This paper is a case study of the organisation restructuring in 2006 in the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), a public sector organisation, when additional civil engineers were deployed to 11 transmission circles. The intended purpose of deploying the civil engineers did not take effect due to resistance to the change. It was traditionally electrical engineers who had been executing civil works in transmission wing and the civil engineering staff strength had been kept minimal and at the lower levels. Even after 5 years of restructuring, the deployed civil engineers were not being utilised to the best interest of the Board. However, in two circles, due to initiatives of officers, the deployed civil engineers were brought under a subdivision and the subdivision started executing civil works directly. This paper attempts to capture the organisational dynamics that come into play when restructuring is done in a public organisation and throws light at the conflicts on professional interests within engineering organisations. Often rules and regulations are violated to serve the interests of certain groups and human resources deployments are irrationally done. Even when reforms are introduced it requires much pushing to implement them. As many public organisations need revamping in order to improve their efficiencies and quality of products and services to the public, the details presented in this paper become important.
Case study, Restructuring, Organisational dynamics, Public sector organisations, Professional competition
