How does the interactive use of budgets affect employees' role clarity and creativity?

The success of organisations in the current global market is largely dependent on employees’ creativity. Interactive use of budgets is likely to play an important role in encouraging employees’ creativity. This study examines whether the interactive use of budgets is associated with managers’ creativity directly or indirectly through role clarity. The Partial Least Squares (PLS) technique was used to analyse the mail survey data collected from 88 middle-level managers in publicly-listed Indonesian companies. The findings of this study indicate that interactive use of budgets has a significant impact on managers’ creativity through role clarity. However, there is no evidence that interactive use of budgets has a direct association with managers’ creativity. Based on an additional analysis, the study also finds that while the relationship between the goal clarity dimension of role clarity and managers’ creativity is positive and significant, there is no evidence in support of the association between the process clarity dimension of role clarity and managers’ creativity. This study contributes to the management accounting literature and sheds some light on practical implications.