“ Succès ” et “ échec ” d’un outil de gestion : le cas de la naissance des budgets et de la gestion sans budget

The budget is being more and more criticized. Its abandonment is even suggested. This would be the failure of a management tool that was born in the 1930s and that had since a great success. It seems too early to tell whether this criticism will lead to its disappearance. However, we can symmetrically compare the rhetoric that has accompanied its birth with the one developed in order to suggest its abandonment. Interestingly, they are in many ways very similar. In the name of environment uncertainty and managers’ empowerment, the budget has alternatively appeared as a solution or a dead-end. We propose an explanation of this phenomenon in the discussion of the paper.