Services marketing is a relatively new concept for the banking industry. Intense competition has forced banks to take greater interest in consumer banking. The focus of consumer banking is the provision of retail bank services which meet individual customers needs. Therefore, bankers need better ways to explore and understand the consumers market and needs. Banks need to understand the attitudes which affect consumers evaluation of bank services. This thesis is concerned with assessing the attitudes and marketing practices of Saudi banks and the consumers attitude towards these banks. A conflict exists between the two parties. Interest is prohibited by Islamic law, however, commercial banks operate on the basis of interest. The views of the bankers and consumers were analysed through questionnaires administered in Jeddah in the summer of 1988. Issues raised include attitude, concept, and marketing approach, usage of and satisfaction with bank services, attitude towards banks and bank interest as well as views on Islamic banking. While it is shown bankers grasp the concept and practise of marketing, consumers show reluctance and strong negative attitudes to dealing with banks due to the religious factor. It seems Islamic banking is an attractive alternative banking system for Saudi Arabia.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2007. / Thesis Advisor(s): Abbas Kadhim, Heather Gregg. "June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 67 -71). Also available in print.

Workforce Localisation policies in Saudi Arabia (commonly known as ‘Saudisation’) have passed their nineteenth year, aiming at replacing foreign employees in the private sector with local employees. The government’s rationale behind the localisation of the workforce includes both the high rate of unemployment amongst Saudi nationals and the massive presence of expatriates in the labour market. The government acted firmly in this issue as organisations are threatened by closure and severe financial penalties if they do not comply with the policy requirements. Although these policies apply to all private firms, the regulations have been even tougher on Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs) as one of the main objectives of Saudi’s foreign investment policy is to create employment opportunities for locals. However, many MNEs have been found to be lagging behind in implementing the policies. Despite the importance of these policies and their implications on MNEs’ performance, research in this area remains very limited. The literature available has focused on issues of rationales and barriers of WL polices. One of the main gaps in literature is the lack of multi-dimensional models that identify the factors associated with the success of such policies. In an attempt to overcome the mentioned limitations, this research identifies the determinants of localisation success through the employment of multi-dimensional model. From the model proposed, the research evaluates the impacts of Institutional determinants, HR determinants, and firm characteristics on localisation success. The study draws its conclusion from the analysis of quantitative data collected from Human Resource Directors representing 157 MNEs. Hypothetical relationships are examined using multiple regression analysis. With regard to the first group of localisation determinants, the results support the institutional determinants of cause and control whilst supporting only the consistency proposition in the content determinants. With regard to HR determinants, the roles of HR director, recruitment, and training were found to be powerful determinants of localisation success. Finally, the results have shown that determinants related to MNEs’ characteristics—namely MNE size and MNE age—have no significant impact on localisation success. We also found that MNEs operating in the petrochemical industry are more likely to succeed in their localisation polices than other industries namely high and low technology industries. The overall findings have raised a number of areas of interest. First, the drivers of these policies were specifically social perception in the form of legitimacy and extrinsic economic pressure. Secondly, it was also duly observed that legislative and regulatory influence was found to be a strongly positive determining factor. From a theoretical perspective, it is concluded that greater diffusion of policies which acknowledge the potential variations in skill sets and labour availability and capability would, in fact, result in a more transparent approach. In the long term increased trust between organisations and policy-makers could have the effect of accelerating the localisation process because MNE’s work collaboratively with policy-makers and are prepared to invest resource in improving the level of localisation as a form of strategic and competitive advantage.

Review of the literature on the currently available services for special needs children and early intervention programs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, supports the fact that early intervention services for young special needs children and their families are very limited. The present study aims at determining the importance of early intervention services for children with special needs and their families. The study also aims to firstly identify the need for establishing more early intervention programs across the country as well as to give suggestions for effective utilization of the presently available services. Secondly, the study focuses on determining the needs o mothers of children with intellectual and physical impairments. Thirdly, the study aims to assess the extent to which the available services are benefiting the special needs children and their families. A descriptive research study was conducted on a sample of 27 mothers of young children with intellectual and physical impairments. Three questionnaires were designed and distributed to obtain information about the following issues: 1) the current early intervention services available for young. special needs children in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries. 2) the background information of the families of the sample. 3) the needs of the mothers in the sample. The data was qualitatively analyzed and interpreted by comparing frequencies and their corresponding percentage values. Results of this study indicated that the majority of the mothers expressed severe and moderate need for more information about their child's impairment; and needed more services and intervention programs for their child. Results from the study also established a relationship between some of the socio-economic background variables and the different categories of needs. Finally, some of the needs of the mothers were met with the early intervention services provided by the centre where the study was conducted. / Inclusive Education / D.Ed.(Special Education)

Evaluating the use of human resource information systems (HRIS) by employees working in the human resource management (HRM) departments of the public universities in Saudi Arabia is one of the main aims of this project. Other researchers in this field have proposed several success models for HRIS use, and they are suitable for organisations working in the conditions and circumstances surrounding a particular region; however, they cannot be applied directly to Saudi organisations. Thus, it is very important to construct an HRIS use model for higher education institutions. In view of the weaknesses of other HRIS success models for the particular environment in Saudi Arabia, this study has integrated some incumbent factors into the DeLone and McLean HRIS success model to develop a new model that provides comprehensive insight into the most important factors affecting the issue of HRIS within the HR Departments of Saudi universities. This results in the development of a theoretical framework as a model to carry out the investigation into the impacts of various dimensions of the proposed model on the use of HRIS by employees. A mixed-method research design involving interviews and questionnaires was used to collect qualitative and qualitative data; analytical techniques along with SPSS20 were employed to analyse the data. The results obtained from the qualitative phase showed that there were six factors that affected the use of HRIS in the HR Departments of public universities: usefulness, a speedier decision-making process, system quality, ease of use, subjective norms (social and peer pressures), and the unification of systems. The impact of these dimensions on the use of HRIS was measured in the qualitative phase, showing the positive impact of system quality, service quality, and ease of use on the use of a system. Furthermore, the impact of HRIS on human resources (HR), based on performance and productivity, was investigated through interviews and surveys with the sample population. In general, it was found that HRIS have a significant and positive impact on the performance and productivity of the HR Departments of public universities in Saudi Arabia. This study’s main contribution is the successful development of an adoption model for the measurement of HRIS use in Saudi public universities, by taking into account the social elements that play an important role in the use of HRIS in Saudi Arabia. This is the first study of its kind that has been performed to measure the factors and map the strength of their relationship with the use of HRIS, user satisfaction and HRIS adoption.

Tihama is Yemen's coastal strip of land bordering the Red Sea. It occupies an area of about 20,000 km² and represents the country's most promising agronomic resource. With a total median annual volume of about 1,000 MCM (million cubic meters), surface water enters the Tihama plain through seven major wadis that drain the mountainous catchments to the east. The Tihama's Quaternary section constitutes the region's only known ground water aquifer. It consists of a thick sequence of alluvial sediments. Ground water occurs under water table conditions, and is annually replenished primarily by seepage of surface runoff. Using the technique of flow net analysis, it was found that annual natural ground water discharge through the Tihama aquifer to the Red Sea amounts to about 300 MCM. A confirmation of this magnitude of discharge was possible by computing two water balances at two of the major wadis. Results of the discharge computations can be applied in the planning of future salvage of this non-beneficial loss. Given that the current system of surface and ground water irrigation in the Tihama supports an area of about 150,000 hectares, a recovery of as little as 50 percent of this loss can increase the irrigated area by an additional 15,000 hectares.

The story of Saudi television began in 1962 when King Faisal, who was then the crown prince, pointed out that the government intended to utilize the medium of television as a tool for information, guidance, culture, and recreation (Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Information, 1985). From July 17, 1965, when the first transmission signal went out simultaneously from stations in Riyadh and Jeddah until the transfer to the new Riyadh Television Complex in 1982. Saudi television has gone through many phases of development. The most recent development was the introduction of commercial advertising in 1986. Saudi television commercials have taken the form of 10 to 20 minute blocks which are taped and then aired many times during the broadcasting hours. Because Saudi television is a governmental operation, all of the funds required to maintain its expenditures are provided by the Saudi government, and commercial advertising is a new development. Thus, there was a need for a study which told the story of commercial advertising's development in Saudi television.

The concept of the invisible college is a key focus of scientific communication research with many studies on this topic in the literature. However, while such studies have contributed to an understanding of the invisible college, they have not adequately explained the interaction of social and structural processes in this phenomenon. As a consequence, past research has described the invisible college differently based on researchers’ perspectives, resulting in misinterpretations or inconsistent definitions of the relevant social and structural processes. Information science and related disciplines have focused on the structural processes that lead to scholarly products or works while placing less emphasis on the social processes. To advance understanding of the invisible college and its dimensions (including both social processes and structural processes), a proposed model (Modern Invisible College Model, MICM) has been built based on the history of the invisible college and Lievrouw’s (1989) distinction between social and structural processes. The present study focuses on the social processes of informal communication between scholars via social media, rather than on the structural processes that lead to scholarly products or works. A developed survey and an employed quantitative research method were applied for data collection. The research population involved 77 scholars from the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), in Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics, frequency and percentage were conducted for each statement. Means and standard deviations were calculated. The results indicate that the majority of participants heavily use social media for scientific communication purposes. Also, the results confirm that scholars consider social media to be an effective and appropriate tool for scientific communication. Seven factors were found in the findings to have positive correlations with uses and gratifications theory and the use of social media. This research contributes to and benefits scholars, reference groups (i.e., the invisible college itself), and institutions, and provides insight about the systematic development of indices for the use of informal communication channels.

The problem of this study was the lack of knowledge about user satisfaction with the library services which are provided at the library of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Saudi Arabia. The purposes of the study were twofold: (1) to measure, evaluate, and analyze user satisfaction with the library services provided at the MFA Library for the employees; and (2) to develop a model for evaluation of user satisfaction of library services in government libraries in Saudi Arabia.

Thesis. 1975. M.Arch.A.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / "The analysis and evaluations were carried out in the Urban Settlement Design Program, School of Architecture and Planning, M.I.T." / Bibliography: p.91. / by Mohammed A. Al-Hussayen & Ali M. Shuaibi. / M.Arch.A.S.