Human Resource Development

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos considers each individual not only as an economic unit of capital in Omani society, but as an individual source of creative innovation and entrepreneurial development in modern society. As such, the government has focused on the development of these human capabilities as well as on enhancing participation in development projects (Winckler 2000). This drive towards empowerment of the skill-sets unique to each individual is best reflected by the quote below:

“Development is not an end per se, but it is a means to build the human being who is its tool and maker. Therefore, it should not be limited to the concept of achieving the material wealth and building a diversified economy, but must go beyond that to the formation of aware citizens who can contribute competently to the march of progress and comprehensive construction through the development of their technical and professional abilities, stimulation of their creative and scientific energies, honing their diverse skills and directing it all towards the service of the country and happiness of citizens.” (Qaboos bin Said, June 22, 1995)

As this extract suggests, this vision has been the Sultanate’s main springboard for human-resource development, which is reflected in the vision of the future Omani economy. In this regard, much has been invested in education and vocational training in order to achieve these Royal directives. Moreover, the actual education sector in Oman has been granted top priority at all levels, in terms of the number of schools, students and teachers, as well as the increased

numbers of higher-education institutions that have the advanced facilities and tools to produce high-quality graduates (The World Bank 2013). As a result of these policies, Oman is incidentally reported to have literacy rates of 99.3%

among young people aged 15 to 24, as well as having 1,500 K1-K12 schools (Information Technology Authority 2015). Categorically, the Sultanate’s education system consists of pre-education, general education (divided into three stages: primary, preparatory and secondary) and its higher-education institutions.

Moreover, the country has paid a great deal of attention to higher education as an important mechanism for boosting the growth of the economy. Therefore, a number of public and private institutions have been constructed and developed.

For instance, a public university, Sultan Qaboos University, was opened in 1986, and there are other public colleges such as applied-sciences and technical colleges.

In terms of ensuring the provision of higher education for its citizens, the government has also encouraged investors to open private universities in order to increase the number of students enrolling in higher education. As a result, a number of private universities have opened, such as the Open University and the Banking College. Despite the importance attached to higher education and the increased number of universities and colleges with advanced facilities and techniques, higher-education institutions are still faced with a number of challenges. One example of these challenges is the insufficient output from higher education to meet the current requirements of the market and this has led to a shortage of skilled and qualified workers in the Omani labour market (The Government of Oman 2012-2015).

This suggests that the emphasis in GCC countries has been placed on the development of human resources rather than on the important knowledge and applicable skill-sets that these graduates need if they are to be considered as assets for organisations (Budhwar and Mellahi 2007). As a by-product of this inefficiency, there remains an increasing number of expatriates in the workforce and in particular at professional and highly skilled levels. Although the public sector employs more Omani nationals, there is still a significantly high level of dependence on the expatriate workforce within the private sector with statistics indicating that there are 1.7 million locals and 2.4 million expatriates in Oman, a 14% increase in expatriates from the 2009 figure (Global Research 2011). As a

consequence, these figures illustrate that the development of the local economy may depend on recruiting a larger proportion of the local population (Goodliffe 2005). Because of these concerns, and in order to reduce the number of expatriates within Omani organisations and facilitate different employment opportunities for local applicants, 1995 saw the introduction of the Omanisation policy.

The driving factors behind developing the Sultanate’s employment through its Omanisation policy have primarily been based on the need to sustain its future economy, especially under the diversification strategy. The policy also aims to develop the national workforce in order to find good job opportunities and, moreover, to reduce the dependency on the public sector being a first-choice employer for local people (Al-Lamki 1998; O’Sullivan et al. 2011) and to increase the number being actively employed in private-sector organisations. However, it should also be remembered that private-sector organisations are still faced with certain challenges in attracting and recruiting local people. Examples of this would be the pressures unique to the private-sector environment and the fact that salary packages within the private sector are less attractive than their public-sector counterparts, thus resulting in more expatriates gravitating towards private-sector vacancies. Furthermore, Al-Lamki (1998) suggests that the strong preference among Omani youth for joining the government sector is a result of the opportunity of lifelong employment, further-educational opportunities, attractive wages, increased benefits, favourable working conditions and better working hours. Conversely, Al-Lamki (1998) also indicates that the private sector discourages and disqualifies Omanis from applying for these vacancies because of a lack of work experience and English-language proficiency. In addition to these considerations, Al-Ali (2006) highlights the fact that local people do not see career-development prospects in the private sector and there is little opportunity for training and promotion.

Therefore, in order to increase the contribution of the local workforce to the different economic activities and reduce the dependency on the expatriate workforce in private-sector organisations, the policy of Omanisation was implemented. This policy focused on the criteria that private-sector organisations meet the required percentage outlined by Omanisation and that local employees

are allocated to various managerial positions and provided with appropriate training and development opportunities.

As a result, a number of policies and procedures have been adopted within these private-sector organisations in order to respond to this policy by addressing the incentives of wage levels, jobs and opportunities for training and progression.

Accordingly, improvements to policies and to the structure of private-sector organisations as a result of Omanisation have had a positive impact by attracting the local workforce to this sector. Between 2001 and 2009, the private sector saw a significant increase in the percentage of Omani workers, from 16% to 23%.

Moreover, the highest achievement of the Omanisation policy is evidenced in clerical occupations where, in 2009, 94 per cent of the workforce were Omanis(The Supreme Council for Planning 2012). However, there are still a number of challenges inhibiting the effectiveness of the Omanisation policy. For example, one report published by (The Supreme Council for Planning 2012) demonstrates that there are low percentages of Omani employees in professional and highly specialised jobs requiring a higher level of proficiency and more advanced capabilities. This is due to the fact that the academic disciplines usually recommended and studied for these private-sector positions are not meeting the requirements that the positions demand, both in quantity and quality, especially at the more specialist and professional levels. Al-Hamadi et al. (2007) have also found that Omanis favour work in certain sectors while rejecting others such as construction and other manual jobs, which makes achieving the Omanisation policy across a balanced range of sectors even more of a challenge.

Furthermore, The Economist Intelligence Unit (2007) highlights other issues related to the supply of local employees, notably the greater cost required to employ locals and the additional rights they enjoy once employed. These are likely to be main challenges that could slow the progress of Omanisation in private-sector organisations. Because of these constraints, the success of the nationalisation policy appears debatable as certain key barriers still remain that might result in slow progress in some sectors even though a high percentage is being achieved in others, such as the banking sector where 93 percent of employees are Omani (Al-Lamki 2005). However, it should also be considered that the success in one sector may affect the success in implementing the nationalisation policy in others. As a result of these findings, Al-Lamki (2005)

suggests that the success in implementing Omanisation within the banking sector can be emulated in other industries with the correct amount of planning, training and development.