Critical Glance upon the Performance and Well-Being of Employees of Saudi Public Organizations with an Analytical Perspective ()
1. Introduction
Employee performance has long been a focus of scholars and practitioners in the field of human resource development. It is a critical activity for both public and commercial sector employees. Many organizations’ success is based on how well they accomplish their goals. Even though various factors influence the organization’s end aim like culture, work environment, contentment, etc., few appear to be as important as the company’s core labor force. As a result, employees’ performance has received a great deal of attention. The increased focus on performance management in both the public and private sectors and the massive array of literary works shows the crucial significance of effectiveness in human resource management. As a result, employee commitment and willingness to stay at the work are heavily influenced by organizational trust. Businesses’ efficacy, prosperity, and efficiency are all based on employees’ trust in one another. On the other hand, a lack of trust in the workplace has an impact on relationships. Individuals that are skeptical of one another are unable to create good work in the end. Organizational commitment is the most powerful motivator, as it has a huge influence on a person’s intentions to perform well, increase his efficiency, and improve his talents. For firms, organizational commitment is crucial since it predicts goals and objectives, productivity, absenteeism, and turnover (Rahman, Wahiba, Ragheb, & Ragab, 2021). According to the literature, performance appraisal is one of the most effective supervisory tools available when used properly. It is no secret that performance in many companies is falling short of its potential, especially those in middle and first-line management who are most responsible for making good use of it so that their public and private services may be delivered properly. According to this research, the Saudi Arabian public sector employees’ productivity and the three C’s (organizational citizenship behavior, communications, and cooperation) significantly influence productivity.
In the same way that all bureaucratic governments worldwide are products of their environment, Saudi bureaucracy is too. Historical, political, social, and socio-economic variables all influence it. There are some interesting things to learn about Saudi Arabia’s public administration by looking at the ecological features. The Body of Ministers, the Saudi government’s legislative council, is made of four key components. Ministries, non-governmental organizations, public corporations, and municipal governments round out the list. Each part serves a specific function, although they are all interlinked. Saudi Arabia has furnished the following organizational structure as of the present time: Council of Ministers, legislative council, 21 ministries, 12 government agencies, 14 regional municipalities, six municipalities for major cities, 103 municipalities of various classes, 45 ruler compounds to provide rural areas with service, three agencies for central control, 32 public corporations (including seven universities), five independent organizations, and 6 agencies for administrative development are all included in the government. In addition, socio-economic development is solely the responsibility of the government. The one creates new jobs and is a major economic stimulant. Since the government has acquired full responsibility for implementing social and economic development projects, it has been under growing criticism. The job of the government bureaucracy is today more difficult and time-consuming than it was in the past. Alternatively, the Saudi public sector is essential to the Kingdom’s modernization and growth.
2. Review of Literature
Nowadays, most businesses are worried about their employees’ health. So worker well-being is becoming a major topic in the workplace. As stated, employee well-being is a concept that everyone understands. Fisher (2003) discovered that happy and healthy employees contribute more to organizational productivity than others. This shows that employee happiness has a significant impact on organizational success and longevity. Few authors describe how employee wellness improves job performance, corporate citizenship, and flexibility while lowering absenteeism and turnover (Judge et al., 2001; Wright & Cropanzano, 2000). According to (Judge & Watanabe, 1993), management techniques have a significant impact on employee welfare. Affecting quality of life is likely to be linked to people’s assessment of their very own level of well-being, according to Warr (2002), so effective psychological well-being involves life-affirming feelings. Currie (2001) defines employee well-being as both physical and emotional health. That is, workers must be free of stress and physically safe. In today’s competitive global business world, businesses must be healthy. Open communication, teamwork, cooperation, flexibility, encouragement, and balance between work and home life are essential to organizational and personal well-being (Kraybill, 2003). There is a link between employee care and greater organizational performance. Welcoming well-being into business and government organizations is likely to create a shift in the corporate climate that fosters excellent organizational outcomes. But we define well-being as the whole quality of an employee’s job experience and performance (Warr, 1987). Employee well-being includes physical, emotional, and financial strength and is not restricted to health management. It is about reasons one desires to believe, says doctor and writer Atul Gawande. Employers can maximize performance and make their firms excellent places to work by addressing all aspects of well-being rather than just one. Well-being is defined as the active pursuit of perfect health, life skills, and financial security. It is the ability, tools, and assistance to maintain personal health and productivity. Many authors have shown a direct correlation between employee happiness and company success. Human resource management can also improve employee well-being. Well-being is becoming increasingly vital in our lives.
People need to feel good about themselves, their lives, and their events to be motivated and healthy (Imaginário, Vieira, & Jesus, 2013). People always seek resources (including energy, time, circumstances, and personal attributes) to assure their well-being (Hobfoll, 2002). A specific condition to one duty always implies a lesser commitment to the other. Increasing work-family responsibility reduces individual well-being. The definition of employee well-being demonstrated that a healthy workforce is available. Thus, employee well-being describes the several domains that affect employee quality of life. So many researchers are interested in people’s sense of well-being or distress (Kersley et al., 2006; Peccei & Voorde, 2019; Warr, 2002). The quality of life is significantly influenced by cognitive variables, particularly people’s judgment of their degree of well-being (Warr, 2002). So, well-being is linked to life satisfaction. Workplace well-being is divided into two categories: physical and emotional health (Curry, 2001). A stress-free and physically safe atmosphere can lead to a healthy staff. (Bakke & Sitter, 2005) describes how workplace well-being can create a fulfilling, interesting, exciting, and joyful environment. “A state of total physical, mental, and social well-being, not only the absence of disease or disability”, say healthcare researchers (World Health Organization, 1946).
Similarly, philosophers propose that well-being includes psychological, bodily, and social aspects (Nussbaum, 2001; Sen, 1993). Affirmation, happiness, self-respect, and abilities are among the Psychological aspect. It includes a physical dimension (nutrition), and a social dimension (housing). Societal elements include community involvement, social acceptance, and aiding others. Psychologists and sociologists frequently describe happiness in these same three dimensions. A national well-being index, devised by psychologists, would consider all three dimensions of a person’s overall well-being: psychological, physical, and social. Sociologists have also proposed comparable conceptualizations (Allardt, 1993). According to (Van Veldhoven, 2005; Vanhala & Tuomi, 2006), the bulk of connections between human resources practices, strain, and organizational performance were not significant. However, De Joy et al. (2010) found no influence on corporate performance from a healthy workplace intervention. There are philosophical underpinnings in theoretical sources that support SWB. Therefore it is more than just a scientific idea, according to (Fried, 2017; Liang et al., 2020). SWB is based on two traditions: hedonistic and eudaimonic and is regarded as a complex idea that could lead to better satisfaction and purpose. According to the hedonistic view, happiness and life satisfaction are the results of successfully pursuing one’s desires, and therefore one’s well-being is defined as such. To feel eudaemonic, one must believe in the concept of a “well-lived life”.
2.1. Organizational Justice in Saudi Arabia
Corporate justice focuses on how employees see fairness and a strong value by firms. When someone or a group believes they have been treated fairly by a company, they will act in ways that reflect those beliefs (Greenberg, 1993). It is common to think of organizational justice as having three parts: distributive justice, procedural justice, and justice in interactions (Cropanzano et al., 2001; Masterson et al., 2000; McDowall & Fletcher, 2004). Fairness judgments in organizational allocations and results are addressed by distributive justice (Adam, 1965). When rewards and resources are allocated equally, organizations show that they care about the well-being of their employees and their contribution to the organization’s success. People’s perceptions of distributive fairness are heavily influenced by how they perceive themselves compared to others (Greenberg, 1987). Workers are likely to reach themselves with a variety of others in the work setting (Bonache et al., 2001; Tremblay & Roussel, 2001), including fellows within their organizations, employees in similar positions in other organizations, and employees performing similar tasks within the same organization (assessment of internal equity) (evaluation of relative equity). The outcome of the comparison (good or negative) is closely linked to how an employee views the system and responds to it. If the comparison result is favorable, they may likely have a good opinion of the program. Assuming the outcome is negative, individuals may attack the system that led to this situation (Suliman, 2007). This view may also lead to a range of behavioral reactions that may be harmful to one’s job performance, such as lower cooperation, the usage of withdrawal behavior, such as absenteeism, and higher turnover rates (Folger & Cropanzano, 1998). As opposed to distributive justice, procedural justice is concerned with the perceptions of fairness in organizational assignments and results (Colquitt et al., 2001; Folger & Konovsky, 1989). Corporate policies and procedures determine resource allocation and other company control. An employee’s view on fairness is formed by the degree of prejudice, the breadth and accuracy of the information collected, the number of significant entities given voice in decisions, and the application of ethical norms, as well as by consistency and universality in the implementation of decisions (Stecher & Rosse, 2005). In various allocation settings, consistency in methods has proven to be a key determinant of fairness (Greenberg, 1987). Decisions made using appropriate methods have a higher chance of acceptance from people they influence than decisions made using unfair procedures (Cropanzano & Greenberg, 1997). Interactional justice is concerned with how employees feel about the fairness of their treatment in the workplace as it is put into practice (Bies & Moag, 1986). Individual treatment (i.e., being handled with respect and dignity) and the depth of explanation provided for why certain things happened are discussed in this context (Bies & Moag, 1986). As a result of supervisor trust-building behaviors like “availability, competence, consistency, discrete nature”, “fair and honest treatment of others”, “integrity” and “loyalty” views of organizational justice have been found (Deluga, 1994: p. 317). These three organizational justice conceptions will be examined in Saudi Arabia to see how they affect job satisfaction and employees’ self-perceptions of their performance.
2.2 Conceptual Framework
The research model of this study is based on organizational justice that is independent variables whereas distributive, procedural and interactional are the dependent variable in it. Figure 1 shows the research model of the study based on the literature review and factors for analyzing the data.
3. Problem Statement
· Administrative issues in Saudi Arabia include time waste, loyalty, and job satisfaction.
· One of the major issues is poor performance by public servants at all levels. So public services are constantly under fire. Persons, organizations, agencies, and the entire economy are impacted by public employee productivity.
4. Aim of the Study
The study will examine the effects of organizational commitment, communication, and employee cooperation (the three C’s) on employee performance. It will also look into public servants’ views regarding their jobs and clients. But employers must pay greater attention to employee attitude. Organizational values are reflected in management principles including financial rewards, work design, and job performance reviews.
Employee performance appears to be influenced by environmental and cultural factors, as well as employee behaviour. Employee satisfaction can impact long-term efficiency. Employee negativity can affect the company’s goals. This research study will analyse factors affecting public officials’ performance.
5. Method of Research
1) One thousand employees were selected randomly and questioned utilizing a self-administered survey, including Saudi employees and overseas workers. Participants came from businesses as diverse as finance, medical services, school, manufacturing, transport, and communication. The survey’s respondents represented top, medium, and bottom management positions. Only 820 of the
researchers’ 1000 surveys were returned, resulting in overall respondents of 82 percent. But 793 of the 820 instruments were deemed appropriate for examination, with 52.5 % being Saudi citizens and 47.5% being foreign workers.
2) They are organizing for social change. To assess distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice, Niehoff & Moorman (1993) created a 20-item scale. The rating scale ranged from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” on a 5-point scale. The 20 items had a Cronbach alpha of 0.918. To measure distributive justice, researchers looked at five different variables: alpha value 0.786; procedures, alpha value 0.826; and interactional justice, alpha value 0.906 (alpha value 0.894). “My work schedule is fair” is an item on a distributive justice scale. “My manager is impartial in decision-making” is one item on a scale for procedural justice. “My boss explains the decisions connected to my employment” for example, is an interactional justice metric.
3) Al-Damour and Awamleh (2002) developed and validated a 7-item scale to assess job satisfaction. The rating scale ranged from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” on a 5-point scale. “I find that my thoughts are appreciated at work” is an example of an item format. According to the results, the Cronbach alpha was 0.851.
4) Al-Damour and Awamleh (2002) designed and validated a four-item scale to assess self-perceived performance. The rating scale ranged from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” on a 5-point scale. “I consider my performance to be better than the average employee in the organization” and “I always meet my goals” are an example of the item format. Cronbach’s alpha was discovered to be 0.735, according to the research. The scales were converted from English to Arabic using a software program. An independent linguist compared the Arabic and English versions to confirm that they were equivalent. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients matched those of the original scales. Analyzing data was conducted using a set of statistical methods including, Coefficient Correlation, Regression, Cronbach’s alpha exploratory factor analysis, multiple and simple linear regression using SPSS-1.0.0.1406.
6. About the Study
Over 24 million people live in a country with a total area of 2.25 million square kilometers. Government restrictions over major economic activity are tight in Saudi Arabia’s oil-based economy, which is heavily regulated. The overall number of laborers is 8,229,654, according to the SAMA’s Forty-sixth Annual Report for 2020. This includes 49 percent Saudis and 51 percent non-Saudis. The overall number of Saudi workers is 4,029,955, with 3,362,712 males and 667,243 women (13.4% each) making up the majority. Saudi men and women make up 76.5 % and 12.5 percent of the country’s overall labor, respectively. There are 4,199,699 foreign workers, with 3,596,778 males and 602,921 women making up 85.6% of the workforce. The non-Saudi crew is made up of 85.3% men and 14.3% women who are employed abroad.
Local Saudi laborers are primarily male and mostly employed in the public sector (Madhi & Barrientos, 2003). Men and women in Saudi Arabia have different societal responsibilities and expectations because of this. Women in Saudi Arabia makeup only 15.4% of the country’s workforce (SAMA’s Forty-Sixth Annual Report, 2020) and work in traditionally female-dominated fields like teaching and nursing. Saudi Arabia’s economy relies heavily on foreign labor, notably in the petroleum and service industries. Most of the foreign employees come from Arab and Muslim countries, but many are also from Asia. Saudi Arabia is home to fewer than 100,000 foreigners who work and live there. The working circumstances of Saudi nationals and international employees are substantially different (Madhi & Barrientos, 2003). Saudi Arabia’s workplace culture can be divided into two categories: government and private sector. Saudi natives frequently leave the country for jobs in the government sector to earn a good salary. Government-sponsored universal coverage, effective education scholarships, and resources, as well as different financial perks, are all available to Saudi citizens (Madhi & Barrientos, 2003). These benefits are linked to the government’s Saudization strategy, which aims to reduce the country’s significant reliance on foreign labor by, among other things, providing jobs and job-related perks for citizens (Madhi & Barrientos, 2003; Sadi & Al-Buraey, 2009). Many jobs in the private sector are occupied by individuals from various nations in the country temporarily. Most of these people are Saudi Arabian nationals who are only in the country temporarily on work visas. Saudi Arabia is a religiously conservative country that adheres carefully to Islamic teachings and traditional Arabian cultural norms. The government is highly tribal, classic in its commitment to Islam, and impacted by extensive exposure to the West, falling along with a range of cultural features of GCC countries (Dadfar et al., 2003). As a result, along with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and collectivism, Saudi Arabian culture exhibits high levels (Al-Khaldi & Wallace, 1999).
This study focuses exclusively on the performance of randomly selected Saudi and overseas employees. Specifically, this study compares the performance of staff at the Riyadh and Jeddah branches of the Center for Public Administration against that of similarly selected general trainees. They are the Kingdom’s two largest cities and home to the majority of the public employees and organizations. To measure organizational performance, the study uses the three C’s univariate behavioral approach variables which are shown in Figure 2 below.
1) Corporate commitment: This refers to a person’s connection to a company.
2) Communication: The capacity to send communications one-on-one, between groups, or one-to-group.
3) Collaboration: This focuses on social behavior containing two or more previously unknown individuals to achieve or gain “what is needed or sought.”
These factors measure the link between organizational concepts and employee performance. The selected government servants are thought to be representative of numerous Saudi public employees and their organizations. Workplace
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Figure 2. Three C’s univariate behavioral approach variables of organizational performance.
dedi cation,cooperation, and communication are investigated as organizational characteristics. The organizational variables are independent here, but employee performance is dependent. The main thing is that people and organizations perform better when greater organizational commitment, communication, and cooperation. However, the study shows the limits of this research. Time and resource constraints are the practical constraints. Observing and studying public servants’ performance takes time. The study was limited to the two main locations in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh and Jeddah). Therefore the findings are speculative and may not be generalized. Despite these restrictions, studying Saudi public sector workers from the viewpoint of public sector organizations provides unique and interesting insights into its functionality.
7. Result
Data were analyzed and examined using the latest version of SPSS ver. 1.0.0.1406. The study’s sample was divided based on the participants’ demographics, professional backgrounds, and industry affiliations, (public). The vast majority of Saudi responders and international employees are married men with at least a bachelor’s degree and seven years of work experience in middle management. They are also less than 35 years old and have only worked in Saudi Arabia for seven years. According to the findings of the research, the vast majority of participants are employed by public companies. There were more foreign workers in the public sector than Saudis, whereas more Saudis were engaged in the public sector than there were in the private sector. There was a strong and statistically significant association between the majorities of the factors examined in this study. This study found a substantial positive link between Saudi employees’ satisfaction and all three conceptions of organisational fairness (distributive r = 0.59, procedural r = 0.69, and interactional r = 0.74), but a significant negative correlation between satisfaction and performance (r = 0.11). Neither performance nor any of the three theories of organizational justice showed any real relationship to one another. When it came to procedural law and interactional law, the correlation was high and significant (r = 0.79), while for distributive and procedural law, the correlation was only modest (r = 0.39 and 0.41, respectively). There was a significant positive correlation between employee satisfaction and all three concepts of interactional justice (distributive r = 0.63, procedural r = 0.65, and interactional r = 0.66) and a significant negative correlation between employee satisfaction and job performance (r = 0.19). The performance had a weak connection with fair treatment (r = 0.16) and interpersonal justice (r = 0.12) but not with procedural justice. A strong and substantial association was found between procedural and interactional justices (r = 0.69), while the correlation between distributive, procedural, and interactional justices (r = 0.55 and 0.44, respectively) was only mild which shows shown in Table 1 below.
Organizational justice variables were examined for their impact using four multiple regression models, two for each of the four groups. Organization justice variables and job satisfaction among Saudi Arabian employees F (3, 412) = 271.352, p 0.0005 was found using the enter technique. The model can explain 66.2% of the variance. The Saudi employees’ job satisfaction was predicted by all three variables (distributive, procedural, and interactional).
Organizational justice variables and Saudi employees’ self-perceived performance. There was no significant difference in the total model using the entry technique. There was a 0.422 significance level between F (3, 412) and p = 0.938. The Saudi employees’ self-perceived performance was unaffected by the three variables (distributive, procedural, and interactional).
Organization justice variables and job satisfaction among foreign workers for F (3, 373) = 185.853, the entry technique produced a significant model: p0.0005 was found for this model using this method. The model can explain 59.6% of the variance. The predictor variables were used in the model and their values. The foreign workers’ job satisfaction was predicted by all three variables (distributive, procedural, and interactional).
Organization justice variables and self-perceived performance in foreign workers. An important model resulted from the entry method: In other words, the F (3, 373) was 5.892, and the p-value was 0.001. An adjusted R2 of.038 indicates that the model explains 3.8% of the variation. There was a strong correlation between self-perceived performance and all three factors (distributive, procedural, and interactional) for the foreign workers.
8. Further Scope of the Study
This study has several flaws that need to be ironed out. Just looking at job happiness and self-perceived performance was not enough to enlarge the scope of this research. Based solely on self-perceived performance, the study was severely constrained in what it could learn. Employees’ self-perceptions of their performance
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Table 1. Correlation Coefficient of Saudi employee’s satisfaction.
should be backed up with feedback from their immediate supervisors about how well they are doing their jobs. A difficulty is that the possibility of a shared variance problem cannot be ruled out because data on research variables were obtained simultaneously and using the same questionnaire. This study did not control the impact of cultural aspects, which may have altered how people perceive justice and how they behave at work. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its sort to look at Saudi Arabian workers’ perceptions of organizational fairness and how it affects their job satisfaction and self-perceptions of their performance. Accordingly, the study’s findings open up new research directions. According to the results, more research is needed to understand better, how organizational justice affects Saudi Arabians’ beliefs and behaviors.
Further research is needed to determine the links between justice perceptions and Saudi employees’ perceptions of their performance. The detrimental impact of procedural fairness on the self-perceived performance of the Saudi Arabian foreign workers group is also deserving of scientific study. Further research on the mediating effects of social groups such as tribe, surname, clan, and other social groupings on attitudes and behaviors toward justice could also be an intriguing direction to pursue. Furthermore, this study relied on participants’ perceptions of their performance, which has limitations. It would be beneficial to look for ways to quantify performance objectively. Both the Saudis and the non-Saudis in our sample came from historically collectivist societies, as well. Future studies should compare the working conditions of Saudi nationals with those of foreign nationals from cultures that are less similar historically. Deeper research on Saudization policy and its effects on Saudi Arabian workers’ views, attitudes, and behaviors in the legal system are critical.
9. Conclusion
Leung & Stephan (2001) stated that to build more general and generally applicable theories of justice, research on organizational justice must transcend Euro-American cultural barriers. It was found that perceptions of administrative fairness affected job satisfaction and identity performance in Saudi Arabia by looking at the two primary employee groups that make up the vast majority of the Saudi Arabian workforce: Saudi employees and immigrant workers (Arab and Asian). The results of this study confirm the widely held theories of organizational justice while also pointing to some new ones. Using empirical evidence from a developed country, this study adds to the body of knowledge on organizational justice theory by showing how important it is for creating excellent work outcomes. Organization justice theory is furthered by empirically establishing that in a growing Arab country like Saudi Arabia, views of justice affect job satisfaction, albeit the intensity of determinants varied. For managers in Saudi Arabia, the finding means they must constantly assess and improve how they handle their relations with staff by paying particular attention to the importance of personal and social treatment in the workplace and social aspects such as support and respect in treating them. In terms of justice and self-perceived performance, policymakers, employers, and managers in Saudi Arabia will be better able to improve their employees’ performance and create a more favorable working environment if they target equity and fairness while also addressing the employment practices policies and procedures.