Manufacturing enterprises can face obstacles that make productivity improvement efforts ineffective or even prevent improvement operations. This paper reports on an investigation of the internal obstacles restraining productivity improvement programs in the manufacturing enterprises of developing countries, using Oman as a case study. Data required for this study were collected through a questionnaire given to production and operations managers at 51 manufacturing enterprises in Oman. The results of applying factor analysis to a dataset of 15 obstacles showed that these obstacles can be reduced to three major factors. Ranked according to their importance, these factors are poor management practices, employee job dissatisfaction, and poor human resource management. The findings of this research are of value to production and operations managers of manufacturing enterprises who are interested in conducting productivity improvement programs not only in Oman but also in developing countries with environments similar to that of Oman, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
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