This literature review considered the tourism industry, workplaces and Arab management, and the effects these have on youth employment. Saudi workplaces, particularly in the hospitality industry, are characterised by foreign service labour and foreign executives, with little official data upon which of these to base planning and Saudisation, although there is a claim of over 20 per cent in the industry. Thus, Saudis tend to hold positions of
rank, but arguably of little substance. They are viewed by management as a necessity in order to gain the right to access the flexible, qualified and experienced labour for the 80 per cent of the hundreds of thousands of job classifications in the tourism and hospitality industries.
The bulk of the tourism industry in Saudi Arabia focuses on the hajj and associated umrah. This source brings increasing numbers of religious tourists from all parts of the globe, and, while all are Muslims, they uphold very different customs and values. These differences in social behaviour require hospitality staff to be sensitive to tourists’ varying needs and requests. This is one of the major issues of customer service, as the Arab culture is not conducive to personal service; thus, there are few Saudi customer service positions, despite the need for nationals as at least a first contact for customer arrivals.
Employment policy was discussed in Chapter 2. It is evident that the bulk of literature calling for stronger measures for Saudisation has been heeded by policy makers. However, calls for transparency in unemployment and industry data, and estimates of the actual size of the non-national labour force from the recent census, have not yet found their way into the public domain. Despite concerns from researchers and the industry that Nitaqat is a simple numbers exercise that will result in few permanent jobs for Saudis, there appears to be some apocryphal data in the news of increased entrepreneurships, and that the numbers employed through Nitaqat in just one year are equal to those employed in five years under Saudisation.
While there remain issues regarding the quality of the youth workplace experience, the rigour of the education system (particularly the vocational and technical training sector) and the commitment of Saudi youth to hospitality firms, progress is certainly occurring. It remains to be seen whether this will be a watershed solution for Saudi stakeholders to improve the future of their youth, or whether this will once again prove to be an ineffective policy.
Chapter 4:
Methodology
The study to this point has provided the introduction, the context of the problem of Saudi youth employment in the hospitality industry, and the literature that informed this study, given the paucity of direct evidence. In this chapter, the primary research is presented by explaining the research design, the method of data collection and analysis, and the processes of the research.
There are two main approaches for a research methodology. It can be quantitative, in which data are quantifiable or measurable; or it can be qualitative, in which the data analysed are subjective and determined through experience and knowledge (Kothari 2009). An in-depth research study can incorporate both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods; however, this is constrained by time and financial issues.
A clear research methodology is necessary in academic research when the main goal is to test the hypothesis or the available theories. An appropriate design should be established to ensure that the research is valid—that is, to verify causes of extraneous variables and test the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis. If this is achieved, the research is considered valid and reliable because the results are consistent (Kumar 2010). The main purpose of research methodology is to document the step-by-step procedure of how the research is conducted. The study design typically includes data gathering using questionnaires, interviews, experimentation and observation. The terminology of the research methodology is referred to as ‘methods of research’ because it encompasses the different procedures that need to be followed to analyse and interpret the gathered data. These require a wide range of statistical tools to analyse the complex data and identify associations and/or significance in the results (Tashakkori & Teddlie 2008).
Research methodology is a platform-based structure in which the systematic approach to managing the research process is well organised and written. It plays a major role in constructing and drafting the whole research process. The research process should start
with the title identification and problem formulation. Once the problem is formulated, the methodology begins, with the systematic procedures for answering the problems posed for investigation drafted to result in valid conclusions and recommendations. The key concepts in the conduct of research should be presented, particularly when the scientific research aims or attempts to correct and avoid misconceptions in the scientific process of research. In all research, it is important that the methodology be presented systematically to showcase the step-by-step procedures in the conduct of the research. These procedures were performed in this study to carefully address the issue being examined. All important issues and problems were discussed and considered in order to arrive at a valid conclusion and formulate meaningful recommendations that will serve as a guide to improve the area of study (Flick 2009).
This methodology chapter describes this study’s research methods, population and sampling selection process, and ethical considerations. The two forms of data collection and analysis are presented. First presented is the quantitative method, which used a questionnaire given to hospitality and tourism managers in Makkah and Jeddah. Second presented is the qualitative method, which was intended as face-to-face interviews for policy makers in the Ministry of Labour and the Commission for Tourism and Antiquities. However, as aforementioned, interviews were not possible because the responsible administrators were in Riyadh. Instead, they supplied written responses to open-ended questions. This chapter completes with a presentation of the mixed methods analysis that was adopted to enrich the findings.