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Working Papers | 2001

Transformation of Organizations Through Enhancing Free Energy of Individulas, Collectivity and the Organization

Parikh Indira J

Organization identity is shaped by multiple factors. This shaping leads to transformation of the organization. An organization transforms its own identity with the help of free energy. It can also mobilize captive or frozen intrinsic energy into free energy. Each of these energies is driven by either internal or external factors and has its own effect that decides how the organization transforms itself. Indian organizations can also transform themselves in an effective manner through organizational leadership. The strength of the leadership and its understanding of the internal and external driving forces will determine how the organization transforms itself. For an organization to transform, the leader must first identify the free, captive and frozen energy within himself, collectivity and the organization and do what is necessary to make these available to the organization for transformation. The paper deals with how the organization can enhance and channelise its free energy, alertness and aliveness to fulfill the vision, goals and objectives of the organization.

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Working Papers | 2001

A Comparison of Technical Efficiency in the Public and Private Sectors in India

T. T. Ram Mohan

Working Papers | 2001

How does it matter to be owned by Government? Rejuvenation of a Government owned Automobile Company in India

Sunil Kumar Maheshwari

Scooters India Ltd. (SIL), a Public Sector Enterprise (PSE), was among the top 10 loss-making companies in India in 1989-90. It was setup in 1972 and continued to report losses till 1995-96. It carried a negative net-worth of Rs. 6.47 billion in 1995-96. The company was rejuvenated and has been reporting profits since then. The case study provides a rich insight into the implications of government ownership in PSEs that makes them sink or swim. Governments undertake two roles relating to business environment. First, they frame rules, procedures and policies to regulate the business environment. Second, they invest resources in PSEs for political, ideological, social, and economic reasons. However, in the last few years the existence of PSEs has been subjected to strong criticism throughout the world. Governments are frequently seen privatizing PSEs both in the developing and developed countries. However, trade unions and employees of these PSEs agitate against privatization. They argue that the change of ownership does not necessarily improve financial performance. Further, financial losses are widely reported by both-PSEs and private owned organizations. Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), an agency which is responsible to approve revival plans for sick enterprises in India, had 3296 registered cases of sick companies at the end of financial year 2000-2001. Out of them 3121 companies were private owned organizations. Under such conditions it is important to examine the process of governments influence on performance decline and rejuvenation of PSEs. This paper examines "How does government ownership influences the management processes that lead to decline and rejuvenation of organizations?" The paper examines empirically the implications of government ownership to the internal management and performance of PSEs. Findings : Following are the key findings from the case/s. 1. Manpower planning in initial stages was inadequate and was influenced by considerations which were beyond business imperatives. 2. CEOs who came to PSEs on deputation undertook ambitious, though risky, plans in initial stages of the company. 3. The top management consisting of officers on deputation from other departments in high munificence environment was inward looking. Such management team was driven by rules and procedures. The team had low concern for customer and quality. 4. Company had high propensity for innovations both under adverse and favourable conditions. However, the concern for commercial exploitation of these innovations was inadequate. 5. Employees perceived higher job security in protected economy. This perceived high job security in led to higher unionization propensity. Trade unions and employees were active in the management of work place till mid 1990s. 6. Strategic decisions about staffing at the top level were influenced by political considerations. 7. CEOs who come for fixed tenure on deputation had inadequate concern about the strategic direction of the company. 8. Cost of transaction with external stakeholders increased under declining conditions. Performance decline led to low morale among employees and yielding management. 9. Company lost business opportunities owing to different priorities of decision-makers. 10. CEOs who join declined company on deputation were unwilling to undertake straining activities to rejuvenate the organization. 11. Reverence, faith, confidence and willingness to sacrifice by the leader helped the company to rejuvenate. 12. Once initiated, the rejuvenation process was fast in the company.

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Working Papers | 2001

Policy Barriers Preventing Access to Emergency Obstetric are in Rural India

Dileep Mavalankar

India with its one billion people contributes to about 20% of all maternal deaths in the world. Even though infant mortality has declined in India maternal mortality has remained high at about 540 per 100,000 live births. Recent scientific evidence shows that access and use of high quality emergency obstetric care is the key to reducing maternal mortality and that high risk approach in ante natal care do not help in reducing maternal mortality significantly. This paper analyzes the policy level barriers, which restrict access of rural women to life saving emergency obstetric care in rural India. The paper is based on study of policies, research reports and experience of working in the area of maternal health over last several years. The paper describes how policies restrict basic doctors from performing obstetric surgical procedures including cesarean section even in remote areas where there is no specialist obstetrician available. The para-medical staff such as the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife is also not allowed to manage obstetric emergencies in rural areas. The policy also does not allow nurses or basic doctors to give anesthesia. As there is limited number of anesthetists in rural areas, this further reduces access to life saving emergency surgery. New blood banking rules are very utopian, requiring many unnecessary things for licensing of a blood bank. Due to this, already limited access to blood transfusion in rural area has further reduced. Thus many restrictive polices of the government have made emergency obstetric care inaccessible in rural areas leading to continued higher maternal mortality in India.

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Working Papers | 2001

Corporate Dividend Policy and Behaviour: The Malaysian Evidence

Pandey I M

This study examines corporate dividend policy and behaviour of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) companies. Our results confirm the influence of industry on payout ratios. We also find that payout ratios in a given industrial sector vary significantly across time. The results of multinomial logit analysis reveal that the KLSE companies' dividend actions are sensitive to the changes in earnings. Probabilities of dividend increases, decreases and omissions are high, respectively, with earnings increases, decreases and losses. This causes volatility in dividend payments. The KLSE firms appear reluctant to omit dividend except when they suffer losses. Further, using Lintner's framework and panel regression methodology, we find evidence in favour of regular, but less stable, dividend policies being pursued by the KLSE companies. This is contrary to the experiences of companies in the developed capital markets. The results of the two-way fixed firm and time effects model reveal that there are significant differences in dividend policies across individual firms and time.

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Working Papers | 2001

Public Private Partnership in Airport Development - Governance and Risk Management Implications from Cochin International Airport Ltd.

G. Raghuram and Biju Varkkey

In India, airports were totally owned and managed by central government or the armed forces. The Airport Authority of India (AAI), a body functioning under the Ministry of Civil Aviation was responsible for managing the airports in India. In 2000, there were 117 usable airports (including 26 civilian enclaves maintained by the military) in India, which according to ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) was more than China, which had 76 airports. Out of these, scheduled commercial operations were made only to 61 airports. According to projections, Indian air passenger traffic was estimated to grow to 100 million passengers by 2012 from 36.98 million in 1998-99. Growth projections in the cargo front were also promising. The draft policy on Airport Infrastructure of December 1997 acknowledged the importance of developing airport infrastructure in the country. Airport infrastructure was linked to development of India international competitiveness and her ability to attract foreign investments. The policy opened the doors of private investment in this sector, including investments from foreign airport authorities. Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) was the first airport in India to be built in the joint sector with public - private participation. The airport users and other benefactors, mainly non-resident Indians, the general public, government of Kerala (GOK) and the airport service providers came together to build an airport of international standards. The new Cochin airport project was an alternative to the existing civil enclave in the naval airport, which was not capable of handling larger aircraft due to runway limitations. The development of this airport took place initially irrespective of the policy on airport infrastructure. Some of the parameters of this policy evolved as a result of CIAL. The cost of expanding the existing airport was almost equal to the cost of constructing a new airport. Further, it was considered near to impossible to obtain budgetary support form Government of India (GOI) for expanding the existing airport. The involvement of users was a pioneering concept of this project, which was conceived even while a definite policy on private participation in airport infrastructure was not in place. The process of project and financial structuring, project management including land acquisition and resource mobilization, dealing with regulatory bodies and managing early operations in the context of CIAL offers a rich learning experience for governance in developing successful infrastructure projects. This paper begins with the case study of CIAL, from which implications for governance and risk management are examined. The significant governance issues are land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement of project affected people, project development ensuring viability of airports and staffing. The key areas of risk management are political risk, revenue risk, operating risk and regulatory risk.

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Working Papers | 2001

Capital Structure and the Firm Characteristics: Evidence from an Emerging Market

Pandey I M

We examine the determinants of capital structure of Malaysian companies utilizing data from 1984 to 1999. We classify data into four sub-periods that correspond to different stages of Malaysian capital market. Debt is decomposed into three categories: short-term, long-term and total debt. Both book value and market value debt ratios are calculated. The results of pooled OLS regressions show that profitability, size, growth, risk and tangibility variables have significant influence on all types of debt. These results are normally consistent with the results of fixed effect estimation with the exception that risk variable loses its significance. Unlike the evidence from the developed markets, investment opportunity (market-to-book value ratio) has no significant impact on debt policy in the emerging market of Malaysia. Our results are generally robust to time periods, but the significance of some variables changes over time. Profitability has a persistent and consistent negative relationship with all types of debt ratios in all periods and under all estimation methods. This confirms the capital structure prediction of the pecking order theory in an emerging capital market.

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Working Papers | 2001

GATS and Educational Services: Issues for India Response in WTO Negotiations

Satish Y. Deodhar

Under the auspices of WTO, negotiations on liberalization of trade in services are expected to begin soon. One agenda at the negotiating table will be trade in educational services. Trade in educational services is too important an issue for India, and, a thorough homework needs to be done before we make any commitments at the negotiating table. In this context, the paper analyses the intricacies of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) as applicable to educational sector. The need for trade, and the likely competitiveness of India educational services is also discussed. Finally, suggestions for trade negotiations and domestic reforms are presented.

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Working Papers | 2001

Societal Change, States and Governance: Insights from History and other Societies

Sebastian Morris

The nature of governance has differed widely across societies, and what is more interesting, within any particular society depending upon the stage of development. Governance is better defined in functional rather than in value terms. Functional governance aids and abetts industrialisation. Industrialisation is the one change that all societies have to necessarily strive for. Without it no development is possible In contemporary societies which are also democratic and trying hard to industrialise, that insight needs to be tempered with the limitations of the state that is a coalition of many classes. More importantly just because functional governance was not the good governance of today, in many countries and societies in the past, does not mean, that it today cannot be both good and functional. The point though is that unless it is functional it can never be good. Functionality of governance is best assured when the policies followed by the state in its drive to industrialise the economy are correct. Therefore the main lesson from history is that the first thing to do (for both functional governance and for the industrial transformation) is to bring about the initial conditions necessary for the industrialisation of the economy. The key bottleneck here is tenurial relations in land which stand in the way of output increases from the poor farmer. The egalitarian income distribution that land reform brings, ensures that nearly all the poor are particpants in the market. All other conditions necessary for the unambigous transformation already obtain today in India. We also describe the process of change and the sense in which the economic is primary to societal change. That does not mean that there is no scope for individual or collective action. It only means that there are particular ways in which individuals and small groups including reformers can bring about change. It is important to recognise the specific ways in which small groups including elements with government can bring about change. In any discussion of corruption and governance the case of China which despite being highly corrupt society grows can hardly be avoided. Corruption there is the means by which a bourgeois society is being born in China today. Because much of the rents are invested there is no dysfunctionality to this corruption. It would though soon become dysfunctional, since, once the party elite have all become capitalists, the gain to them and to society as a whole is greater in a non-corrupt society. That is already happening, and corruption can be expected to decline soon.

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Working Papers | 2001

The Challenge of Governance of India Today

Sebastian Morris

This paper attempts to delineate the possible role of goverance oriented reform in India today. We raise conceptual and historical difficulties with the notion that sees governance failure as the cause of poor economic performance. We discuss why there are certain regularities in the occurance of good governance, distinguishing the same from functional governance which aids and abets industrialisation. Next we go on to discuss the interlikages between institutions, economic development and governance in India, and why internal attempts at reform thus far have failed.. Finally we bring out the current failures in governance that are actionable and suggest that they are largely corrected by changes in economic policy and some intitutional initiatives. Attention to governance as such is warranted only to build organisations and initiatives for commercialisation and privatisation, and for appropriate changes in the law and in the development of frameworks for regulation and contracting out.

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