Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) faces continuous challenges in meeting the demands of a growing economy and the impacts of globalization. This is especially the case in the public sector where a combination of economic restructuring, demographic change and public scrutiny are producing challenges for organization and service. This highlights the importance of Human Resource Development (HRD) as a means of responding to and designing individual and organisational change – as a predominantly human process. This thesis examines two public organizations in KSA and the way in which they organize their management and HRD and understand the challenge of change. It begins by examining the literature on change and its relationship to theories of management, organization and HRD. It is shown that the relationship between change and HRD is relatively unexplored empirically in the context of developing economies. A framework of key constructs is developed to enable such an exploration. The empirical research adopts a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods to undertake a case study of two public organizations concerned with HRD policies. The research examines existing theories and attempts to produce new insights grounded in the data. It is concluded that there remains a legacy of hierarchical and bureaucratic control that draws upon patriarchal authority to maintain its stability. However, it is also shown that there appears to be considerable support from employees and managers for this style of management, in particular for a strong sense of sociability that, for a sizable minority of members, appears to be more important than organizational performance. This approach appears to be associated with a conservative approach to change and a reliance on senior managers to take responsibility for change decisions. However, it is also apparent that increasing management education and study abroad do seem to be causing sore erosion of these attitudes, although this appears to be a gradual process. The implications of this situation for dealing with possible radical future change are explored as are the lessons for theory within this context, and for future research.