Measuring Employee Performance - Saudi Employees - Case Study Example

Measuring employee performance University Student Id Course Date Literature review The performance of Saudi employees and expatriates can be determined by various aspects related to human resource management. Many organizations have been working towards ensuring that they retain the talented expatriates and Saudi employees in their organizations. Also, the management of many organizations has been working towards ensuring that there is an improvement in the performance of the employees. The performance of the expatriates and the Saudi employees has greatly been affected by various factors in their working environment and other managerial factors especially the human resources management practices. These human resource management practices can include management style, job characteristics, promotion opportunities, job satisfaction and level of pay (Biemann & Andresen, 2010). The management in any organization has been considered as an important aspect in making the employee performance improve. This s because some management practices do motivate the employees while poor management practices demotivate the employees. For instance, management that ensures motivation of the employees can easily ensure improved employee performance. Satisfaction with pay The level of remuneration offered to the expatriates, and the Saudi employees determine the level of satisfaction in their workplace. Many organizations in Saudi Arabia have realized the role played by the level of pay on the satisfaction of the employees. It is through better pay that organizations can be in a position to retain skilled Saudi employees and the expatriates. However, many organization in Saudi Arabia have been experiencing increased employee turnover due to poor payments to the employees. The pay is termed as the central connection of relationship between an employer and the employee. As a result of the great significance to the worker, the aspect of using pay as a lever in the process of optimizing the performance of the employees has continued to be an issue of great concern to the to the employer (Iqbal, 2010). However, the pay of workers has been affected by various elements which can be either from the external to the core relation of an employee. Also, the pay can be affected by the organization culture in which the worker is being employed, regardless of whether the organization is a private or public sphere. The government has influenced the level of pay offered in Saudi Arabia through the ministry of labor. Some of these influences include the government legislations concerning the payments of the expatriates and the Saudi employees, where some regulations and laws concerning the employment as well as the economic conditions in which an organization should operate within. However, since there is no exact standardized version neither is there a good definition for the pay of a certain performance (Biemann & Andresen, 2010). Therefore, the pay is then described as a general tendency in whereby the various organizations have looked for the new ways of strengthening the link concerning the employee’s performance and the pay in which they receive in return. In addition, a certain pay for performance is usually premised on the notion that makes an assumption that a reward always impacts the behavior and the performance of a person in a manner in which is likely to affect the general performance of the organization (Moussa, 2013). Rewarding for the best performance increases the rate of competition which is experienced by a modern enterprise. The interest of an employer to recruit workers, retain them and also inspire the labor force. As a result, rewarding for the performance arouses an interest from the employees to perform highly in the organization. The pay for the performance is usually based on a theoretical construct in whereby it describes the terms which are related to the expectancy theory. In relation to the expectancy theory, this theory makes considerations that the external incentives can be used by various employees for them to acquire more effort towards achieving a specific goal. However, there are two conditions in which the workers should adhere to achieve a specified goal. The conditions can include that the workers should have a belief that increased efforts correspond to the high performance (Iqbal, 2010). Therefore, the employees who are working hard to achieve the set goals are expected to be highly rewarded to make the pay correspond to their efforts towards improving organizational performance. The other condition is that high performance will be efficient in leading to the goals which have been set by the management. In accordance to the expectancy theory, the workers usually make adaptations in expectation of the future reward hence make a lot of effort to achieve the goal which is set. Many organizations in Saudi Arabia have been ensuring that the rewarding system employed motivates the employees committed to improve organizational performance (Moussa, 2013). Setting the rewarding system that ensures that the employees are paid as per their performance makes the employees committed to achieving the targets of the organization. Promotion of the Saudi employees and expatriates The promotions in most of the organizations in Saudi Arabia have been based on performance regardless of whether the employee is an expatriate of a Saudi employee. Promoting the employees based on their performance has been assisting in ensuring that there is fairness in providing promotion opportunities. There are very few researches which have been conducted concerning the differences which usually exist in expatriate domestic perception concerning the promotional opportunities in different places of work (Hemmasi, Downes & Varner, 2010). In relation to this, the management literature convincingly says that the satisfaction of a job is always connected with the capability for job growth. However, the aspect of career development is also a significant motive whereby the majority of the expatriates rely on their international assignment. The motivation among many of the expatriates is the expectation for career growth in the foreign countries that can be possible through promotions. This makes promotion an important motivation among the expatriates and the Saudi employees as many of the professionals are looking for opportunities to grow in their career. As a result, the organizations that are offering chances for career growth makes the employees both the locals and the expatriates motivated hence committed to achieving the organizations' objectives (Moussa, 2013). However, the demographic similarity might have an impact on the perception of an individual concerning the opportunities for the development within an organization. Besides, the individuals who are not similar concerning demographic to the other domestic workers in the working organization may end up perceiving their opportunities for development as actually low. However, the expatriate workers may be less incorporated into the formal network within their working organization hence they are likely to have a belief that the opportunities for promotion which are found in that organization are consequently few (Iqbal, 2010). The belief among the expatriates concerning the promotion opportunities can then affect their performance. Job satisfaction The satisfaction of the expatriates and the Saudi employees in their jobs is one of the areas which have been researched intensively by the management discipline. However, the various studies which have been focused on carrying out a comparison between the aspect of the domestic job satisfaction and the managers who are expatriates have remained to be a relative available. After a long period of research, a certain consensus resulted just from the various scholars that provided definition to the term job satisfaction. Biemann & Andresen, (2010) explained the term job satisfaction as the pleasurable as well as the positive emotional condition which comes as a result of appraisal for an individual job satisfaction. Also, in the year 2010, Hemmasi, Downes & Varner described the term job satisfaction as a response which is emotional towards an individual`s job. The job satisfaction does not only rely heavily on the economic side of jobs but also the leadership provided by the organization. The literature evaluates pay as the significant human resource practice which influences job satisfaction by an employee. However, there are some arguments which contradict each other within the mainstream literature concerning the aspect of expatriation (Hemmasi, Downes & Varner, 2010). For instance, there is an argument that says organizations pay the expatriates a much high remuneration as compared to that which the domestic workers receive. The higher pay to the expatriates is aimed at compensating them for working abroad where they are likely to face numerous challenges in adapting to the new environment. Job characteristics The literature concerning the job satisfaction shows clearly the significance of job characteristics in connection with the job satisfaction of the workers. Therefore, the features of the position that an individual occupies usually corresponds to the crucial aspects of a job satisfaction. However, the term job characteristics are used to refer to the various variables which usually explain the characteristics of the jobs which are done by the workers (Biemann & Andresen, 2010). A job characteristic is said to be an attribute which provides an opportunity for the great motivation of work, high performance, as well as the satisfaction of the employees. In accordance with the theory of job characteristics, employers ought to provide job characteristics that are motivating. The job characteristics determine the level of satisfaction of the working environment hence directly affecting the performance of the employees in the organization both the Saudi employees and the expatriates. References Biemann, T., & Andresen, M. (2010). Self-initiated foreign expatriates versus assigned expatriates: two distinct types of international careers?. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25(4), 430-448. Hemmasi, M., Downes, M., & Varner, I. I. (2010). An empirically-derived multidimensional measure of expatriate success: reconciling the discord. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(7), 982-998. Iqbal, A. (2010). Employee turnover: Causes, consequences and retention strategies in the Saudi organizations. The Business Review, Cambridge, 16(2), 275-281. Moussa, M. N. (2013). Investigating the high turnover of Saudi nationals versus non-nationals in private sector companies using selected antecedents and consequences of employee engagement. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(18), 41. Read More