Sultan Qaboos University, located in Al Khoudh in

the Muscat Governorate, is the only public university

in the Sultanate of Oman.
Type Public
Established 1986
Vice-Chancellor Dr. Ali bin Saud Al-Bemani
Location Muscat, Oman
Unnikammu Moideenkutty

Unikammu Moideenkutty is the

Associate Professor and Acting head
of the department of Management in
the College of C commerce and
Economics , sultan Qaboos university
Unnikammu moideenkutty is the
corresponding author .
Y. Sree Rama Murthy

Y. Sree Rama Murthy is an

Assistant professor in the
department of economics and
finance college of commerce
and economics Sultan
Qaboos university.
 Asya Al- Lamki

Asya Al- Lamki is an Assistant professor in the Department of

Management, College of Commerece and Economics, Sultan
Qaboos University.
 Purpose
• The purpose of this paper is to test the
relationship between high involvement
human resource management practices and
organizational performance in the sultanate
of Oman an Arabian Gulf Country.
 Findings
• controlling for size, type of firm, average
industry price-earning ratio & high
involvement HR practices positively relate to
subjective organizational performance &
objective measure of performance, market
value to book value ratio,
 Limitations
This research is limited to measurement of
high involvement HRM practices &
organizational performance from the same
source by assumption of uniform HR practices
in all organizational levels & by the use of a
composite measure of high involvement HRM
practices.
 Originality/ value
• It is the first study conducted on HR practices
& organizational performance in oman the
data collected is from the private sector
organizations only
 intro
• Several studies have examined the relationship
between Human Resource Management (HRM)
practices and subjective and financial measures
of organizational performance.
• However, to our knowledge, the relationship
between HRM practices and organizational
performance has not been tested in the Arabian
Gulf countries, including the Sultanate of Oman
 intro
• Arabian Gulf region is one of the fastest
growing areas in the world with nominal
growth of about 20 percent per year.
• Unlike most countries where management
research has been done, Arabian Gulf
countries are characterized by the presence of
a large proportion of expatriate workers
 intro
• Even though the rate of unemployment among
the locals is estimated to be 10 to 15 percent,
about 60 percent of the private sector workforce
in the region consists of expatriates.
• According to Erez (2004), management practices
must fit the national culture for them to be
effective. It is therefore important to test the
relationship of HRM practices on organizational
performance within the cultural context of
Arabian Gulf countries
 Literature Review
• (Al-Hamadi and Budhwar, 2006; Budhwar
andMellahi, 2006). Budhwar et al.(2002)
studied human resource development
departments in state-owned enterprises in
Oman. They found that separate human
resource development departments with
qualified officers were present in a significant
proportion of these organizations.
 Literature Review
Aycan et al.(2007) studied factors that
influence the cultural orientations of Omani
employees and how these in turn influence
their preferences for HRM practices and
policies. They found moderate support for
their hypotheses pertaining to factors shaping
cultural orientations. Stronger support was
found for the relationships between cultural
orientations and preferences for HRM
practices and policies
 Theoretical Framework
• HR PRACTICES --- Organizational
Performance
• Positively relate draw diagram
 Frame work
• H1.
• High-involvement HRM practices will be
positively related to subjective
• organizational performance.
• H2.
• High-involvement HRM practices will be
positively related to quantitative
• organizational performance.
 Methodology
• Questionnaires were faxed to publicly-traded
(SAOG) and closely-held (SAOC) companies in
the Muscat Securities Market (MSM).
• In the sample, 14 companies were SAOC
companies. Out of the 87 companies, 42 were
in manufacturing, 22 were in services and 18
were in banking, leasing, insurance and other
financial services. Two companies did not
identify themselves and could not be classified
 Methodology
• Use of a composite measure of high-
involvement HRM practices. This measure
consists made up for four components of high-
involvement HRM, highly selective staffing,
extensive training, performance management,
and empowerment.
 Methodology
• Highly selective staffing was measured with six
items. The responses to these items ranged from
strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).
• Extensive training was measured with five items.
The responses to four of the items ranged from
strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).
• Empowerment was measured by using five items.
The responses to these items ranged from
strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5)
 Methodology
• Organizational performance was measured
with 4four items modified from Khandwalla
(1977). The responses to these items ranged
from very low (1) to very high (5).
• ratio of market value to book value was used
as an objective measure of performance.
• The market to book value ratio is calculated by
dividing the market price per share by book
value per share.
 Analysis
• Reliabilities, summary statistics and correlations of the
measures were calculated.
• The effect of human resource management practices on
organizational performance was tested using regression
analysis. Organizational size (number of employees), type
of firm (whether publicly traded or closely held), and
average price-earnings ratio for the industry were used as
control variables in the regression analysis.
• The average price-earnings ratio for the industry is an
indicator of its growth opportunities. It is used as a control
variable because good organizational performance can be
explained partly by the good growth opportunities in the
industry