Rethinking Budget Accountability Through the Lenses of Organizational Learning and Adaptive Decision Processes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38035/gijea.v4i4.1047Keywords:
Adaptive Decision-Making, Budget Accountability, Financial Management, Organizational Learning, Strategic BudgetingAbstract
Budget accountability has traditionally been positioned as an administrative compliance mechanism that emphasizes the alignment between financial planning, budget realization, and reporting. However, this approach remains insufficient to explain how organizations respond to uncertainty, shifting priorities, and the complexity of decision-making in dynamic environments. This article aims to reconstruct the concept of budget accountability through the perspectives of organizational learning and adaptive decision-making processes. This study employs a qualitative conceptual approach through an integrative literature review of budget accountability, organizational learning, and decision-making theories. The findings indicate that budget accountability is not only determined by transparency, compliance, and formal control, but also by an organization’s capacity to transform budget deviations into learning feedback, refine planning assumptions, and adjust resource allocation responsively. This article proposes an adaptive budget accountability framework consisting of three key dimensions: reflective transparency, learning feedback mechanisms, and evidence-based decision flexibility. The novelty of this article lies in integrating budget accountability with organizational learning theory and adaptive decision-making processes, thereby extending the accountability paradigm from mere compliance toward institutional learning and continuous improvement. The study’s implications highlight the importance of budgeting systems that are not only accurate and regulation-compliant, but also adaptive, evaluative, and strategically oriented.
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