The Influence of Human Resources Management on the Performance of Design Organizations in Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to investigate the relationships between human resource management policies (e.g., compensation and other incentives, participation, and involvement), human resource management outcomes (e.g., employee competence, motivation, retention, and commitment), and organizational performance (e.g., effectiveness, efficiency, and quality) within Saudi General Engineering Service firms. The specific problem addressed by this study was the relationships between organizational performance, human resources management policies, and human resources management outcomes within a Middle Eastern context---specifically within Saudi General Engineering Service firms. The Middle East is a region that is highly diverse in terms of ethnicities, religions, languages, and economic and political systems. The growth of the region's economy is slowed by factors such as underdeveloped financial markets, a dominant public sector, lagging political reforms, and failure to integrate into the global economy. Although Saudi is the largest Middle Eastern state and is the world's largest oil producer, the motivation to learn, the employee retention rate, and the presence of females in the workplace are low in the country. This problem has resulted in low design quality, construction delays, and end-user dissatisfaction. The study was quantitative and used a validated survey instrument based on structural equation modeling methodology. Approximately 1,000 employees of Saudi General Engineering Service companies that granted site permission, including engineers, supervisors, project managers, and senior management staff, in the city of Al Khobar in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia formed the study's population. A total of 208 participants completed Katou's (2008) questionnaire online and data analysis revealed that human resource management policies were correlated with human resource management outcomes. In addition, the study revealed that a correlation between human resource management policies and organizational performance was partially mediated by human resource management outcomes. Four types of future research are recommended: (1) include HRM strategies as an exogenous variable to examine whether it affects the relationships identified between HRM polices, HRM outcomes, and organizational performance, (2) replicate and validate the study using participants from more General Engineering Service firms to reduce the likelihood of organizational bias, (3) conduct a qualitative in-depth case study to test the prevailing views in HRM and organizational performance within the Saudi GES organizations, and (4) investigate a mixed-methods design with a longer time allocated to enable the multi-step validation process.