1 THE FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEE’S PERFORMANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION Sameera Iqbal 1 ; Nazim Baluch 2 ; Che Sobry Abdullah 3 1 Ph.D. Scholar, School of Technology Management and Logistics, College of Business Universiti Utara Malaysia 2 Senior Lecturer, School of Technology Management and Logistics, College of Business Universiti Utara Malaysia 3 Professor, School of Technology Management and Logistics, College of Business ABSTRACT The role of higher education in the progress of a society is indispensable. It shapes up the minds, mold behaviors and develops distinctive capabilities in the human being to serve the society better. Higher Education in the Arab World began to emerge and spread after the mid-twentieth century. There is a dearth of empirical research pertinent to the employee performance in general and employee performance in higher education. This condition had therefore illuminated a significant gap in the education sector of KSA that tends to focus on overall sectoral problems and organizational level problems in respect to job performance. Thus, the present study may contribute to the existing literature on Public Sector Universities in KSA through proposed a research model which has not received much attention. Key terms: Role Ambiguity; Job Satisfaction; Training; Leadership; Employee Performance 1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY The increasing financial resources at the disposal of the country since the start of oil exploitation in 1938 had a tremendous impact on the development of the educational system. As the Kingdom entered in a period of significant economic development, the Government recognized the need for educational institutions that would equip Saudi citizens for the emerging domestic labor market. At that time, the country lacked enough skilled workers to manage the new economy (Jamjoom, 2012). Over the years, the education system enjoyed a steady, though slow development until a wave of rapid development in the 1970s. The advent of an increasingly integrated information and knowledge- driven global economy are other recent factors leading the Government to give this sector highest priority for further development. At the time of the founding monarch, King Abdul-Aziz, the country had no higher education institutions. The highest educational level a student could achieve was to graduate from the Preparatory Scholarship School, which was established in 1935 under the supervision of the Directorate of Education. This establishment only prepared students for university education in other countries (Royan et al., 2007). The first Saudi group of students to pursue higher education were sent in 1926 on scholarship to Al-Azhar University in Egypt. However, the government soon realized the necessity of having its own higher education system and thus began to build and expand it. According to the Mohe (2010) report, the development of the Saudi higher education system went through three stages. During the foundation stage (1949-1960), the building blocks of the higher education sector were developed. The first college was opened in the Kingdom in 1949. That was the Faculty of Sharia (Jurisprudence) in Makkah (Al Gahtani, 2002). Less than five years later, two colleges were established in Riyadh, the College of Jurisprudence and the College of Arabic Language. The educational orientation and emphasis on religious subjects and language remained at the core of the curriculum. In 1957, a royal decree approved the establishment of new public universities. In sheer numbers, it appears that there are twelve new public universities since the last one was established in 1998. During the expansion stage (1961-1980), new higher education institutions were established, including universities, teacher training colleges, and women colleges. Six new universities were established in the major cities of Medina, Jeddah, Makkah, Riyadh, Dhahran, and Al-Hasa. Branches of these universities were established in a limited number of cities, like Abha, Qaseem, and Ehsa (Mohe, 2010). Among the existing eight universities, two were Islamic universities with no colleges for science and technology and the third, King Fahad University of Petroleum and 1 Email Corsponding Author: sameeraiqbal786@hotmail.com