Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2018 61 Copyright © 2018 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Hindrances to sustainable workforce in the upstream oil and gas industries – interpretive structural modelling approach Balkrishna E. Narkhede Industrial Engineering Group, National Institute of Industrial Engineering, NITIE, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400 087, India Email: benarkhede1@gmail.com Bhaskar B. Gardas* Department of Production Engineering, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, VJTI, H.R Mahajani Marg, Matunga, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400019, India Email: gardas.bhaskar@gmail.com *Corresponding author Abstract: It is a well-known fact that the industrial sector’s overall growth and development depends hugely on the talent and strength of its workforce. The objective of this study is to present an approach to identify critical hindrances in achieving a sustainable workforce in Indian oil and gas industries. Seven significant barriers have been identified from the literature review and opinions of experts from the industry and academia. The interpretive structural modelling methodology has been employed for establishing the contextual relationships among the barriers and a hierarchical model has been developed. Further, crucial hindrances have been identified from their driving and dependency power using MICMAC analysis. Lack of clarity in the career ladder, insufficient pay and perks (C6), reduction or elimination of educational and training programs (C4), lack of knowledge transfer (C5) are found to be the most significant barriers. An example from the Indian oil and gas industry has been presented to show the real-world applicability of the proposed model. This study is intended to help academicians and industry practitioners to understand the interrelationship among the identified barriers and to eliminate the most critical barriers for achieving the workforce sustainability in the case sector. Keywords: oil and gas industry; sustainable workforce; hindrances; multi-criteria decision making; MCDM; interpretive structural modelling; ISM; emerging economies. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Narkhede, B.E. and Gardas, B.B. (2018) ‘Hindrances to sustainable workforce in the upstream oil and gas industries – interpretive structural modelling approach’, Int. J. Business Excellence, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp.61–81.