Organisational culture and big data socio-technical systems on strategic decision making: Case of Saudi Arabian higher education

Considering the rise of implementation of big data analytics (BDA) in Saudi Arabian higher education institutions but with relatively lesser optimal performance, the study investigated the causality of organisational culture (OC) and BDA's social and technical subsystems, following the Socio- Technical Systems theory, with the strategic decision-making in Saudi Arabian higher education institutions. The study's objectives are based on the ontological positivist paradigm, and the methodology applies a quantitative cross-sectional survey. The sample population involved the IT staff and data scientists representing the big data people (BDP) and top management as the OC in the Saudi Arabian universities. The data was collected using validated scales of previous studies through an online survey, and the hypotheses were evaluated using PLS-SEM. The PLS-SEM analysis conducted to test the hypotheses highlighted the insignificance of organisational culture in big data systems (BDS), although having a positive value. Nonetheless, the organisational culture significantly impacted BDP, implying the influence of a data-driven culture and supportive top management on the workforce's attitude towards BDA-related change and skill development. Besides, the social and technical subsystems of the BDA— the BDS and BDP— are significantly correlated, along with their correlation with strategic decision-making. The study's implications comprised insights guiding the managers and policymakers to acknowledge the importance of organisational culture (hierarchical, adhocratic, market, and clan) while strategising the implementation of BDA and its systems and developing training modules for its BDP accordingly.