Editorial summary. This is our text summary of an article published by frontiers. Charts, figures, and the author’s full voice are at the original — read it there .
Licence. The original is licensed under CC BY 4.0. This page adapts it: the summary and analysis are ours, not the authors’.
Editorial verdict
Methodologically adequate but contextually narrow — the SEM findings are technically sound and all hypotheses confirmed, yet the notably weak direct effect of culture (β = 0.059) contradicts the study's central premise, and single-country, single-author, convenience-sampled data limit generalizability.
Executive summary
This study addresses the challenge of organizational change in Saudi Arabia's industrial sector, where cultural norms and hierarchical structures complicate transformation efforts driven by the Vision 2030 initiative. The author argues that change management practices — specifically communication, employee participation in decision-making, training, and leadership — alongside Saudi cultural factors, jointly influence employee engagement and performance. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional design with 477 employees from major industrial firms including Aramco, SABIC, and affiliated companies, the study employs Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) anchored in Kurt Lewin's three-stage change model. Results confirm all hypotheses at statistically significant levels (p < 0.05). Employee participation in decision-making emerged as the strongest predictor of engagement and performance (β = 0.641), followed by leadership (β = 0.286), communication (β = 0.196), training (β = 0.159), and culture (β = 0.059). The study concludes that culturally responsive leadership and inclusive participation are critical enablers of effective change, while culture itself appears to function more as a background moderator than a direct driver of employee outcomes in the Saudi industrial context.
Key insights
- 1Employee participation in decision-making is the strongest predictor of employee engagement and performance (β = 0.641), substantially outweighing all other change management dimensions tested.
- 2Cultural factors, while statistically significant (β = 0.059, p = 0.026), exert a notably weak direct effect on employee engagement and performance, suggesting culture operates more as a moderating background condition than a direct driver of outcomes.
- 3Leadership aligned with culturally appropriate practices — particularly those that honor hierarchy and collectivism — was found to significantly enhance employee engagement and performance (β = 0.286), consistent with findings from comparable Gulf-region studies.
Practical takeaways
- Organizations in Saudi Arabia's industrial sector that integrate employee participation into decision-making structures during change initiatives may observe stronger engagement outcomes than those relying primarily on top-down communication or training programs alone.
- Change management interventions in high power-distance, collectivist cultural contexts may require pairing formal change strategies with culturally congruent leadership behaviors, as communication and training alone show modest effect sizes and may not be sufficient to sustain engagement.
Frameworks mentioned
Kurt Lewin's Change Model
A three-stage model (Unfreeze → Change → Refreeze) used as the theoretical foundation for analyzing organizational transformation processes in structured, hierarchical environments.
ADKAR
A change management model emphasizing rapid, decentralized change, referenced in the article as a contrasting framework less suitable for the hierarchical Saudi industrial context.
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)
A quantitative analytical method used to evaluate causal relationships among change management practices, cultural factors, and employee outcomes.
References
- Journal of Organizational Change Management (2015).Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change.
- Academy of Management Review (2008).Resistance to change: the rest of the story.
- Journal of Management Studies (2004).Kurt Lewin and the planned approach to change: a re-appraisal.
- Human Relations (2016).Unfreezing change as three steps: rethinking Kurt Lewin's legacy for change management.
- SAGE Publications (2001).Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations.
- SAGE Publications (2004).Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies.
- Harvard Business Review (1979).Choosing strategies for change.
- Journal of Marketing Research (1981).Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error.
- Behavioral Sciences (2025).Culturally attuned leadership and employee behavior during organizational change initiatives in a developing economy.
- Journal of Management World (2025).Participative leadership as a catalyst for digital transformation: building digital organizational culture and identity.
- Cross Cultural Management Journal (2023).Culture-informed leadership and trust: enhancing change acceptance in Saudi organizations.
- International Journal of Health Sciences (2018).An analysis of the Saudi healthcare system's readiness to change in the context of the Saudi National Healthcare Plan in vision 2030.
- International Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (2020).Change management in construction contracting organizations in Saudi Arabia.
- Journal of Organizational Change Management (2022).The impact of organizational change on employee performance: a mediating role of organizational commitment.
- European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology (2006).Personality, context, and resistance to organizational change.
- Academy of Management Journal (1990).Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work.
- Journal of Happiness Studies (2002).The measurement of engagement and burnout: a two sample confirmatory factor analytic approach.
- Jossey-Bass (2010).Organizational culture and leadership.
- Prosci Learning Center Publications (2006).ADKAR: A model for change in business, government and our community.
- Saudi Vision 2030 (2016).Vision 2030 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Source & Provenance
frontiers
Chiraz Mohamed Rouissi
January 1, 2025
Research Study
Middle East
Original source metadata is preserved. AI analysis is generated separately.
Like this? Get the Monday Decision Brief — free, every week.
No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Rate this article
Want the full article? Read it at the original source — free, no paywall.
Read original article