Cultural orientations and preferences for HRM policies and practices: the case of Oman

Abstract

This study empirically examines the influence of cultural orientations on employee preferences of human resource management (HRM) policies and practices in Oman. Data were collected from 712 employees working in six large Omani organisations. The findings indicate that there are a number of differences among Omani employees regarding value orientations due especially to age, education and work experience. The findings show a strong orientation towards mastery, harmony, thinking and doing, and a weak orientation towards hierarchy, collectivism, subjugation, and human nature-as-evil. The results demonstrate a clear link between value orientations and preferences for particular HRM policies and practices. Group-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those who scored high on collectivism and being orientations, and those who scored low on thinking and doing orientations. Hierarchy-oriented HRM practices are preferred by those scoring high on hierarchy, subjugation and human nature-as-bad orientations, and those scoring low on thinking and mastery orientations. Finally, preference for loose and informal HRM practices was positively associated with being, and negatively associated with thinking, doing, and harmony orientations. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in detail.

Voluntary Turnover in the Omani Public Sector: An Islamic Values Perspective

“…The country has transformed from a harshly ruled, isolationist Sultanate into an economically liberalized monarchy seeking to integrate the country into the global economy (Aycan et al, 2007). In 2008, the total population was 2.867 million made up of 1.967 million Omanis and 900,000 expatriate workers.…”

Organizational Change Strategies in the Arab Region: A Review of Critical Factors

“…The advocates of the convergence approach argue that management is management, and that it is associated with a set of principles and techniques which can be implemented universally (see Al-Kazemi and Ali 2002;Harris et al 2003;Schneider and Barsoux 2003;Pugh and Hickson 2004). Nevertheless, it has been observed that management models and practices do vary considerably from country to country (Easterby-Smith et al 1995;Allinson and Hayes 2000;Aycan et al 2007). The infl uential research by Hofstede (1991) demonstrates that management theories often refl ect the socio-cultural characteristics of their settings.…”

The Middle East context: an introduction

“…Other themes emerging from the literature include the effects of regulations on HRM in the Saudi Arabia private sector (Mellahi, 2007) and on employment policy in Kuwait (AlEnizi, 2002), the impact of HRM on organisational commitment in the banking sector in Kuwait (Zaitouni et al, 2011), the efficacy of high-performance work practices in Algerian firms (Ramdani et al, 2014), the impact of HRM practices and corporate entrepreneurship on firm performance in Turkish firms (Kaya, 2006), talent management strategies in the UAE (Singh and Sharma, 2015), the impact of cultural value orientations on preferences for HRM (Aycan et al, 2007), HRM and labour productivity in Libyan oil companies (Mohamed et al, 2015), HRM and innovation in the Iranian electronics industry (Manafi and Subramaniam, 2015) and career development in Oman (Khan et al, 2015).…”