The main purpose of this research is to identify and rank the factors affecting knowledge-workers' empowerment. Knowledge-workers' empowerment is considered as dependent variable and independent variables are specified in five categories: knowledge-workers' profile, job nature, leadership style, organizational culture, and organizational structure. A sample of 202 knowledge-workers has been studied. Multiple regression, factor analysis, and structural equations analysis were used and findings show that knowledge-workers' empowerment is affected by all the five mentioned determinants.

When the war ended and the era of construction started, limiting the government to sovereignty activities and reducing its role in commercial activities, was on the agenda of the country's planners. So the separation of sovereignty and commercial activities of government was pursued more seriously. This separation was extended to all sections, including PETROLEUM INDUSTRY. By passing the Acts on Implementation of Policies under Principle 44 of Constitution and the Duties and Powers Ministry of PETROLEUM, it was attempted to implement the aforementioned separation in PETROLEUM INDUSTRY. This research by investigating different laws and regulations, evaluated the separation between sovereignty and commercial activities and the relationship between the sovereignty and commercial bodies in this sector. We conclude that, firstly, the relationship between sovereignty and commercial activities is longitudinal, so even if the government is prevented from taking action in a section, it continues to play its role in sovereignty activities. Secondly, the Law on the Implementation of Policies of Principle 44 added the criterion of "investment, ownership, and management" to the criterion of “ separation of sovereignty from commercial activities". Thirdly, despite the separation of the sovereignty from commercial activities in PETROLEUM sector, the duties between them are not completely divided.

Due to rapid environmental changes and the large scope of project activities in the PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, project management is of particular importance. One of the essential and important factors for the success of projects is to focus on the behavioral characteristics, and in other words, the competencies of project managers. In this regard, designing a model of project managers' competencies in the PETROLEUM INDUSTRY of Iran has been considered in this research. The research methodology is an applied method, based on the goals, and is a mixed method (qualitative-quantitative), regarding to the collecting data method. In the qualitative part, the statistical population included all project managers, managers Senior, and Minister's deputy in the PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, 14 of them were selected through purposeful sampling and using snowball technique as a statistical sample of the study. The data collection tool was a deep interviewing in qualitative part. Content analysis was used to analyze the interview data. The reliability of the qualitative part considerd by responder's review. In the quantitative part of the research, the statistical population of the study was composed of all poject managers working in the Iran PETROLEUM. of the oil INDUSTRY project that had enough experience in the field. Among them 170 persons were selected randomly as a research sample. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire in the quantitative part. The results of quantitative analysis led to the production of 394 key concepts that were categorized 152 items in 15 main components. Finally, these main key categories were classified into six key items: 1. background factors, 2. environmental faualctors, 3. causal factors, 4. pivotal phenomenon 5. Strategies, and 6. achievements and outcomes. The quantitative results showed that the amount The fitness index for the whole model was calculated as 60percent, which indicates that the overall fitness of the model is acceptable.

For decades, companies involved in the PETROLEUM INDUSTRY are committed to complying with International PETROLEUM INDUSTRY Practices (IPIP) or similar terms in performing most of their obligations and operations. This paper examines the consequences of a breach of IPIP in light of reviewing dispute resolution methods in different regimes governing the upstream sector. Reviewing disputes and lawsuits related to the breach of IPIP suggests the different enforcement methods under the various regimes of operation in the upstream sector. With regard to the Iranian PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, using the results of this comparative study, it was shown that due to the contractual regime used in the relations between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and International Oil Companies (IOCs) involved in the development of the Iranian upstream sector, any dispute over IPIP as part of contractual terms will cause new risks by triggering the arbitration mechanism. It was also suggested that the preparation of IPIP in the form of precise documents and their periodical update by relevant authorities, including the Ministry of PETROLEUM, may reduce disputes between the contracting parties (NIOC and IOCs) and determine the latter’s scope of authorities related to selection and application of IPIP.

consequently, the production of waste and greenhouse gases created serious environmental problems. In this regard, the most important philosophy needed by organizations is agreement on creating economic, social and environmental value in the form of the concept of sustainable management. Circular economics is an operational solution to achieve this concept in organizations. This paper attempts to offer multi-level modeling of circular economy barriers in the downstream PETROLEUM INDUSTRY, emphasizing the rubber and plastics INDUSTRY. In first, a number of the barrier are extracted from related reviews of the studies. Then, these barriers were validated using experts’,opinions in academic and PETROLEUM INDUSTRY professionals. Then, the fuzzy interpretative structural modeling approach (FISM) was used to determine the relationship between the barriers by considering the linguistic ambiguities of judgments and designing the structural model. The results showed that from the viewpoint of experts, due to the placement of “, Obstructing laws and regulations”,and “, Uncertainty of consumer demand”,barriers in the root of the model were the most important barriers of circular economy in the rubber and plastics INDUSTRY. In the next step, using the MICMAC analysis, the circular economy barriers were put into four clusters. Finally, a discussion and conclusions are presented.

The 2012 PETROLEUM Act outlining the tasks and authority of the Iranian PETROLEUM Ministry allows implementation of new contractual models including partnership with domestic and foreign investors and contractors in compliance with protective production without transfer of the ownership of oil and gas of the reserves. Although this law refers to the general contractual partnership models which can be interpreted as production sharing, profit sharing, or, but it seems that the most suitable interpretation of this clause is using production sharing contracts in Iranian oil and gas INDUSTRY because of following reasons; first, the ownership of oil and gas of the reservoirs would not be transferred to foreigners. Second, the nature of the contract allows the partnership in investment to result in the partnership in production. Third, due to the specific characteristics of the upstream sector, mostly the production sharing contracts have found applications in achieving the exploration and development (E & P) as well as production. Forth, the previous production sharing contracts concluded before the Islamic Revolution are available and can be used as reference in this regard. Thus, the main elements of such contracts can be outlined by referring to the terms and conditions of similar previously concluded contracts.

Today PETROLEUM technology and INDUSTRY is one of the most important and prominent INDUSTRY worldwide, looked at from economic, technological, and political aspects. In Iran, PETROLEUM sector plays an influential role in societal and economic development firstly seen from dependency of government income on oil revenues and secondly from sociological effects of oil technology on the people and districts of oil fields and areas containing oil related industries. Especially these effects may be crucial and risky in no-oil situation in future when the resources are finished confronting these communities with further difficulties because their development is based on oil production and not technology development.This essay investigates Iran's oil development stages technologically from its establishment until 1979, mainly in an actor-network framework. By analyzing the network of actors that formed this INDUSTRY through 3 historical stages and determining the progress achieved in taking technological capabilities, it is concluded that this sector succeeded solely in operational technological capabilities and could not achieve innovation capabilities for high level technology development. Main factors that prevented the INDUSTRY from reaching the design and R & D (high-level) capabilities are: lack of will for renovation capabilities development in powerful actors, low coordination and integration in the network, and disability of actors for proper translation of interests.