Abstract
The paper describes two alternative organizational change paradigms which have gained currency in the West, namely, strategic management and organization development. It highlights the distinctive characteristics of public enterprises, especially those operating in developing countries. It examines and analyses several turnaround cases of public enterprise in India and Sri Lanka to develop hypotheses on sequencing of events in a turnaround, leadership skills needed for turnaround, management of external interface of the enterprise, and determinants of mobilization of internal resources for turnaround. The paper identifies some systemic, self-sustaining effects of both sickness and turnaround; the way enterprise leadership can convert the liabilities of public enterprises into assets; and the necessity for changing leadership styles in the different phases of a turnaround. It concludes that strategic management and organizational development models of change may be inadequate as models for changing public enterprises, and a fuller model of planned change for public enterprises may emerge by considering turnaround strategies.
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