An Exploratory Study on Performance Evaluation and Its Impact on Employee Motivation and Performance in Saudi Arabia's Public Sector Organizations

Abstract

The Saudi public sector’s interest in using performance evaluation systems comes from its desire to change the structure of its economy. Vision 2030 is an initiative that aims to attract the best talent in the country and convince them to contribute to the economy’s long-term health (Saad & Abbas, 2018). As members of the Saudi economy, government agencies also want to attract and retain the best workers possible so they can become better service providers and prove themselves as elite employers. The Saudi Public Cooperation is an agency that recently implemented a performance evaluation system to measure how its current workforce performs. The performance evaluation system assesses the effectiveness of employees and managers as they work together to optimise the performance of their sections. The Saudi Post Cooperation experienced drawbacks during the implementation of its new system, but the economic and operational benefits produced by its new performance evaluation methods show that its investment was a valuable addition to the agency’s infrastructure. This study researched the benefits and drawbacks of Saudi Public Cooperation’s performance evaluation system and how managers and employees felt about its implementation. To collect data, 15 interviews were performed with participants who were with the company before it implemented its new performance evaluation system. These interviews were semi-structured and used open-ended questions to guide participants as they commented on various subjects. Once the interviews were completed, a thematic analysis was performed to highlight the most prominent findings from the research and the core commonalities that arose. The interviews revealed that employees were significantly affected by managers’ objectivity during the performance evaluation process. Managers who showed favouritism damaged their subordinates’ morale and caused them to look for jobs at other companies. However, managers who were able to practice fairness retained their employees, helped them improve their performance, and delivered dividends to their sections and senior managers as revenue and production grew at high rates. These results showed that the Saudi Public Cooperation has the potential to become one of the best employers in the country if it perfected its performance evaluation methods and ensures employees were not taken advantage of by their managers. These findings show that more research is needed to determine how performance management can be optimised in the public sector.