results show that controlled extrinsic motivation does not decrease the budgeting participation level, thus, neither mediate the relationship between FSFEs and budget gaming behavior. This study implies the importance of strengthening supervision quality to motivate more positive employee behaviors related to budget management. Based on these findings, it is recommended that organizations implement policies to foster constructive supervisory feedback environments. Additionally, enhancing supervisor training programs to focus on providing supportive and autonomy-promoting feedback could further improve budgeting practices and reduce budget gaming behaviors.