Skip to main content
Log in

A systems view of the measurement of the performance of public enterprises in India

  • Published:
Policy Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article presents systems approach to the measurement of the performance of public enterprises in India. Thus it is a movement from a narrow concept of efficiency to a broader approach wherein measurement of performance is linked to the achievement of objectives. The need for such an approach is based on the theoretical developments and set against the problems currently experienced by public enterprises in India. As an alternative a three-tier objective framework, with standards, and a set of agencies for evaluation is recommended. Finally the problems of application of the three-tier objectives are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Seashore, Stanley, Assessing Organizational Performance with Behavioural Measurements (Ann Arbor, 1964); Price, James L., Organizational Effectiveness. An Inventory of Propositions (Homewood, 1968); Bennis, Warren, “Toward a Truly Scientific Management, the Concept of Organizational Health”, Industrial Management Review, 4 (1962).

  2. Seashore, op cit. Assessing Organizational Performance with Behavioural Measurements (Ann Arbor, 1964), p. 75.

  3. Seashore, op cit. Assessing Organizational Performance with Behavioural Measurements (Ann Arbor, 1964), p. 74.

  4. Friedlander, Frank, and Pickle, Hal, “Components of Effectiveness in Small Organizations,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 13 (1968), 290–291. The authors feel that the open-energy system approach is similar to Parsons' four fundamental processes specified for every social system: adaptation, goal achievement, integration and latency, which provide the structural framework within which internal and external relations may be explored. See Parsons et al., Theories of Society (New York, 1961), pp. 38–41.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Thompson, James D., and McEwen, William J., “Organizational Goals and Environment: Goal Setting as an Interaction Process,” American Sociological Review, 23 (1958), 23–31; and Etzioni, Amitai, “Two Approaches to Organizational Analysis: A Critique and a Suggestion,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 5 (1960–61), 257–273.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Esman, Milton J., and Bruhns, Fred G., Institution Building in National Development—An Approach to Induced Social Change in Transitional Societies, Inter-University Research Program in Institution Building (Mimeo, no date), p. 25.

  7. Perlmutter, Howard V., Towards a Theory and Practice of Social Architecture (London, 1965), p. 17.

  8. Perrow, Charles, Organizational Analysis (London, 1970), Chapter V.

  9. Gross, Bertram M., “What are your Organization's Objectives? A General Systems Approach to Planning,” Human Relations, 18 (1965), 195–216. Also see his The State of the Nation—Social Systems Accounting (London, 1966).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Mascarenhas, R. C., “The Bureau of Public Enterprises in India,” International Review of Administrative Sciences, 34 (1968), 246–254. Recently an ad hoc Task Force on Public Undertakings has been set up. The Task Force will make a study in depth of those public sector units which are having continuous production problems and are thus unable to provide adequate return on their investment (from the Statesman, January 18, 1972). Such in-depth study on a six month basis of six big undertakings was also to be undertaken by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (from the Times of India, July 22, 1971). In 1969 another Committee was examining the “Managerial and Financial Structure of Public Undertakings” (from the Amrita Bazar Patrika, February 21, 1969).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Thompson, James D., Organizations in Action (New York, 1967), pp. 90–91.

  12. Perrow, Charles, “Organizational Prestige, Some Functions and Dysfunctions,” American Journal of Sociology 66 (1961), 335–341.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gross, State of the Nation, p. 11.

  14. Esman, op cit., Institution Building in National Development—An Approach to Induced Social Change in Transitional Societies, Inter-University Research Program in Institution Building (Mimeo, no date) p. 25.

  15. For a criticism of the working of the Bureau of Public Enterprises see Committee on Public Undertakings (Fifth Lok Sabha), Ninth Report (New Delhi, 1972), and Mascarenhas, R. C., op. cit., “The Bureau of Public Enterprises in India,” International Review of Administrative Sciences, 34 (1968), 246–254. Recently an ad hoc Task Force on Public Undertakings has been set up. The Task Force will make a study in depth of those public sector units which are having continuous production problems and are thus unable to provide adequate return on their investment (from the Statesman, January 18, 1972). Such in-depth study on a six month basis of six big undertakings was also to be undertaken by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (from the Times of India, July 22, 1971). In 1969 another Committee was examining the “Managerial and Financial Structure of Public Undertakings” (from the Amrita Bazar Patrika, February 21, 1969) pp. 246–254.

  16. Perrow, Organizational Analysis, Chapter V.

  17. Mascarenhas, R. C., op. cit., “The Bureau of Public Enterprises in India,” International Review of Administrative Sciences, 34 (1968), 246–254. Recently an ad hoc Task Force on Public Undertakings has been set up. The Task Force will make a study in depth of those public sector units which are having continuous production problems and are thus unable to provide adequate return on their investment (from the Statesman, January 18, 1972). Such in-depth study on a six month basis of six big undertakings was also to be undertaken by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (from the Times of India, July 22, 1971). In 1969 another Committee was examining the “Managerial and Financial Structure of Public Undertakings” (from the Amrita Bazar Patrika, February 21, 1969) pp. 246–254.

  18. Hazard, Leland, Memorandum on Pre-Audit and Post-Audit in Indian Public Sector Industry (Mimeo, 1963), p. 6.

  19. Wildavsky, Aaron, “The Self Evaluating Organization,” Public Administration Review, 32 (1972), 510–511.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Cyert and March, “A Behavioural Theory of the Firm,” in W. W. Cooper et al. (ed), New Perspectives in Organizational Research (New York, 1964), Chapter 16.

  21. Braybrooke and Lindblom, A Strategy of Decision (London, 1963), pp. 48–54.

  22. Braybrooke and Lindblom, op. cit., A Strategy of Decision (London, 1963) pp. 57–61.

  23. Braybrooke and Lindblom, op. cit.,A Strategy of Decision (London, 1963) pp. 83–93.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

The author acknowledges the useful suggestions and comments given by his colleagues Dilip K. Lahiri and J. K. Sen Gupta, and John D. Montgomery of Harvard University.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mascarenhas, R.C. A systems view of the measurement of the performance of public enterprises in India. Policy Sci 5, 29–46 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00155715

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00155715

Keywords

Navigation