The role of budget decision making in mediating trust, social ties, cultural context and local government performance

Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) research reveals that corruption in Indonesia is mostly carried out by civil servants. An audit report from the Indonesian Supreme Audit Institution also finds local government internal control systems' weaknesses, especially controlling budget execution. This phenomenon is inseparable from the budget actors' decision-making process when preparing a budget. Budget decision making is a crucial process. Budget actors use their preference to choose among priorities and put the programs and activities which they have chosen into the budget. Social exchange such as trust and social ties can restrain budget actor distortion when making a budget decision and improve local government performance. Cultural context, in this research, refers to high context, affects individual behavior, and may influence the budget decision-making process. The result shows that decision making mediates trust and context culture to local government performance. Trust also proven can improve local government performance. Social ties, on the other side, do not have an influence both on decision making and local government performance. When trust has been intertwined among members, social ties no longer have a role in social exchange. Trust is the strongest form of social relation. Trust in this research is also formed because of the figure. A figure holds an important role in high context culture. This research pointed out that decision making by considering social values can make the decision-making process better and even improve local government performance.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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