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The study is being carried out by Profs. Sebastian Morris and SK Barua
of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
and is supported by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, New Delhi
Dear Manager,
Since the ‘liberalisation’ of the economy, the environment of PSUs has undergone substantial change. Given the
stated objectives of government to divest and privatise, entry of private firms into markets earlier reserved for
public sector, many PSUs would have responded to these changes in some manner. Currently the government is
pursuing disinvestment, which is driven more by budgetary considerations. It is not yet clear as to how strong is
the intention of the government to improve the task orientation and performance of PSUs through increased
autonomy to the managers.
This study is focussed on managers of PSUs, with a view to understand how they have understood, and interpreted
the changes. Managers’ views and diagnoses as regards the public sector situation and the remedies have not yet
been a focus of serious analyses. As a result, little is known about this aspect in a formal and statistically reliable
manner. As academics in the field of management we do think that your views and opinions are most important
in the construction of an overall strategy of reform and change. We are therefore concerned with your views,
feelings and opinions, however different they may be from conventional wisdom or from those of your organisation
or government. The study is motivated by the belief that true change can occur only when a critical mass of top
and middle level managers internalise a particular form of change and push it through. Such change would of
course presume that managers have the autonomy or the space to push through the changes.
We urge you to respond freely. Your response would be kept completely confidential. It would be used only for
academic purposes, and never in way that reveals either the identity of the company or the individual.
The survey is planned to cover a fairly large number of managers and board members in PSUs, and we hope that
the analysis would be useful to the government and policy makers in their design of programs for change including
privatisation and disinvestment. The analyses and findings would also be useful in our research and training.
The schedule of questions and issues that we have raised in the survey would require about an hour of your time.
We have gone ahead with a rather detailed schedule, so that we can understand your responses holistically. Your
cooperation is the key to the success of the study, and we thank you in advance for your response.
We promise to make available the findings of this study as soon as we are ready. The study has the formal
approval of the government of India, and is being sponsored by the Indo-Shastri Canadian Institute. The project
team consists of S. K. Barua, and Sebastian Morris (coordinator).
We have set up a website, which ought to evolve into a resource for those concerned with the reforms pertaining
to SOEs. Please do visit the site: http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/psuindia. We will be putting the principal tabulations
on this site for your convenience. We would be obliged for your comments. Our deepest thanks for taking time off
to respond to this schedule.
Sebastian Morris
SK Barua
1. Your name
2. Organisation where
you work presently
7. Functional experience in middle management levels and above. Based on your own assessment and past
experience, in which of the following areas have you had adequate experience? (You may encircle /tick more
than one option if you think you have diverse experience).
8. Your background. Please feel free to encircle/ tick as many of the items below as apply to you.
Objectives
Objectives of an enterprise go far beyond those that are actually stated, many may not be truly intended and
the top management could deviate from them with time. How important are the following objectives in actual
practice (as you have inferred or sensed)? (Tick any of the options from very important to Not at all)
In what manner have the following objectives changed over the nineties: Has the importance attached to each of
the following increased (+), remained unchanged (0) or decreased (-)? (Please use the last column marking +, 0,
or - as your response may be).
Very Quite A little Hardly Not at all +/0/-
1. Financial performance
5. Providing employment
5. The board is only a mask and the real power lies elsewhere with the
concerned ministry.
1. Although courts have ruled PSUs to be state, there is scope for com-
mercial orientation within this constraint
3. Observers contend that disinvestment below 50% will free the PSU of
this constraint and would bring autonomy in decision making. Do you
agree?
2. Cash rich and large PSUs, PSUs with greater bargaining power or with
a powerful CEO were never constrained by the BPE guidelines.
Vigilance
Your impressions about the vigilance inquiries faced by managers in the PSUs. How do you react to the following
statements? (Tick any of the options from strongly agree to strongly disagree)
2. Vigilance inquiries on managers are part of the routine, and they need
not affect careers of managers if they have not deliberately made a
mistake.
5. Many PSU managers use vigilance as an excuse for their own lack of
initiative and dynamism.
8. Many vigilance inquiries are pointless in the sense that many manage-
rial decisions could result in superficial loss, which the vigilance may
fail to understand.
9. Vigilance has rarely uncovered any important case of fraud and cor-
ruption by powerful managers and civil servants.
7. Audit constraint does not exist for the truly dynamic managers who
can always work around audit with appropriate explanations.
4. Many of the questions raised by Parliament are part of routine and call
for information, which is anyway publicly available/or made available
with little effort.
Privatisation
There is a lot of debate amongst policy makers, managers, government on the advantages and disadvantages of
privatisation. How do you feel about the process of privatisation? (Tick any of the options from strongly agree to
strongly disagree)
Strongly Agree Neither Dis- Strongly
Agree agree disagree
6. Vigilance
7. Statutory Audit
If you were forced to pick the two most important constraints that effects most PSUs First Second
today then what would those be? (Please enter serial no from the previous question)
6. Pricing
7. Financing in general
majority with majority with govt; with bare majority with govt; bare majority with
govt; with little significant ownership with the rest largely govt; with the rest
disinvestment by other parastatals disbursed among largely held by a
of govt. and FIs small shareholders private partner
large minority govt. large minority with very little govt very little govt
holding with sign. govt; with much of the holding; and holding but rest with
holding by rest disbursed among generally single/ few large
private groups small shareholders disbursed private parties
retain retain dominant govt holding such that it govt holding small so
govt holding of govt so that would necessarily have that it has to give up
majority govt has veto to share power/control nearly all
power with other groups control
Please choose one of yes, no or cant say to the questions /statements below: (Please chose cant
say only if you really cannot chose either of yes or no)
A golden share for government would become necessary in many cases. yes no cant say
A golden share for government would arise only in a rare situation. yes no cant say
Multinationals must be kept out from the disinvestment process. yes no cant say
Multinationals must not be allowed to control PSUs after they are privatised. yes no cant say
There should be no restriction on MNCs buying up stock of privatising PSUs. yes no cant say
The surpluses from divestment of profitable PSUs should be used to pay off em-
yes no cant say
ployees in other firms for which only asset sales are possible.
In many sectors lack of regulatory institutions and policy (especially with regard
yes no cant say
to competition) stand in the way significant disinvestment.
Profitability and current cash flows should be the principal basis in valuation for
yes no cant say
offloading the shares.
Govt should go ahead with disinvestment without waiting for a clear cut and
yes no cant say
acceptable policy for labour especially as regards retrenchment.
Privatisation in India would only progress in fits and starts yes no cant say
Today there is a consensus among the elite for privatisation yes no cant say
Privatisation in India has little chance of taking place in a transparent and corrup-
yes no cant say
tion free manner
1.
2.
3.
Junior managers
Supervisors
All empoyees
Administrative Ministry
Top management
Mass media
Multilateral Agencies
Finance Ministry
Junior managers
Supervisors
All empoyees
Administrative Ministry
Top management
Mass media
Multilateral Agencies
Finance Ministry
We would like to have your response to the following questions/ statements which finally confirm and summarise
your views.
f) Would you like to receive a copies of the studies based on this survey ? yes no
Thanking you
Management Development Programmes (MDPs) for industry, business, agriculture and rural sectors,
and public systems covering health, education, transport and population. In the last 36 years, over
30,000 persons have participated in these MDPs
Disciplinary Areas : Business Policy, Communications, Economics, Finance and Accounting, Marketing,
Organizational Behaviour, Personnel and Industrial Relations, Production and Quantitative Methods
Interdisciplinary Centres and Groups : Centre for Management of Agriculture, Centre for Regional
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Public Systems Group, Ravi Mathai Centre for Educational Innovation
Shastri membership has expanded from four to twenty-one Canadian universities and the Canadian
Museum of Civilization; its scope has expanded as well to include law, management, education, and the
arts. Recognizing the importance of reaching a broader public, the Institute has launched summer
programmes for Canadians in India, binational conferences, a project for microfilming historical and
cultural documents in India, and a programme that sends distinguished speakers to both countries and
more recently an International youth Internship programme as well as programme which brings members
of the media from India to Canada and from Canada to India.