Teaching Service Quality in Saudi Higher Education: The Role of Employee Engagement, Innovation Strategy, and Vision 2030

1. INTRODUCTION

The increased digitalisation of education and hybrid learning formats has escalated the pressure on higher education to innovate teaching practices and enhance service delivery in education. Consequently, the university-wide strategic focus has shifted towards innovation in pedagogy, curriculum design, and online classroom environments as a way to achieve sustainable competitiveness.

An increasing number of researchers have noted that creative pedagogical approaches increase the effectiveness of learning, interest, and performance of students at contemporary institutions of higher learning (Khadijah et al., 2025). In addition to innovation, staff engagement in academic work has become an essential organisational variable affecting the quality of teaching and institutional performance (Gede & Huluka, 2024; Nalini et al., 2026). Engaged faculty members are more committed, motivated, and willing to embrace new pedagogical practices in instructional activities. Engagement practices that include professional development, empowerment, and supportive organisational climates are thus receiving more attention in higher education institutions. These practices help enhance the satisfaction of academic staff, staff retention, and general teaching performance in universities in competitive international settings (Ghamooshi et al., 2023; Verma & Kaur, 2024).

Nevertheless, the challenge of aligning employee engagement programs and innovation strategies continues to be a major issue in most institutions of higher learning across the globe. Effective interaction in universities is a difficult task since academic staff are likely to be overwhelmed with workloads, administration, and the need to keep research prolific and preserve teaching quality. These issues are especially noticeable in countries that are developing mass educational transformation and economic diversification programs.

Saudi Arabia is a notable example of such change, with its national development program, Vision 2030. Vision 2030 focuses on building a knowledge-based economy by enhancing institutions of higher learning and workforce capacity (Alhazmy, 2025). The Human Capability Development Program (HCDP), initiated as part of (Saudi Vision 2030, 2021), aims to empower the population with skills that will enable their economic competitiveness in the future. According to a recent report, the rate of Saudi graduates joining the labour market within six months rose to 44.43% in 2024 from 13.3% in 2016 (Saudi Gazette, 2025). The level of youth employment among Saudis aged between fifteen and twenty-four years also increased to 36.2, which is the positive effect of human capital development activities (Saudi Gazette, 2024). Moreover, Vision 2030 reforms are centred on continuous learning and skill development as critical elements of national workforce transformation. (ETS, 2025) published the results of the 2025 Human Progress Report and found that over 90% of Saudis surveyed trust that lifelong learning and skill building are the keys to career success. These reform initiatives can also be seen in Saudi higher education, which has shown some form of measurable improvement in academic rankings worldwide. For instance, 12 universities in Saudi Arabia were listed as among the top one thousand universities in the Shanghai world ranking (SPA, 2024). These results demonstrate the growing concern regarding the quality of education, research, and innovation in Saudi institutions of higher learning.

Nevertheless, despite these promising efforts made under Vision 2030, a number of challenges impede the full achievement of the educational targets. Saudi culture is deeply ingrained in traditional teaching and curricula, and implementing new methods without facing resistance is challenging (Alhazmy, 2025). Therefore, effective organisational practices and national policies regarding human capital should be combined to achieve sustainability in education quality.

The research problem in this study is based on the fact that there is little knowledge about the effect of joint organisational practices and national policy initiatives on teaching service quality in higher institutions of learning. Although earlier research has analysed employee engagement and innovation strategy independently, there is scant research on the combined impact of the two in the context of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reforms.

Thus, this study aims to assess the influence of employee engagement practices, innovation strategy, and teaching service quality in Saudi Arabian higher education institutions, as well as to examine the moderating effect of Vision 2030 Human Capital Development. Moreover, the research questions were formulated to investigate whether the practices of employee engagement and the innovation strategy have a significant impact on teaching service quality and whether Vision 2030 human capital development reinforces these relations. The study hypotheses were formulated logically based on these questions to test the direct and moderating relationships as proposed in the conceptual framework.

Theoretically, this study combines Social Exchange Theory, Resource-Based View, and Human Capital Theory to explain how an organisation and policy affect the quality of teaching services. This integration expands the multi-theoretical perspectives on the interaction of engagement practices, innovation capabilities, and human capital development within the higher education system. Empirically, this study offers quantitative results of Saudi post-secondary education institutions by applying PLS-SEM to estimate the interdependence of engagement practices, innovation strategy, and teaching service quality.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Key Constructs

Employee engagement practices are organisational programs aimed at boosting employees’ psychological involvement, commitment, and participation in their work roles. (Kahn, 2017) defines employee engagement as the process of mobilising the physical, cognitive, and emotional energies of employees into work performance. Engagement practices are a more recent literature that describes structured activities such as training, empowerment, recognition, and participatory decision-making, through which the motivation of employees and organisational commitment are promoted (Omolola, 2023). These practices are especially relevant in the context of higher education because they can affect faculty motivation, teaching performance, and readiness to embrace new methods. This study views employee engagement practices as an institutional process of promoting faculty involvement and commitment, which can lead to higher-quality teaching service provision.

Although both employee engagement practices and Vision 2030 human capital development are associated with elements such as training and development, they differ in scope, purpose, and level of operation. Employee engagement practices refer to institution-wide programs that aim to increase faculty motivation, involvement, and commitment through empowerment, recognition, and participative decision-making processes. In contrast, Vision 2030 human capital development is a macro-level policy framework intended to enhance the workforce capability of different sectors by making massive investments in education, skills development, and institutional capacity building. Therefore, engagement practices emphasise the expansion of psychological and behavioural participation in organisations, whereas human capital development is based on more extensive structural and policy-related initiatives to empower national talent and competencies. The distinction between these two constructs guarantees that they are conceptually and analytically independent, although they have some developmental similarities.

Innovation strategy is defined as the conscious way through which an organisation creates and deploys new ideas, processes, or technologies to improve performance and competitiveness. The concept of innovation introduced by Schumpeter assumes new combinations in production and organisation processes (Ziemnowicz, 2020). Modern studies describe innovation strategy as a codified plan that determines how new methods of teaching, digital technologies, and pedagogical advancements are introduced into institutions (Sumathi, 2022). Curriculum redesign, digital learning integration, and interactive teaching practices are some of the innovative strategies applied in the context of higher education. In this study, innovation strategy is considered an institutional capacity that can help improve the quality of teaching services by successfully utilising innovative teaching strategies.

Teaching quality refers to the quality and effectiveness of teaching performance, which is perceived by different stakeholders, including students. (Parasuraman et al. cited in Alemu, 2023) created the SERVQUAL model, according to which teaching service quality is the difference between expectations and perceived performance. In higher education, teaching service quality refers to reliability, responsiveness, instructional effectiveness, and overall learning experience. In this study, this construct is the outcome variable: the association between engagement practices and innovation strategies and perceived teaching effectiveness in the university setting. Additionally, this construct is evaluated through the lens of faculty members and indicates their assessment of instructional performance, responsiveness, and teaching practices in general.

Although students are widely regarded as the main assessors of service quality in the education sector, this study determines teaching service quality through the lens of the faculty, since the relationship between organisational practices and the teaching process is the focus of this study. Faculty members have direct involvement in the design and delivery of teaching; therefore, they are appropriate respondents to evaluate the extent to which engagement practices and innovation strategies affect the quality of instruction.

The literature exhibits conflicting views on the correlation between innovation strategies and teaching outcomes. Some scholars state that digital transformation and pedagogical innovation directly enhance educational quality and student learning experiences (Abdurashidova et al., 2023; Arrieta & Avolio, 2020; Paanos-Castro et al., 2024). However, other studies indicate that innovation alone might not positively affect the quality of services unless organisations integrate supportive organisational structures, faculty preparedness, and training systems (Mohiuddin et al., 2023; Paños-Castro et al., 2024). Conversely, employee engagement practices have been found to have a comparatively more positive association with faculty performance and service delivery outcomes. (Chatiza et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2025; Pan et al., 2025) These opposite results suggest that the effectiveness of innovation could be contingent on the contextual and institutional circumstances, which is why Vision 2030 human capital development should be considered a moderating variable in the current research.

Another significant relationship found in the literature is between organisational practices and macro-level policy initiatives. The literature on engagement practices or innovation strategies primarily studies them separately, with little focus on how national human capital policies can reinforce or undermine these relationships (Abdurashidova et al., 2023; Ghamooshi et al., 2023). Thus, this study builds on previous studies by suggesting that the development of human capital, as embodied in Vision 2030, is a contextual enforcer that predisposes the effectiveness of institutional practices to enhance the quality of teaching services (Abubakar et al., 2024; Al-Mekhlafi et al., 2024; Mohiuddin et al., 2023).

2.2. Theoretical Framework

This study is based on three theoretical perspectives: Social Exchange Theory, Resource-Based View, and Human Capital Theory.

The first theoretical basis is the Social Exchange Theory (SET), which was initially developed by George C. Homans and elaborated by Blau (Cook et al., 2013). The theory describes social relationships as the process of exchanging gains and responsibilities between individuals and organisations. In organisations, employees are likely to have favourable attitudes and behaviours towards the organisation when they feel that they are supported by the organisation through recognition, empowerment, or professional development (Ajobi et al., 2025; Tan et al., 2025). Engagement practices adopted by universities in higher education institutions can therefore motivate faculty to participate in teaching processes more effectively. Using SET, (Sultana et al., 2024) discovered a positive correlation between psychological capital and innovative work behaviour among university teaching staff, in which employee engagement was also observed to support this association. These results indicate that mutual organizational behaviour may contribute to participation and beneficial work results in educational settings.

The second theory is the Resource-Based View (RBV) proposed by Jay Barney. According to RBV, organisations attain a sustainable advantage when they make efficient use of valuable and strategic resources, including knowledge, capabilities, and expertise (Sugiarno & Novita, 2022). Faculty knowledge, teaching skills, and new instructional methods in institutions of higher education are valuable, intangible resources that can improve the quality of education. In this light, innovation strategies, including new teaching techniques, e-learning tools, and curricular restructuring, can be interpreted as the capabilities of the institution that makes use of the resources. A recent investigation based on resource-based theory revealed that knowledge management and innovation practices are organisational capabilities that play a significant role in performance and learning outcomes across organisations (Cui, 2025). Therefore, RBV was a suitable theoretical framework for analysing the impact of innovation strategies on teaching service quality in higher education institutions.

The third theoretical view is the Human Capital Theory (HCT), which was created by Theodore Shultz and further advanced by Gary Becker. HCT asserts that investments in education, skills, and training make people more productive and effective in institutions (Fix, 2021). Faculty members are one of the most important human capitals in a college or university, and their professional development can be improved to boost teaching potential and organisational performance. (Ali et al., 2024) discussed the importance of human capital and intellectual capital in university performance and emphasised the significance of faculty knowledge and competencies in enhancing institutional performance. Likewise, recent studies of higher-education policy show that human capital investment via education and training is one of the main sources of institutional growth and knowledge creation (Ma, 2025). Vision 2030 in the Saudi context focuses on the development of human capital development initiatives to enhance skills, innovation, and quality education to further fortify the relationship between organisational practices and teaching outcomes.

To go beyond the parallel application of the theories, this study conceptually unites Social Exchange Theory, Resource-Based View, and Human Capital Theory with the underlying mechanism of perceived policy alignment. Perceived policy alignment refers to the degree to which faculty members perceive national-level initiatives, including the programs of Vision the 2030s human capital development, as being in line with and conducive to their practices and professional roles within the institution. According to the Social Exchange Theory, in cases where faculty members feel that the institutional practices of engagement coincide with the national policy priorities, they tend to pay back by dedicating more effort and better teaching results.

According to the Resource-Based View, this alignment helps to use innovation-related resources more effectively, as faculty are more open to using and implementing new teaching methods when they feel strategic coherence. According to the Human Capital Theory, investment in skills and development in the country can be converted into better teaching results only after people internalise them as useful and applicable. Therefore, Vision 2030 is not just an external moderator; it also functions by shaping faculty perceptions, which consequently impacts the way in which engagement practices and innovation strategies influence teaching service quality. It should be noted that the conceptual mechanism of perceived policy alignment was not empirically tested in the current study but was introduced to explain the interaction between macro-level policy and micro-level behaviour.

2.3. Hypotheses Formation

In a study by (Pan et al., 2025), the researchers investigated the effect of professional development practices on the teaching performance of Chinese university faculty. This study sampled 550 educators from 23 universities to investigate these associations using structural equation modelling. The results showed that teaching performance is greatly enhanced through professional development, suggesting that institutional engagement practices support faculty effectiveness and classroom outcomes. Nevertheless, the research concentrated more on development practices and did not reflect the wider engagement practices of empowerment or reward systems.

A different study by (Chen et al., 2025) at Sichuan University focused on the effects of performance management practices, such as training and development, monitoring, rewards, and talent management, on faculty job performance in higher education. A total of 647 academic staff were sampled, and the results showed that performance management practices have a great effect on job performance; thus, it is important to ensure that organisational practices are effective in enhancing academic performance.

However, the focus of the study was on overall job performance and not specifically on teaching service quality in the context of university teaching.

Similarly, (Ahmed et al., 2024) tested how training and digital enablement practices can influence the competence of employees in institutions of higher learning. The participants in the research were 541 employees from different universities, and they applied SmartPLS to determine the association between training practices, competence, and organisational outcomes. The results showed that training practices are important for improving employee competence, which leads to better performance and organisational effectiveness in academic settings. Nonetheless, this research failed to clearly connect engagement practices with teaching service quality as an independent variable in higher education.

(Chatiza et al., 2021) conducted a mixed-method case study of a public university in Zimbabwe with 87 academic and administrative staff to assess how employee engagement influences service delivery. The results showed a strong positive correlation between engagement and service delivery, and that the drivers of disengagement are poor remuneration, no recognition, poor communication, and low empowerment. These findings imply that organisational engagement practices are key factors that determine the quality of services, since insufficient mechanisms of institutional support negatively affect the motivation and performance of employees in service delivery. Nevertheless, the research had limitations, including a single-institution approach and a COVID-19 environment, which restricted the scope of generalisation and the necessity of more extensive and context-focused studies of higher education systems.

Despite the heavy empirical evidence on the relationship between employee engagement practices and performance outcomes, there is little research on its effects on the quality of teaching services. Furthermore, these relationships have never been investigated in terms of Saudi Arabian higher education, especially within the context of the Vision 2030 transformation agenda. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: Teaching service quality in Saudi Arabian higher education is positively and significantly impacted by employee engagement.

Recent literature shows that digital transformation, pedagogical innovation, and faculty development are innovation strategies that help improve the quality of teaching and provision of educational services in higher education. (Abdurashidova et al., 2023) conducted a study investigated the effects of digitalisation and innovation strategies on the quality of higher education in universities. This research used a mixed methodology to gather data from 300 participants (faculty, students, and administrators) and assess the practices of innovation and education quality. The results showed that 83% of the respondents believed that digital technologies and innovation strategies positively impacted the quality of education and teaching in universities. Nevertheless, the research was based on perceptual data and did not isolate the individual dimensions of teaching service quality or test the relationships between these dimensions and causality using sophisticated quantitative methods.

(Paños-Castro et al., 2024) examined the strategies of digital transformation and teaching innovation in a Spanish university. The research design was a case study that concentrated on institutional practices, faculty training, and digital innovation efforts implemented following the COVID-19 transition. The findings showed that digital innovation and faculty training had a powerful impact on teaching practice, use of resources, and overall teaching quality in the university. However, the research was confined to one institutional setting, so the impact on generalisation was limited to other higher educational establishments and policy environments.

In addition, (Arrieta & Avolio, 2020) investigated the impact of factors on the quality of higher education services in Peruvian universities, especially curriculum design and teaching processes. The study, based on the data of students and graduates, discovered that the perceived teaching quality and the level of effectiveness of the instruction delivery methods are the determinants of service quality. These results suggest that curriculum changes and improved teaching practices, which are viewed as innovation strategies, have a direct impact on the enhancement of the quality of teaching services in institutions of higher education. Nevertheless, the research had limitations due to its qualitative nature and small sample size, which limited the scope of generalisation and the quantitative validation of the relationships between innovation and quality.

Although earlier research tends to understand innovation strategy as a factor that shapes performance outcomes indirectly, such as through organisational capabilities, faculty competence, or engagement, the direct impact of innovation strategy on teaching service quality remains to be studied. When applied to the sphere of higher education, digital learning integration, curriculum redesign, and pedagogical developments can have a direct effect on teaching practice and student learning experience. Exploring this direct relationship provides baseline insight into whether innovation initiatives can lead to service quality independently, especially in a rapidly changing educational environment, such as Saudi Arabia under Vision 2030. Thus, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: Innovation strategy positively and significantly impacts teaching service quality in Saudi Arabian higher education.

Recent literature has highlighted that human capital development programs, such as training, skill development, and institutional support, are a major aspect of enhancing organisational results in higher education. (Al-Mekhlafi et al., 2024) conducted a study that sought to investigate the moderating effect of training and development of human capital on the relationship between organisations in Saudi institutions. Data from 318 respondents were analysed using PLS-SEM to examine the relationship between governance practices, human capital development, and organisational outcomes. The results show that human capital development is an important moderator of connections in organisational practices and performance, reinforcing the efficacy of institutional strategies. Nevertheless, the research focused on nonprofit organisations and did not include the higher education setting or teaching service quality.

(Abubakar et al., 2024) conducted another study that intended to explore the major factors in human capital development in line with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030. The sample included 203 participants from the public sector, and PLS-SEM was used to examine the links between training, institutional support, and the development of workforce capability. The findings revealed that training, institutional support, and integration of technology play a significant role in enhancing the development of human capital and organisational effectiveness. These results imply that the influence of organisational practices can be enhanced by human capital programmes, which enhance the adaptability and capabilities of employees. However, the moderating effects in the context of higher education teaching or service quality were not directly tested in this study. Likewise, (Mohiuddin et al., 2023) conducted a study that aimed to investigate higher education reform initiatives as part of Vision 2030 and their outcomes on institutional development. The analysis discusses practice and policy reform in higher education and the importance of the fact that innovation, training, and human capital programs could contribute to the enhancement of institutional performance. The evidence indicates that the Vision 2030 initiatives enable universities to gain abilities to advance teaching, innovation, and the general level of education. Nevertheless, it was conceptual rather than empirical, as it did not test the moderating relationships between the development of human capital and organisational practices.

Although much evidence is accumulating in favour of the significance of human capital development in reinforcing organisational performance, few studies have investigated its moderating effect in higher education. Moreover, Vision 2030 human capital development can be viewed as a moderator through the prism of perceived policy alignment. In particular, the effectiveness of engagement practices and innovation strategies is likely to increase when faculty members feel a good fit between national human capital initiatives and institutional practices. However, poor alignment can reduce the transfer of policy efforts into better teaching performance. Hence, a positive moderating effect is hypothetically postulated, but its practical implementation may differ across different settings. Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed:

H3: Vision 2030 Human Capital Development has a positive and significant moderating impact on the relationship between employee engagement practices and teaching service quality in Saudi Arabian higher education.

H4: Vision 2030 Human Capital Development has a positive and significant moderating impact on the relationship between innovation strategy and teaching service quality in Saudi Arabian higher education.

2.4. Conceptual Framework

Fig. (1) displays the hypothesised relationships between the study variables and provides a graphical representation of the hypothesised effects and moderating relationships to be tested in this study. The independent variables in this conceptual framework are employee engagement practices and innovation strategy, which affect teaching service quality as the dependent variable. Vision 2030 human capital development was incorporated as a moderating variable that is expected to influence the strength of these relationships. The model is a contextualised test of established relationships within a national reform setting, as it represents a synthesis of organisational practices and national policy initiatives to explain differences in the quality of teaching services (Fig. 1). Social Exchange Theory, Resource-Based View, and Human Capital Theory form the basis of the model, wherein their combined understanding facilitates comprehension of the relationship between institutional and policy-level factors that can impact educational outcomes in higher education.