Status and Analysis of Formal and Actual Human Resource Management, Financial and Policy Autonomy of State-Owned Enterprises in Pakistan

Abstract

This paper studies the formal and actual human resource management (HRM) autonomy, financial autonomy and policy autonomy of the state owned enterprises (SOEs) of Pakistan and points out the differences that exist between them. It also identifies behind the lack of autonomy of SOEs and proposes multiple recommendations though which this gap can be bridged. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected to carry out this study. Quantitative data was collected from 40 randomly selected SOEs using a close-ended questionnaire while 20 semi-structured interviews were carried out to collect qualitative data. Descriptive statistics was used to see the number of SOEs having different levels of HRM autonomy, financial autonomy and policy autonomy. It was found that a very less number of SOEs were completely autonomous in different aspects of HRM, financial management, policy formulation and its implementation. Excessive political intervention, dependence on government for resources, lack of power of Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and poor performance of SOEs along with numerous other reasons were identified as causes behind this lack of autonomy. Multiple recommendations have also been proposed to overcome this issue.

Keywords: Autonomy, State Owned Enterprises, Human Resource Management Autonomy, Financial Autonomy, Policy Autonomy, Task Autonomy, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, Companies Ordinance 1984, Public Sector Companies (Corporate Governance) Rules 2013.

DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/10-1-01

Publication date: January 31^st 2020