Radwan Kharabsheh

Political online communities in Saudi Arabia: the major players

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the major players operating on Al‐Saha Al‐Siyasia online community, which is by far the most widely spread political online community in Saudi Arabia receiving 20 million page views per month.Design/methodology/approach – In addition to using “focused” silent observation to observe Al‐Saha Al‐Siyasia over a period of three months (May‐July 2007) and thematic content analysis to examine 2,000 topics (and their replies) posted to Al‐Saha Al‐Siyasia during the period of May‐June 2007, semi‐structured interviews were conducted (in Arabic) with 15 key informants to report their perceptions regarding Islamic fundamentalists, extremists and liberals, etc. on their forum.Findings – The results of this study indicate that there are three main players operating in Al‐Saha Al‐Siyasia: Islamic fundamentalists, extremists, and liberals. Islamic fundamentalists who are the vast majority on this community use the forum as a medium to promote their image and defend their ...

Barriers to Arab female academics’ career development: Legislation, HR policies and socio-cultural variables

Purpose Arab female academics struggle to advance within their universities in both academic and managerial ranks. Accordingly, this study aims to investigate the factors hindering Arab women’s academic career development through studying the case of Jordanian academic women. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered through document analysis (Jordan constitution, Jordanian Labour Law and its amendments, higher education and scientific research law, Jordanian universities’ law and universities’ HR policies and regulations), interviews with 20 female academics and a focus group with 13 female academics (members of the Association of Jordanian Female Academics). Findings The results indicate female academics as tokens facing many interconnected and interrelated barriers embodied in cultural, social, economic and legal factors. The findings support the general argument proposed in human resource management (HRM) literature regarding the influence of culture on HRM practices and also propose that the influence of culture extends to having an impact on HR policies’ formulation as well as the formal legal system. Originality/value The influence of culture on women’s career development and various HR practices is well established in HR literature. But the findings of this study present a further pressure of culture. HR policies and other regulations were found to be formulated in the crucible of national culture. Legalizing discriminatory issues deepens the stereotypical pictures of women, emphasizing the domestic role of women and making it harder to break the glass ceiling and old-boy network.

The impact of competitive strategies on responsive market orientation, proactive market orientation, learning orientation and organizational performance

Drawing on the strategy implementation approach and the resource-based view of the firm, this study examines the relationships among competitive strategies (differentiation and cost leadership), responsive market orientation (RMO), proactive market orientation (PMO), learning orientation (LO) and organizational performance. The study used questionnaire survey of senior managers of 264 manufacturing and service companies in Jordan. The study employed partial least squares to test the hypotheses. Moderate but significant relationships are evident in the links between cost leadership and LO, and RMO and organizational performance. Strong and significant relationships are exhibited in the links between differentiation and RMO; differentiation and PMO; differentiation and LO and between LO and organizational performance. The results show that differentiation strategy is more important than cost leadership strategy and that LO is the most important factor for better organizational performance.