The role of ideological and behavioral differences in privatization problems in transition economies: The context of Zimbabwe

This dissertation examined the causes of problems faced by privatization programs in developing countries, with a special focus on Zimbabwe. These problems include failure to complete privatization projects on time, frequent nonrealization of intended benefits, rare unanimity among stakeholders on procedures and timing, and frequent exceeding of privatization budgets. The study focuses on a number of key areas such as objectives of state-owned enterprises, characteristics of state-owned enterprises, problems of state-owned enterprises, reasons for privatization, privatization problems, ingredients for successful privatization, privatization project management problems, managing privatization projects according to plan, and conflict. The dissertation addresses the issues of resource allocation through the application of the theory of privatization in order to find viable solutions to the problems of structural inefficiency, redistribution of resources, and economic empowerment of the relatively less powerful groups in developing countries.; During the process of data collection, seven management executives in five organizations were interviewed and 500 senior managers in those organizations were located and surveyed using a Likert-type questionnaire. The overall response rate of the survey was 80%. Survey results indicated that ideological orientation hampers privatization programs during the mobilization and initiation stages of the privatization projects. Behavioral orientation was shown to be a major hindrance during the implementation phase of privatization projects. The results showed that the inefficiency of state enterprises is, in part, due to the pursuit of political objectives, such as excess labor spending set by elected officials whose interest is to secure votes from workers and labor unions for the purpose of reelection.; The study concluded that there are ideological and behavioral differences between state-owned enterprises and privately owned companies. Consequently, these differences create problems when attempts are made to change ownership of enterprises from state to private hands. The dissertation recommended ways to overcome these problems. These recommendations include transparency in the privatization process, political commitment at the highest level, ensuring availability of substantial external expertise, commercialization of the enterprise before privatization, provision of social safety nets for redundant workers, provision of effective and efficient regulatory mechanisms, and effecting a clearly elaborated public information campaign.