Do Employee Perceptions Match the Records? A Mixed-Methods Study of a State Electricity Distribution Utility

Employee surveys and documentary records are seldom examined together, so it is rarely known whether the people who work in a public utility describe it in the way its own records do. This study addresses that question for Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL), an Indian state distribution utility, through a convergent mixed-methods design. A stratified survey of 414 employees, analysed by partial least squares structural equation modelling, was set beside documentary indicators for 2014-15 to 2023-24 from the utility's accounts, regulatory orders and national performance ratings, and each construct and each of twelve hypothesised paths was graded against its documentary counterpart under criteria fixed in advance. Both sources show weak finances alongside operations that compare well with national averages. Agreement was strong for financial sustainability, partial or bounded for governance, operations, well-being and sector development, and limited to context for commitment and for six paths that the records cannot observe. In 2022-23 the regulator recorded a surplus of ₹136.44 crore against an accounting loss of ₹1,436.71 crore, and employees' ratings of the finances appear to follow the accounting position more closely than the regulatory one. The study offers a transparent protocol for comparing employee perceptions with documentary records.