Given the high youth population and unemployment rate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the government implemented policies to ensure that school leavers and graduates have the competencies necessary to replace the large expatriate workforce in the country. However, this policy has yet to create an impact on smaller firms, which are generally family-owned and lack the knowledge and resources for employee’s needs. As in most emerging economies, small to medium enterprises (SMEs) form the bulk of the private sector in KSA, and the skilled workforce and quality management continues to constrain Saudi’s capacity to generate growth and jobs. In addition, Saudi’s private sector training has been characterised as inadequate, erratic, and expensive. This nexus between management apathy and ineffective training has led to the devaluation of training, further exacerbating the skills shortage in the country’s workforce.\ud
There is growing research interest in the twin policies of Saudisation and Nitaqat to replace high levels of foreign labour with qualified Saudis, especially in regards to improving the unskilled labour force for the SME. Whilst research concerning effective training of firms’ employees is available, there are no studies documenting Saudi SME employers’ involvement in training decisions. This research seeks to understand the factors that senior executives and owners consider in training and investigates the relationships between nature of training, management involvement, management motivation, training outcome, and firm performance in the Saudi context. This leads to the gap in the research considering how SME employers can influence their employees receiving effective training that would lead to improved firm performance