In the last four decades, Saudi Arabia has undergone rapid urban development. One consequence of this is the emergence of the villa-type dwelling unit as a standard contemporary house design. The domestic open space of each unit is the space surrounding the form of the house. This contemporary domestic open space has failed to meet the basic cultural need for privacy and the demands of the local climate. The aim of this study is to describe the need for privacy as a determining cultural aspect, and climatic comfort in the contemporary domestic open space within the existing cultural and environmental context. The study analyzes the traditional domestic open space to provide clues to direct and improve the existing situation. Design options or guidelines based on the analysis of the contemporary and traditional domestic open spaces are proposed to improve the domestic open space within the villa house pattern. / Master of Landscape Architecture

This research aimed at identifying the teacher competencies of teachers teaching at an international school in Saudi Arabia. The research addressing the problems and sub-problems involved a literature review that conceptualised multicultural education and international schooling. The empirical investigation included the use of a questionnaire to gather data. The questionnaire aimed at determining the ability of teachers to function effectively within a multicultural environment. The findings, which were linked to the literature review, revealed areas of strength and weakness. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for school administrators for the design of appropriate staff development programmes to inculcate in teachers the competencies necessary to perform effectively in an international multicultural environment. / Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Educational psychology)

This study researches the Islamic Penal System within a penological perspective. The philosophy underlying this Penal System is that every person is responsible and thus punishable for his criminal actions. Punishment could also await the offender in the Hereafter. A system of penalties and rewards is the cornerstone of the Islamic Penal System. The types of punishment that are allowed by the Shari'ah are, inter alia: the death penalty, lashes, banishment, imprisonment, crucifixion, lapidation and public exposure. There are three categories of punishment: Hadd punishment is reserved for serious offences and cannot be altered in any way whatsoever, Qisas punishment is reserved for homicide and assault, whilst Ta'zeer penalties cover the balance. Since this Penal System can only operate within a true Islamic State, it currently only operates fully in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Numerous other Muslim countries apply this system to a lesser degree, for example, Sudan and Afghanistan. / Penology / M.A. (Penology)

Saudi Arabia is in the process of implementing Electronic Patient Records (EPR) throughout its National Health services. One of the key challenges during the adoption process is the security of EPR. This thesis investigates the current state of EPR security in Saudi Arabia’s National Health Services (SA NHS) both from a policy perspective and with regard to its implementation in SA NHS’s information systems. To facilitate the analysis of EPR security, an EPR model has been developed that captures the information that is stored as part of the electronic record system in conjunction with stated security requirements. This model is used in the analysis of policy consistency and to validate operational reality against stated policies at various levels within the SA NHS. The model is based on a comprehensive literature survey and structured interviews which established the current state of practice with respect to EPRs in a representative Saudi Arabian hospital. The key contribution of this research is the development and evaluation of a structured and model-based analysis approach to EPR security at the early adoption stage in SA, based on types of information present in EPRs and the needs of the users of EPRs. The key findings show that the SA EPR adoption process is currently proceeding without serious consideration for security policy to protect EPR and a lack of awareness amongst hospital staff.

The focus of this study is the development of an e-learning training package for the academic staff in King Faisal University (KFU) in Saudi Arabia. Evidence suggests that there is a lack of training for academic staff in Saudi Higher Education on how to integrate e-learning in their teaching. Despite this, very little attention is paid in the research literature to the design and evaluation of e-learning training. There is no clarity therefore about what constitutes effective e-learning training in higher education. This study aimed to design, implement and evaluate a training package for the academic staff. The study was conducted in two phases: 1) identifying the e-learning training needs and preferences of the academic staff in KFU; 2) designing, implementing and assessing a training package based on identified needs and preferences, e-learning training literature and common learning theories in the field. The study was qualitative. In phase one, 69 questionnaires and 17 interviews were analysed. The survey findings showed that the academic staff do suffer from the lack of training. Furthermore, the data showed a disagreement with the existing literature about the factors that limit the academic staff’s use of e-learning. The academic staff’s preferences for their future e-learning training were also determined and used to inform the design of the training package. Key design features of the training package included: covering both technical and pedagogical aspects of Blackboard; using blended delivery and using both cognitive constructivism and social constructivism to underpin its pedagogy. Evaluation data collected from a range of sources suggest that the academic staff responded well to the design features of the training package and that the training had a positive influence on their practice. The study has proposed a model for the design and evaluation of e-learning training in higher education that based on five generic criteria including ownership, intersubjectivity, contextualisation, transformational potential and evidence based.

Culture plays an integral role in shaping Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and policies within any organisation. This role is manifested through determining the norms and accepted behaviours in any given society. However, the extent of this societal cultural influence has been deemed to be greatly unexplored among researchers. Societal culture has been defined by Prasad and Babbar (2000) as the compilation of values and ideologies that are shared among an assembly of individuals in a certain country or region. Researchers have been concerned by the relationship between societal culture and HRM practices in developing countries; HRM practices are defined by Armstrong (2006) as all aspects associated with the management of people within the organisation. Therefore, this research represents an investigation of the link between Saudi Arabian societal culture and existing HRM practices within the public and private sectors. Taking into consideration elements affecting Saudi societal culture, such as changing economy and globalisation, these elements impact organisations in Saudi Arabia on two levels. First, the local level, where public organisations are gradually transforming into private organisations with a focus on profitability. Second, the global level, represented through multinational organisations adapting to societal culture elements in order to achieve success. As a result of both levels, HRM practices are changing in order to be effective. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore this particular development and discover how Saudi societal culture impacts five specific HRM practices – highlighted following a comprehensive review of literature – and the role they play in shaping those practices. These practices are: job desirability, recruitment sources, performance appraisal, compensation and rewards, and training programmes. For the purposes of this research, a case study has been conducted in order to provide an in-depth examination. This benefits from a unique opportunity to investigate an ongoing privatisation process within a leading organisation in the Middle East. Saudi Arabian Airlines (SAA) represents an ideal candidate for this study, as the technical services section of the company, SAEI, is going through a privatisation process; this started in 2009 with expected completion in 2015. As the research data collection took place over seven weeks in 2013, this timeline allowed the examination of the transition from public to private sector within one organisation with the same workplace environment. Furthermore, having both sectors within the same organisation creates the possibility of making comparisons between them, as it would have been impossible to find two organisations from each sector possessing the same organisational structure, financial level and operational levels. Moreover, this study involved adopting a mixed-methods approach to incorporate qualitative and quantitative methods. This approach included semi-structured type interviews with eight senior HR managers as well as non-HR managers, and disseminating questionnaires among 200 engineers within the SAEI department. The findings and results of this case study have shown the extent to which each HRM practice interacts with Saudi societal culture. There have been HRM themes greatly influenced by the societal element, while other themes remained neutral and did not reflect any cultural influence. Furthermore, the findings produced mixed results when compared to those in the existing literature. As for the HRM practices affected by societal culture, three were affected based on the collected data: compensation and rewards, job desirability, and training programmes. These practices show clear indication they were influenced by Saudi Arabian societal culture. As for the HRM practices that remained neutral – performance appraisal and recruitment sources – they remained independent of any societal influence. However, after concluding the study and its discussion, this research provides several contributions to the field of HRM practices in Saudi Arabia on two main levels. On the theoretical level, the outcomes confirm a link between Saudi Arabian societal culture and compensation and rewards, training programmes, and job desirability practices. On the other hand, recruitment sources and performance appraisal practices are not greatly influenced. A further contribution is the up-to-date investigation of the impact that Saudi Arabian societal culture has on HRM practices, which helps to address well-known and documented gaps in the literature. As for practical contributions, one contribution is providing a first-hand review of the ongoing transition using primary and secondary research methods for SAA. This is 00considered beneficial for practitioners and multi-national corporations, as this study provides an action guide and insight into preferred HRM practices in Saudi Arabia. Further practical contribution is associated with the developed framework utilised in this research, where this particular framework can be used in the future to accommodate similar privatisation processes or make comparisons with international organisations.

The dominant interpretation of Roman imperialism in the provinces of Arabia and then Palaestina Tertia holds that the Empire was seeking to combat external military threats from nomads. This interpretation is based on archaeological evidence of Roman military sites forming a static defensive system linked by a road network. Recent scholarship in Jordan has questioned this interpretation. Alternative hypotheses have been advanced proposing that these sites acted as points of provincial control or were situated to maintain routes for long distance trade. It is proposed here that these interpretations of imperial control are flawed, either because of poorly realised explanatory models or improperly sampled datasets. In contrast, this study achieves an integration of textual and archaeological data through the conceptual framework of landscape. This approach stresses the spatial correlates of human behaviour and allows an alternative interpretation of imperial control to be validated. This study proposes the hypothesis that the aim of Roman imperialism in this area was to control directly imperial material resources. It does not present a historical reconstruction but demonstrates the power of a landscape approach over other models in the interpretation of Roman imperial control in southern Jordan. A rigorous review of existing textual and archaeological evidence from southern Jordan to establish military spatial and temporal development concludes that the scale of military fluctuations to support the hypothesis of a desert frontier sy~tem has been exaggerated. To test this conclusion primary data from the Dana Archaeological Survey (DAS), a three-year survey project directed by the author, was rigorously correlated with existing datasets. By strictly defining military sites and emphasising these monuments as part of wider settlement pattern, the survey demonstrated that military variability was in fact highly conservative and cannot support the hypothesis of frontier defence or provincial control. The DAS data was then used to test an alternative hypothesis that military variation is linked to the control of trade and wider socio-economic integration. This was achieved by correlating military sites with the wider settlement hierarchy through patterns of ceramic continuity. However, contrary to previous interpretations showing highly variable settlement change, the results proved that the correlation with military sites is not exact. These results were then compared with critically evaluated data from four other surveys (Wadi Hasa Survey, Southern Ghors and North Arabah Survey, Limes Arabicus survey and the Kerak Plateau Survey), which broadly supported the DAS results. This study makes clear that there is a spatial correlation between the existence of imperial estates, industrial centres and military sites. Archaeological evidence of an imperial estate in the DAS project area is presented and is contrasted with the different spatial and temporal features of a civilian estate. This imperial estate can be spatially correlated with several military sites. A review of the historical and textual evidence for imperial estates in Arabia suggests a provincial-wide pattern. This re-interpretation of the imperial landscape in southern Jordan views the location of military sites and the road network as a part of a vast integrated resourcing system of the Eastern Empire.

Economic, social, technological and educational factors have led to an increase in the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in education at all levels. Most research concerning this has focused on the way in which e-learning can be used to improve teaching and learning across the curriculum and has neglected the teaching of ICT as a subject (Hammond, 2004). In a 1999 Ofsted inspection, ICT was found to be the least well taught subject in primary schools. The present research considers how the teaching of ICT could be better supported in the UK and Saudi Arabia. In the first stage, an investigation was made of the teaching of ICT in UK primary schools to understand why its teaching had been rated unfavourably. It was discovered that teaching focused on technical aspects (i.e. how to use specific applications) whilst ignoring the communication and information parts. Although it has been argued widely that e-learning improves teaching and learning across the curriculum, observations showed that e-learning was not, in itself, used to support teaching of the ICT curriculum. Hence, this research explored the ways in which the teaching of the ICT curriculum (to 9-11 year olds) could be made more effective, particularly through the incorporation of e-learning material. It was hypothesized that the experience of teaching and learning could be enhanced if e-learning material was designed which specifically addressed the needs of the teachers and young learners. Evidence collected in the course of the research suggested that little material existed to support the ICT curriculum, and that e-learning material produced to support other subjects does not always suit the teachers’ needs. Therefore in the second stage of the research, a design approach that engaged end users (teachers and young students) was proposed which was tested and refined during the design of e-learning material to support the teaching of the Multimedia Unit of the ICT National Curriculum. The resulting e-learning material was evaluated in UK schools to determine the extent to which it satisfied user needs and its effectiveness in teaching the intended learning outcomes. The results in both cases were positive implying that such a method could lead to the production of useful supportive material. As a former Saudi Arabian computer teacher, one of my personal goals was to provide opportunities to improve the experience of teachers and children in my own country. As such I have been interested in how I can transfer my understanding of the UK educational system to my home country. Following the successful evaluation of the elearning material in the UK, a demonstration of how a child centred design approach can be used to design effective educational material. Unfortunately although such a process might produce more effective learning outcomes and pleasurable material, I also found that such an approach is considered incompatible with commercial design environments. In the last stage of the thesis strategies are discussed which could be used (particularly in Saudi Arabia) to encourage the producers of educational materials to engage in the design of more effective teaching and learning experiences, especially in relation to the primary ICT curriculum. One such strategy would be to train undergraduates in applying a more user centred design approach as an integral part of their practice. The resultant design approach has now been approved by the Director of the Graphic Design Department in Dar Al Hekma Collage (Jeddah – Saudi Arabia) to be taught as a design approach for designing e-learning material for children on the Information Design Course. Additionally, a set of recommendations was developed for the Saudi Ministry of Education addressing the sort of revisions needed to improve the ICT curriculum in Saudi Arabia.

The focus of this thesis is the establishment and evolution of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Furthermore, analyzing the U.S. relations with the GCC multilaterally and the Gulf States bilaterally. The final phase is to analyze the prospects of future relations between the U.S. and GCC collectively and individually.

With the increasing expansion of companies into the global markets, Relationship Marketing (RM) has become more significant than ever, drawing to it the interest of scholars and the attention of practitioners. One aspect of the subject, which this research addresses, is the need to understand the nature and importance of relationships across cultures, since such understanding is critical to organizational expansion. The focus of this research is B2B relationship marketing, with cross-cultural marketing as a major component of analysis. Building on and extending relevant cross-cultural theories, this research investigates B2B relationship marketing in a Middle-Eastern telecom company, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), a company that is well placed for providing fertile illustrations of the mechanism of B2B relationship marketing. It is, furthermore, a key company in Saudi Arabia with hundreds of partners worldwide, and its economic importance to the country is second only to SABIC, the state-owned national oil company. Adopting a case study research strategy, the research explores how a growing organization absorbs cultural awareness into its B2B relationships. Data are garnered by interviewing 35 STC managers, 29 STC Small Medium Enterprise SME business partners, and three of STC’s Major Enterprise partners, as well as accessing and analysing secondary data from the company. The findings to date suggest that as the company grows it needs to develop B2B cross-cultural awareness at local and global level. This research extends cross-cultural models which have been developed in a business-to-consumer (B2C) context such as cross-cultural marketing theories proposed by Hall and Hofstede to understand cross-cultural theory in a B2B context. By exploring the role of culture in B2B relationships in the telecom industry in the Middle East in general and Saudi Arabia in particular, in light of a case study conducted on a specific and major company, STC and its global partners, and by investigating and assessing how it conducts its B2B relationships, this research aspires to extend the understanding of cultural awareness in B2B relationship and thereby to make a useful contribution to scholarship.