Personnel Management in Public Enterprises: An Economic Study

In India, with the emergence of the public sector as a leading sector of the economy, Personnel Management problems, like man-power planning, recruitment , training and promotion of staff, proper placement of the personnel, industrial relations and labour welfare measures, administration of wages and incentive schemes etc. have acquired a new significance. The objectives of personnel management have always been to maintain a satisfactory and satisfied work-force. It is concerned ultimately with the development and effective use of the human factor in production and what is necessary in this connection is the evolution of a sense of equality between the management and the labour so that both act as pariners in development without any misgivings of employer-employee relationship. Keeping this as the foremost objective of personnel management, the thesis attempts to make a micro study of a well-established industry like the H.E.C. in all its operative functions of personnel Management, viz (1) Development, (2) procurement, (3) Promotion, (4) Compensation and (5) Integration and Management, to bring out constrains in each process and suggest help reforms, so that the purpose of evolving a proper and efficient technique of management is not defeated. The author has made a detailed and comprehensive study of the Management and Organisational problems of the Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi, from the time of its inception in December 1958. After reviewing the functions and working of the public sector, in general, in India, the thesis presents detailed working of the H.E.C. in all aspects of personnel management as indicated above, and comes to the conclusion that the H.E.C. is not free from the deficiencies which predominate other sector undertakings. Neither profit maximization, nor financial discipline, nor integration and maintenance of individual and organizational interests is discernible ink the working of the H.E.C. the administered prices of the products of the H.E.C. conform to the goals of the technostructure here is motivated in its survival and expansion of the earning surpluses and efficient man-management and observance of labour laws are relegated to the backghround. According to the author , the monolithic nature of the H.E.C. organization is a major cause of poor performance of the corporation. The non-fulfilment of the targets, and the deplorable position of capacity utilization in the heavy industry are mostly due to lack of effective communication system and proper budgetary control, bad purchase management of raw materials, labour unrest, deficiency in power supply, delay in receipt of imported matching components, breakdowns, and insufficient orders for the products. Unless these constraints are removed by a mutual trust and co0operation policy on the part of both the employer and the employee, the H.E.C. can never be able to get rid of fissiparous tendencies. The point that a new culture, a sense of equality between management and labour should be created in our public sector undertakings, as well taken up by the author, a culture that gives a predictability to the organisation’s relations and the capacity to respond fairly to its people and speedily and competently to its tasks and challenges