Public Sector: Its Genesis and its Managers

This article is based on four lectures that the author delivered at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, in December, 1974. Part I of the article deals with the various reasons for the emergence of the public sector in different countries, different ways in which social control can be exercised, and the raison d'etre for the public sector in India in the background of the Avadi Resolution. Starting with an overview of the status of professional management in the country. Part II traces the Indian manager's origin from the days of the East India Company, highlights the coexistence of professionalism with internationalism, and concludes that the Indian manager should be not only well versed in the universal principles of management, but also be trained in how to deal with environmental constraints —especially the resistance to change. Part III analyses the problems of the public sectorambivalent attitude, absence of clear‐cut goals, accountability in retrospect, administrative culture, monopoly or semimonopoly situation, and poor labour-management relations—and suggests that a new breed of managers will emerge in the public sector possessing skills and flexibility to work through environmental challenges and through the altogether new testing situations in which they are often placed. Part IV examines the available choices—mixed economy as it is, a state and a joint sector, a state sector with a private ancillary sector around it, or a total state sector—and concludes by suggesting a nine-point strategy for the success of public sector in India.