Failure of Animation Mass Production in Iran: a Production-Management Approach in the Decade 1380-1390

Animation, in its shape and content, originates from imagination; its most important characteristic is the actualization or materialization of endless imaginations. The art of animation, when its variety of techniques and attractiveness is considered, is warmly accepted by a wide range of audiences across the globe. With the emergence of television and its serious need for this art, animations gradually moved towards industrialization. All these, with its importance in today’s world to achieve both cultural and financial goals, led various artists to be attracted to and employed in this huge industry. This large group of human resources is actually the building block of this industry which has made it change from its initial shape as an absolute art to an enormous industrial enterprise. Though there is not much of animation history in Iran when compared with pioneer countries, Iran can be considered as having a relatively long background in Asian animation. While half a century is passed since the first time animation was produced in Iran, this art-industry has not yet improved much for many reasons such as the employment of people with non-related degrees and misemployment in the production line of the projects as well as the shortage of professional employees and lack of a comprehensive insight about animation industrial productions as an influent and profitable industry by policy-makers. It seems that part of this disadvantage is due to mismanagement in the process of animation production. In this research, having some influent indexes of management examined, reasons for the Iranian animation failure in the 2000th decade are studied. The philosophical basis of the research is positivistic, oriented toward applied uses. The analogical approach of the research is supported by a qualitative-quantitative field survey. The present study is a descriptive one equipped with data-gathering, interviews and questionnaires. Lacking an organized model of pathological study of industrial animation production in the last decade, the Delphi method was used to serve as a model of study. To analyze the given data, the Freedman variance statistic test was utilized in order to classify the preferences of the experts’ views. The results of the research showed the below indexes atop the list of experts’ approval percentage in the production field among many other indexes: Lack of a standard structure for industrial production in the studios, managers’ unfamiliarity with the proper method of mass production, ignorance about the principles and bases of human resource management in studios, manager’s being unaware about marketing and distribution techniques, lack of cooperation with great international companies and lack of commitment to a high-quality production. The results also categorize the below indexes as next indexes in line, as to the ordering management: unfamiliarity of managers with the mass production conditions in animation industry and lack of a valid technical supervision.In the end, the findings criticize managers for their distrust in younger production teams and their usage of other cultures that are not quite compatible with our culture.