Question

Pseudo participation is a practice where:

a. top management assumes total control of the budgeting process seeking superficial participation from lower-level managers.
b. a manager deliberately underestimates revenues or overestimates costs.
c. a manager deliberately overestimates revenues or underestimates costs.
d. top management superficially participates in the budgeting and the total control is handed over to lower-level managers.

Answer 1

Pseudo participation signifies a facade of collaborative decision-making in an organization, where in truth, higher management retains central control, and lower-level manager participation is nominal.

Step-by-step explanation:

Pseudo participation in the context of organizational management refers to a situation where there's an appearance of shared decision-making and collaborative management, but in reality, the control is heavily centralized at the higher levels of management. This practice can be detrimental to an organization because it may lead to disengagement among lower-level managers who feel their input is not genuinely considered or valued, thus affecting morale and possibly the quality of decisions, as not all perspectives are truly considered.

Specifically, pseudo participation occurs when top management assumes total control of the budgeting process but seeks superficial participation from lower-level managers. This is not to be confused with instances where managers may intentionally misestimate budgets (either underestimating revenues or overestimating costs) for personal or departmental advantage, or where top management genuinely delegates budgetary control to lower-level managers.