Modeling the Knowledge Areas of Project Management in the Project-Based Organizations of Electrical Industry Using DEMATEL Technique

At present, projectification has become a common approach in management science and many organizations in the electric industry are project-based. However, there is no comprehensive model to evaluate and improve project management performance in project-based organizations in the electric industry. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the knowledge areas of project management in project-based organizations in the electric industry and determine the causal relationships among them with a model using the DEMATEL technique. The present research was an explorative-descriptive study whose statistical population consisted of managers and officers with bachelor’s degrees and more than five years of experience that worked in project-based organizations in the electric industry, including syndicates, manufacturers, suppliers, and consultant and contractor companies. The sampling method of the research was the snowballing and purposive techniques, and the sample size was equal to 20 experts. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed using the content validity index and threshold value mechanism, respectively. To analyze data, the managers and officers were initially asked to determine the importance of project management knowledge areas using a 3-point Lawshe scale. Then, the content validity ratio of project management knowledge areas was calculated and with respect to the number of experts, i.e., 20 people, those project management knowledge areas with a content validity ratio of more than 0.42 were selected as the final knowledge areas of project management. Thereafter, the DEMATEL technique was used to design the Network Relation Map (NRM) of project management knowledge areas. Based on the results, 13 knowledge areas were identified for project management in project-based organizations in the electric industry. On the other hand, the results indicated that the areas of cost management, strategic management, human resource management, time management, and quality management had the most interaction with other areas. Furthermore, the results revealed that the areas of governance and leadership management, strategic management, human resource management, communication and stakeholder management, procurement and outsourcing management, inventories and technologies management, and information protection, safety, and health management were casual areas and integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, and risk management were effect areas.  The findings provide a clear road map for managers to focus their efforts on the most important knowledge areas of project management in order to enhance the performance of project-based organizations in the electric industry effectively and efficiently.