Organizational Project Management Implementation in Iranian Project Practitioners

Many organizations consider project management as an essential capability and attempt to achieve sustainable benefits through effective managenlent of projects. Leading companies are managing their projects more effectively to achieve competitive advantages and enhance their underlying profits. The purpose of this paper is to underline the need for Iranian organizations to adopt project management systems. This paper provides an interpretative investigation of the issues concerning implementation of project management for Iranian organizations. The study involves one of Iranian leading companies in Petro-chemichal industry. The results indicate that the organizational culture is resistant to change and there is no support of senior management for implenlentation of project management. Based on the analysis conducted., the impacts of organizational learning and training are not truly realized. Moreover, dissemination of knowledge and project histories among project teams is not appreciated, and the need for project management is not sincerely recognized. The other Iranian companies may find commonalities in problenlS and issues raised and solutions proposed. This paper has a potential to put forward the practical solutions for Iranian project practitioners to critically reflect on their current attitudes and put the use of organizational project management into their practice.