title: Social capital and the budgeting process

authors: Frost, Denise Margaret

subjects: social capital

abstract: This thesis arose out of a previous study of budgeting practices carried out at a not-for-profit church.  This initial study had found that relationships played an important role in budgeting practices.  Interviewees carried out their budgetary tasks in a cooperative, sometimes sacrificial manner.  This relationship-based approach to budgeting was inconsistent with conventional approaches to budgeting.  It became apparent that budgeting practices in this church could be explained by social capital theory, and that budgeting could be viewed as a social phenomenon.

I began to question whether considering budgeting as a social process might also apply to profit-orientated organisations.  As part of this thesis, I approached two different for-profit organisations: an entertainment centre; and, a science testing laboratory.  Along with the church examined previously, both of these organisations agreed to participate in this investigation into the social aspects of their budgeting processes.

An interpretive methodology was adopted to study budgeting practices from the viewpoint of managers. Social capital was a sensitising theoretical perspective, and was viewed as a ‘skeletal theory’; in particular, I was drawn to a model of social capital proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998).  Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) social capital framework was chosen as it was pertinent to examining the influence of social capital on the budgeting process.  It came as a surprise to find that elements of Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s framework were in evidence in all three organisations.  In the three case study organisations, budgeting was found to be a social process which can be explained by social capital theory. 

In contrast to the beyond budgeting proponents, who claim budgeting is redundant, this thesis has found that the budgeting process constitutes an investment of managers’ time and energy, because it encourages and promotes social capital.  The budgeting process brought managers together to work cooperatively towards a commonly understood goal.  Budgeting encouraged social interaction and fostered relationship building.  Organisational norms and values were reinforced.  Despite the differences between the three organisations, the common feature was that the budgeting process encouraged and reinforced social capital.

This thesis has implications for other researchers.  It provides a new insight into budgeting.  It contributes to the qualitative budgeting literature by providing a contemporary view of the way social forces influence the budgeting process.  It advances the literature on church budgeting.  It adds to the social capital literature by adapting Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) framework of social capital to a context not previously studied – the budgeting process.  There are implications for policymakers involved in setting budget-related policy in organisations, and for practitioners, as this thesis highlights the importance of the social side of the budgeting process.

text: Social capital and the budgeting process This thesis arose out of a previous study of budgeting practices carried out at a not-for-profit church.  This initial study had found that relationships played an important role in budgeting practices.  Interviewees carried out their budgetary tasks in a cooperative, sometimes sacrificial manner.  This relationship-based approach to budgeting was inconsistent with conventional approaches to budgeting.  It became apparent that budgeting practices in this church could be explained by social capital theory, and that budgeting could be viewed as a social phenomenon.

I began to question whether considering budgeting as a social process might also apply to profit-orientated organisations.  As part of this thesis, I approached two different for-profit organisations: an entertainment centre; and, a science testing laboratory.  Along with the church examined previously, both of these organisations agreed to participate in this investigation into the social aspects of their budgeting processes.

An interpretive methodology was adopted to study budgeting practices from the viewpoint of managers. Social capital was a sensitising theoretical perspective, and was viewed as a ‘skeletal theory’; in particular, I was drawn to a model of social capital proposed by Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998).  Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) social capital framework was chosen as it was pertinent to examining the influence of social capital on the budgeting process.  It came as a surprise to find that elements of Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s framework were in evidence in all three organisations.  In the three case study organisations, budgeting was found to be a social process which can be explained by social capital theory. 

In contrast to the beyond budgeting proponents, who claim budgeting is redundant, this thesis has found that the budgeting process constitutes an investment of managers’ time and energy, because it encourages and promotes social capital.  The budgeting process brought managers together to work cooperatively towards a commonly understood goal.  Budgeting encouraged social interaction and fostered relationship building.  Organisational norms and values were reinforced.  Despite the differences between the three organisations, the common feature was that the budgeting process encouraged and reinforced social capital.

This thesis has implications for other researchers.  It provides a new insight into budgeting.  It contributes to the qualitative budgeting literature by providing a contemporary view of the way social forces influence the budgeting process.  It advances the literature on church budgeting.  It adds to the social capital literature by adapting Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) framework of social capital to a context not previously studied – the budgeting process.  There are implications for policymakers involved in setting budget-related policy in organisations, and for practitioners, as this thesis highlights the importance of the social side of the budgeting process.

year: 2017

title: Diagnostic dilemmas associated with the pinnacle IN vaccine

authors: Cursons, Raymond T.

subjects: Strangles, infection, live vaccine next generation sequencing

abstract: The development of clinical signs of strangles in horses following immunization with a live attenuated vaccine can present a number of diagnostic challenges. Foremost from an epidemiological perspective it is important to ascertain if the infection was due solely to the modified live vaccine, reversion of the vaccine strain to wild-type, recombination between vaccine and wild-type strains or to recent infection with a wild-type strain. To answer these diagnostics challenges we utilized next generation sequencing to confirm that two cases of strangles in previously healthy yearling horses were caused by the vaccine strain. Both isolates recovered from the two cases of vaccine-related strangles contained 67 of the 68 mutations specific for the Pinnacle vaccine. Our data shed new light on the safety of this vaccine and suggest that factors beyond the maturity of the animal’s immune system can influence the development of post-vaccination adverse reactions in some horses

text: Diagnostic dilemmas associated with the pinnacle IN vaccine The development of clinical signs of strangles in horses following immunization with a live attenuated vaccine can present a number of diagnostic challenges. Foremost from an epidemiological perspective it is important to ascertain if the infection was due solely to the modified live vaccine, reversion of the vaccine strain to wild-type, recombination between vaccine and wild-type strains or to recent infection with a wild-type strain. To answer these diagnostics challenges we utilized next generation sequencing to confirm that two cases of strangles in previously healthy yearling horses were caused by the vaccine strain. Both isolates recovered from the two cases of vaccine-related strangles contained 67 of the 68 mutations specific for the Pinnacle vaccine. Our data shed new light on the safety of this vaccine and suggest that factors beyond the maturity of the animal’s immune system can influence the development of post-vaccination adverse reactions in some horses

year: 2015

title: Taking Taniwha seriously

authors: Kingsbury, Justine

subjects: intercultural understanding

abstract: Taniwha are powerful water creatures in te ao Māori (the Māori world/worldview). Taniwha sometimes afect public works in Aotearoa New Zealand: for example, consultation between government agencies and tangata whenua (the people of the land) about proposed roading developments sometimes results in the route being moved to avoid the dwelling place of a taniwha. Mainstream media responses have tended to be hostile or mocking, as you might expect, since on the face of it the dominant western scientifc worldview has no place for beings like taniwha. However, in the 2020s, there appears to be an increased willingness to engage with te ao Māori. In this spirit, this paper proposes a way for non-Māori to begin to take taniwha more seriously, taking as its starting point the work of Dan Hikuroa on the practical usefulness of taniwha pūrākau (traditional narratives) in encoding information about natural hazards. The focus of this paper is narrow, but aspects of the strategy it proposes may be generalisable both to other aspects of te ao Māori and to other bicultural and multicultural contexts.

text: Taking Taniwha seriously Taniwha are powerful water creatures in te ao Māori (the Māori world/worldview). Taniwha sometimes afect public works in Aotearoa New Zealand: for example, consultation between government agencies and tangata whenua (the people of the land) about proposed roading developments sometimes results in the route being moved to avoid the dwelling place of a taniwha. Mainstream media responses have tended to be hostile or mocking, as you might expect, since on the face of it the dominant western scientifc worldview has no place for beings like taniwha. However, in the 2020s, there appears to be an increased willingness to engage with te ao Māori. In this spirit, this paper proposes a way for non-Māori to begin to take taniwha more seriously, taking as its starting point the work of Dan Hikuroa on the practical usefulness of taniwha pūrākau (traditional narratives) in encoding information about natural hazards. The focus of this paper is narrow, but aspects of the strategy it proposes may be generalisable both to other aspects of te ao Māori and to other bicultural and multicultural contexts.

year: 2022-11-10