Human capital is a crucial element in the production equation of any organization. Since organizations are open systems that ought to adapt to their dynamic environment within which they operate, human resources should be developed , nourished and empowered to shoulder their task. This thesis explored the issue of human resource development (HRD) in the civil service sector in the Sultanate of Oman, a country situated in the Southeastern corner of the Arabian peninsula. The objectives behind this research were to examine the following: • To describe and define the Civil Service policy and practice of HRD in the Sultanate of Oman. • To find out whether the human resource development function is used as a strategic tool in the process of strategic planning in the public sector for instance: A) To what extent it is used as an approach to implement the nationwide policy of Omanization- a gradual and careful process of replacing expatriate workers with Omani nationals. B) To what extent the personnel functions are geared to contribute to the HRD efforts in the public organization. • To identify the challenges facing the public sector in its attempt to develop its human resources and consider possible ways / approaches for improving this function. In order to attend such a framework the researcher adopted a qualitative approach in which various secondary data was secured from government documents, published interviews with high ranking officials, journal articles, and books. Such sources were subjected to an inductive process to draw evidences that support or negate the preset hypotheses. Among the hypotheses are the following: • Despite the increasing importance that the civil service sector is giving to HRD, the outcomes of HRD activities are not evaluated effectively to ensure continuous improvements. • The process of human resource development is adhered to as an activity rather than a strategic tool. • The human resource development activities are partially applied, focusing on certain categories of civil servants. The outcomes of this study were supportive to the laid down hypotheses. The study indicated that the human capital development is one of the challenges that is facing the civil service sector. Emphasis ought to put on ensuring proper planning for implementing the Omanization policy that takes into consideration the development that takes place in the environment within which such public agencies operate.

Human capital is a crucial element in the production equation of any organization. Since organizations are open systems that ought to adapt to their dynamic environment within which they operate, human resources should be developed , nourished and empowered to shoulder their task. This thesis ex...