Influence of leadership style, training, role of ambiguity on employee performance of higher education of Saudi Arabia (KSA)

Abstract

Employee performance is always considered as one of the important factors of employee management that determines the success of an organization. The higher education sector of any country is considered as an important sector which needs to concentrate on achieving its goals successfully. Thus, this research aimed to investigate effect of leadership and training on employees' performance by taking role ambiguity as a moderating variable in the higher education sector of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The population of this study consisting of 39154 employees was divided into five groups based on the geographic regions (East, West, Middle, North, and South). This study used the systematic sampling. 600 questionnaires were distributed among the employees working in the higher education system of KSA. 366 questionnaires were returned and were usable for analysis. To test the proposed hypotheses, the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed. The results found leadership and training have significant positive impacts on employee performance. The study also showed that role ambiguity significantly moderates the relationship between leadership styles with employees' performance in the higher education sector of KSA. Unpredictably, this study found that role ambiguity does not significantly moderate the relationship between training and employees' performance. Role ambiguity negatively influences the relationship of leadership with employees' performance. Therefore, policy-makers and leaders of higher education institutions of KSA should focus on reducing role ambiguity.

A review of higher education leadership in Saudi Arabia

“…Results of a survey of Saudi higher education employees by Gorondutse, Abdullah, and Rogo (2018) showed role ambiguity to be a significant moderator of the relationship between leadership styles with employees' performance, but not the relationship between training and employee performance in the higher education sector of Saudi Arabia. There was a negative influence of role ambiguity on the relationship between leadership and employee performance.…”

Pengaruh Gaya Kepemimpinan dan Komunikasi terhadap Kinerja Pegawai di Kantor Camat Pandan Kabupaten Tapanuli Tengah

“…Hasil penelitian ini sejalan dengan hasil penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Putro (2019), Rupini (2018), Putri (2018), Gorondutse, et al (2018), Nawoeing'allan (2017), Assegaf et al (2014), dan Diastuti (2014) yang menyatakan bahwa gaya kepemimpinan berpengaruh terhadap kinerja pegawai. Pemimpin yang memiliki gaya kepemimpinan yang disenangi oleh pegawai maka akan meningkatkan kinerja pegawai sesuai dengan yang diharapkan oleh pimpinan.…”

Demystifying the Aspect of Quality in Higher Education: Insights From Saudi Arabia

“…As stated earlier, literature is replete with investigation about the impact and importance of "quality" on various variables such as performance, employability, growth, development, satisfaction, stress and burnout, attitude transformation, involvement, commitment, competencies, motivation, leadership style, role ambiguity, efficacy of mentoring, higher education, and engagement and observed that quality has an impact on these variables directly or indirectly affecting effectiveness (Al-Kahtani & Allam, 2015a, 2015b, 2016Al-Kahtani & Syed, 2018;Ali et al, 2004;Allam, 2007Allam, , 2013Allam, , 2017aAllam, , 2017cAllam & Harish, 2010;Briukhanov et al, 2010;Gorondutse et al, 2018;Harvey & Green, 1993;Newton, 2010;Nicol, 2010;Sunanto et al, 2007;Wimshurst et al, 2006). However, most of these investigations have been made in other parts of the world.…”

“…However, most of these investigations have been made in other parts of the world. A few studies conducted in Saudi Arabia include that of Allam (2018), Allam and Ahmad (2013), and Gorondutse et al (2018).…”

“…They observed that extracurricular activities, age, status of students for scholarship, parents' education, and university were the factors responsible to significantly influence the quality in higher education. Gorondutse et al (2018) carried out a research among employees working in higher education in Saudi Arabia, and their results indicate that role ambiguity plays a significantly pivotal role to moderate the association between styles of the leaderships and performance of the employees in the Kingdom. It implies that quality of leadership style is essential in achieving the goal of higher education successfully.…”