Localisation in Vision 2030 and employees’ engagement in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

This desk research identifies the gaps in the literature review regarding the localisation and employees’ engagement in Saudi Arabia. Considering the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) in looking at the previous studies on Science Direct search engine, this research identified a wide range of articles that were categorised as ABS 4 ranked journals. The main aim is to explore the impact of nationalism (or Saudisation) and Saudi culture on the level of employees’ engagement in Saudi Arabia using Social Identity Theory (SIT). 12 papers were identified and used in the analysis of the literature review. All papers were published in 4 main journals: Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Vocational Behaviour and Journal of World Business. Three propositions were emerged from the SLR. Afterwards, those propositions were examined through the analysis of published reports from KPMG, other online reports and publication by Ali et al (2019). The use of SIT helps to examine Saudisation as it involves emotions and retain talented employees. Engagement can be both organisational and country specific (Saudi) that is directly related to the organisational structure and culture and promotes dialogue and participation in the overall direction of the company. This research motivates researchers to conduct future research on employees’ engagement, using the culture of country to contextualise understanding of the data to be analysed.