What an organizational manual is
An organizational manual (الدليل التنظيمي), also written organisation manual, is an internal document that describes how an establishment is built: its administrative units, the line each unit reports to, the functions each unit performs and the limits of the authority delegated to each management level. The establishment writes it for itself, and its force does not come from approval by any outside body.
In the sources we reviewed, we found no government model for an organizational manual, no body that certifies one and no set period for reviewing or updating it. Its route therefore cannot be inferred from the route the work regulation follows, which is described further down.
The limits of authority that the manual records are decision rules of the kind that formalization puts in writing. On its own, the definition also settles a confusion between two documents: an organizational manual is not the work regulation (لائحة تنظيم العمل). Both can touch the same subjects, but they come from different sources and carry different effects.
How an organizational manual differs from the work regulation under Article 13 of the Labor Law
Article 13 of the Saudi Labor Law (نظام العمل) requires every employer to prepare a work regulation for its establishment in accordance with the model prepared by the Ministry. Article 13 of the Labor Law allows the employer to include further terms in it, provided they do not conflict with the Labor Law, its Implementing Regulation (اللائحة التنفيذية) or the decisions issued under it, and it requires the employer to announce the regulation in a visible place in the establishment.
The same article has further limbs, and dropping any of them changes its meaning.
- Who is bound. The obligation is addressed to every employer, and Article 13 of the Labor Law pairs it with a power of exemption held by the Minister. The rule is general, then, but not absolute. In the sources we reviewed, we found nothing setting out the conditions on which that exemption is granted.
- What must be announced. The duty to announce covers the regulation and any amendment made to it, not only the first version. An establishment that has amended its regulation without announcing the amendment has not completed what Article 13 of the Labor Law asks of it.
- How it is announced. The announcement is made in a visible place in the establishment or by any other means that ensures those subject to the regulation know its provisions. The test is whether those people know the provisions, not whether a sheet is pinned to a wall.
So the difference lies neither in the name nor in the length. An organizational manual describes how the establishment is run from the inside; the work regulation sets the employment rules that apply to both parties, and of the two documents only the work regulation passes through an approval route. The statutory side of the work regulation, including the other places where the Labor Law refers to it, is covered in our guide to the work organisation regulation.
How the work regulation is approved, and where an organizational manual stands
Every establishment must have an approved work regulation, unless it falls within an exemption the Minister grants under Article 13 of the Labor Law. Article 4 of the Implementing Regulation uses the figure of 50 workers to separate two routes to approval, and the figure releases no establishment from the obligation itself.
- Fewer than 50 workers. The establishment may adopt the model work regulation (النموذج الموحّد) electronically, without any amendment or addition, and an electronic certificate is issued for it.
- 50 workers or more, or any amendment however small. The establishment prepares a regulation of its own, which must be reviewed and certified by one of the law firms approved on the Ministry’s website and then submitted to the competent department of the Ministry under the procedures that department sets.
Article 4 of the Implementing Regulation also deals with establishments that already had a regulation approved: they are exempt from preparing a new one. That exemption is not open ended. Where the earlier regulation contains articles that conflict with the Labor Law, the Implementing Regulation, the model regulation or the decisions issued under them, those articles are deemed cancelled and of no effect, and the establishment must amend them. The cancellation happens by force of the text, not by a decision issued later, and what is left for the establishment to do is the amendment. Taken alone, the exemption suggests the old regulation still stands in full; taken with the rest of the provision, it shows that the conflicting articles give nothing to anyone who relies on them.
In the sources we reviewed, we found no deadline for submitting the work regulation. What Article 4 of the Implementing Regulation does state is the point just made: conflicting articles in an earlier approved regulation are already cancelled, and the establishment must amend them.
The date on which the work regulation takes effect is set in Article 72 of the model regulation. The regulation binds the establishment from the date the establishment is notified of its approval, and it applies to workers from the day after it is announced. These are two dates, not one, and the second depends on an act within the establishment’s control: the announcement that Article 13 of the Labor Law requires. An establishment that has been notified of the approval but has not announced the regulation is bound by it, while the regulation does not yet apply to its workers.
What the model regulation covers, and where an organizational manual ends
Anyone who wants to know where an internal document stops can look at the chapters of the model regulation, because they show how much the work regulation reserves for itself: general provisions, employment, the employment contract, the probation period, transfer, travel (الإركاب), training and qualification, wages, performance reports, raises, promotions, secondment, benefits and allowances, working days and hours, overtime, administrative inspection, leave, the establishment’s duties, the workers’ duties, medical care, provisions specific to women, the end of the employment contract, violations and penalties, grievance and final provisions, together with the schedules of violations and penalties.
Several subjects that an organizational manual may cover fall within this list, among them promotions, raises, secondment, performance reports and grievance. Writing them into the manual is not prohibited. Doing so does not, by itself, create a rule that applies to a worker, because the place for that rule has already been set in the model regulation.
Why a clause in an organizational manual cannot create a penalty
The practical effect here is worth checking twice. Article 67 of the Labor Law bars the employer from imposing any penalty that is not provided for in the Labor Law or in the work regulation. The test has two limbs, and a penalty written only in an organizational manual meets neither of them.
Article 67 of the Labor Law is a prohibition addressed to the employer. Its text does not itself state the consequence for a penalty imposed in breach of it, and we do not infer one.
The same holds for the term of the contract, its renewal and the effect of renewal on continuous service. Those come from Articles 55 and 56 of the Labor Law and are not set in an internal document, and whatever the establishment adds in its work regulation is limited by Article 13 of the Labor Law to terms that do not conflict with the Labor Law.
The detail of those two articles shows why the matter is not left to a document the establishment writes for itself. Under Article 55 of the Labor Law, a contract for a fixed term ends when its term expires, and if both parties continue to perform it, it becomes a contract for an indefinite term. For workers who are not Saudi, Article 55 of the Labor Law makes this subject to Article 37 of the Labor Law, which our guide to fixed term and indefinite contracts sets out. Where the contract contains a renewal clause, it renews for the agreed term. Once the contract has been renewed three consecutive times, or the original term together with the renewals reaches four years, whichever of the two is shorter, and the parties continue to perform the contract, it converts to a contract for an indefinite term.
The condition that the shorter of the two limits applies is where an error can arise. Counting the years alone, or the renewals alone, can produce a later point of conversion than the one the text sets. Article 56 of the Labor Law then treats every renewal period as a continuation of the original term when the worker’s rights that depend on length of service are calculated, so service is not broken at each renewal.
The approved work regulation cannot change these provisions, still less an organizational manual. Article 13 of the Labor Law permits the work regulation only terms that do not conflict with the Labor Law, and the reference to the work regulation in Article 67 of the Labor Law concerns penalties alone.
The job description: a duty an organizational manual may hold but does not create
Implementing Article 42 of the Labor Law, item 1 of Article 15 of the Implementing Regulation requires the employer to prepare an occupational description (وصف مهني) of the tasks and duties of its jobs and of the requirements for filling them, in line with the Saudi unified classification of occupations (التصنيف السعودي الموحد للمهن) and the national occupational standards.
So the job description, which may be treated as an optional part of an organizational manual, has a separate statutory basis, and its reference point is a named classification rather than an internal choice of job titles. It is one of several duties set by Article 15 of the Implementing Regulation, which also include evaluating the trainee at the end of training or during it and placing the evaluation in the worker’s employee file. What the two duties show together is that an internal document may describe and arrange, while a duty, where there is one, reaches the document from outside, with its source attached.
The model regulation’s blanks, where an organizational manual’s choices enter the work regulation
An establishment that adopts the model regulation fills in three blanks:
- Article 2 of the model regulation: the calendar applied in the establishment.
- Article 15 of the model regulation: the date on which wages are paid.
- Article 26 of the model regulation: the number of working days and the weekly rest day.
These are management decisions written into a regulatory document, and they are the point at which what the establishment decides for itself meets what applies to its workers. The route of adopting the model is open only to establishments with fewer than 50 workers. An establishment with 50 workers or more follows the other route and prepares a separate regulation, reviewed and certified by a law firm approved on the Ministry’s website. An establishment that has taken the model can change nothing beyond these blanks, because the condition of that route is that the model is adopted without any amendment or addition. A single extra clause moves the establishment to the other route with all of its procedures, and that is what the condition of any amendment, however small, means in practice.
How an organizational manual differs from an organisation chart, a policies and procedures manual, a job description and the work regulation
- An organisation chart. It is a diagram showing the units and the reporting lines between them. An organizational manual contains the chart and adds a description of functions and the limits of authority, so the chart is a part of the manual rather than a substitute for it. How those units are grouped is discussed under divisional structure.
- A policies and procedures manual. It describes how operations are carried out step by step and who approves each step. An organizational manual describes who holds the decision, not how the decision is carried out. Where the right to decide sits at each level is the subject of decentralized management.
- A job description. It works at the level of a single job, while an organizational manual works at the level of the administrative unit. The larger difference is that the occupational description is a duty under the provision cited above, whereas in the sources we reviewed we found no provision requiring an organizational manual.
- The work regulation. It marks the difference on which the whole definition rests. Of the two documents, only the work regulation passes through an approval route, only it has two dates of effect, and only it is named as a source of penalties.
The provisions relied on are those of the Saudi Labor Law as published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development: Article 13 (the duty to prepare and announce the work regulation, the limit on added terms and the Minister’s power of exemption), Article 42 (the training duties that Article 15 of the Implementing Regulation implements), Article 55 (fixed term contracts and their conversion), Article 56 (renewal periods counted as service) and Article 67 (the two sources of a penalty). From the Implementing Regulation, issued by Ministerial Decision No. 115921 and in force since 19 February 2025: Article 4 (the two approval routes and earlier approved regulations) and Article 15 (the occupational description and the trainee evaluation). From the model work regulation annexed to the Implementing Regulation as its first annex: Articles 2, 15 and 26 (the three blanks) and Article 72 (the two dates of effect). Royal Decree M/44 of 1446H, in force since 19 February 2025, amended Articles 37 and 42 of the Labor Law and did not amend Articles 13, 55, 56 or 67; Article 13 of the Labor Law was last amended by Royal Decree M/46 of 1436H.
Before an organizational manual is relied on for a rule
Anyone who wants an internal rule to bind a worker needs to place it in the approved work regulation, with its approval route and its date of effect. An organizational manual describes reporting lines and authority. It is useful in its place, and it does not stand in for the work regulation.
The practical test is a single question: does the clause describe how the establishment is run, or is it a rule meant to apply to a worker? If it is the second, its place is the approved document, and careful drafting in the manual does not make up for its absence there.
This is an explanation of the concept and of the statutory provisions cited, not legal advice.
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