Navigating Well-Being in a Transformative Context: A Qualitative Exploration of Employees’ Experiences in a Saudi Arabian Public University

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 aims to make human capital the key driver of economic development and innovation. However, there is a dearth of research on employee well-being in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and in Saudi Arabia as well. There is a need to re-examine how the Kingdom’s unique cultural disposition (tribalism, gender segregation, religious customs, expatriate dependence) interacts with the well-being of their employees. With this background, the present study, by using an in-depth qualitative approach and integrating the JD-R model and sociocultural theory, attempts to provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing and understanding employee well-being outcomes among a Saudi public university’s staff members facing the impact of internationalization, digitalization, and policy reforms. The university chosen was one of the largest public universities of Saudi Arabia based in Jeddah. The qualitative approach adopted allowed for a rich, nuanced, and contextualized understanding of the lived experiences of well-being among the university’s teaching and non-teaching employees in their distinct sociocultural setting. The results suggest that while the JD-R model provides a useful starting point, sociocultural theory more adequately explains how cultural tools (religious and tribal identities) and structures (gender segregation, seniority policies) serve as both resources and demands. The reforms introduced under Vision 2030 have created tensions between the government’s new global, meritocratic goals for the sector and traditional Saudi sociocultural norms, with a negative spillover effect disproportionately borne by the expatriate staff, women, and administrative staff members. The study suggests that staff well-being should not be viewed as an outcome but as a precondition for successfully achieving Vision 2030 reform goals. In order to reduce attrition and ensure a more sustainable reform process, policymakers must balance their emphasis on performance with tangible support for human capital development.