Holding Companies, Performance Contracts and Task Orientation in Public Sector

and Task Orientation in Public Sector Sebastian Morris Two mechanisms being actively pursued to reform the system of public enterprises in India are the holding company and the performance contract or the memorandum of understanding. While these have no doubt been useful elsewhere, this paper suggests that the true content of these mechanisms, whatever the stated objectives and however good the design, are already showing signs of being distorted and ritualised to serve the purpose of keeping the public enterprise system in a state of disorientation.