Human resource planning practices in the Omani Public Sector: An exploratory study in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman
Human resource planning (HRP) is the management process that helps organisations prepare for the number of employees and the types of skills needed to achieve organisational goals and objectives. In short, the aim of HRP is to have the right people in the right place at the right time. However, unlike the private sector, HRP practices are not widespread in the public sector. Literature on the ways in which HRP is conducted in public sector organisations has been limited to date. While the process of moving from traditional models of public management to New Public Management (NPM) and the Resource Based View (RBV) approach implies the need for emphasising the central role of the Human Resource Management (HRM) function, the question of how public sector organisations implement HRP remains largely unanswered in the existing management literature. The focus of this study was to explore the current practices of HRP in the Ministry of Education (MoE) in Oman, an unexplored context, in order to gain an understanding of good practice, and recommend further improvements. An interpretive case study methodology was adopted for this study which enabled the researcher to gain access to the tacit knowledge held by experienced practitioners who are involved in HRP processes in the MoE. The analysis of data collected through interviews with key informants revealed that despite the implementation of some strategies, the MoE did not formulate or implement a comprehensive HRP approach. The focus for the MoE remains on operational and annual requirements with only few attempts made to incorporate HRP into strategic planning efforts or to involve HRP professionals in strategic planning processes. Strategic and operational HRP practices in the MoE have lagged the good practices highlighted in the literature. The results from this study also indicate that HRP professionals lack the ability, knowledge, and skills necessary to develop and implement effective HRP practices. The study found that HRP in the MoE is influenced by both external and