Tansian University Journal of Arts, Management & Social Sciences

Job design is the deliberate structuring of tasks and responsibilities into roles, which is critical for organizational effectiveness, particularly in manufacturing where it impacts employee engagement and retention. Employee continuity an organization's ability to retain its workforce over time is crucial in manufacturing due to high turnover costs and the loss of skilled know-how. This research investigated the relationship between job enrichment, a job design strategy enhancing motivational potential by increasing autonomy, responsibility, and feedback, and employee continuity in manufacturing companies in Anambra State, Nigeria. It addressed a recognized gap where, despite theories suggesting enriched roles boost retention, limited specific evidence existed for Anambra's firms. A descriptive survey research design was adopted, with data collected from 290 employees selected via simple random sampling from a population of 1,200 senior staff in four manufacturing companies. A structured Likert-scale questionnaire, validated by experts and tested for reliability (Cronbach’s ? = 0.896), served as the data collection instrument. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson's correlation coefficient at a 0.05 significance level. Findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship (r = .876, p = .041) between job enrichment and employee continuity in the selected companies. This indicates that initiatives focused on enriching jobs by enhancing characteristics such as skill variety, task significance, autonomy, and feedback are likely to improve employee retention. Therefore, manufacturing firms in Anambra State can leverage job enrichment strategies to foster a more stable, committed workforce, mitigate high turnover, and enhance overall organizational performance, contributing to understanding job design's role in supporting continuity in this growing manufacturing hub.

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