Due to poor financial performance of Indian public sector enterprises, the Indian government introduced the Pubic Sector Reform in 1991. This reform leads to many changes in the working culture and environment of public sector enterprises. This article investigates the impact of reform on `job affect' of public sector employees. The study is based on one public sector company and 120 respondents, who were selected randomly from the middle and top-level management. A questionnaire developed by Sinha (1990) has been used for ascertaining the degree of job affect. The items reliability of the questionnaire is 0.962 (Cronbatch alpha value). The means of score are 1.64 and 2.23 respectively in the pre- and post-reform era. Z-test has been employed for the testing of significance. The value of Z is significant and it indicates that the means of the pre- and post-reform era are significantly different from each other. The findings show support for the public sector reform that has increased the job affect of public sector employees.

Establishment of public sector enterprise in India is based on socialist philosophy, and socialist philosophy believes in the role of government as an agent for change and entrepreneurial function. A more practical definition of public enterprise is given by Friedmann (1954), a well-known jurist. He terms public enterprises as ``an institution operating a service of an economic or social character on behalf of the government but as an independent legal entity, largely autonomous in its management, though responsible to the public through government and parliament and subject to some direction by the government, equipped on the other hand with independent and separate fund of its own and the legal and commercial attributes of a commercial enterprise.''

Thus public enterprises are engaged on behalf of government in commercial activities. Such engagement of commercial activity gives a unique characteristic to public sector enterprise. A public enterprise has two dimensions: (1) The `public dimension' that implies not only public ownership, but also public control and public purpose; and (2) The `enterprise dimension', which implies the concept of a business firm.

Management Research Journal, Public Sector Reforms, Indian Public Sector Company, Public Sector Enterprises, Commercial Enterprises, Business Firm, Decision-making Process, Social Accountability, Public Corporations, International Monetary Fund, IMF, Indian Economy, Business Environment.