Job embeddedness and employee performance in selected oil and gas companies in Bayelsa state of Nigeria

Despite the relatively high pay employees receive in oil and gas companies in Bayelsa State, some seem not to be happy about the uncertainty in their work environment. This is possibly the reason why the employees in this industry do not look back when they get job offers outside the community. This problem prompted this study on the extent to which job embeddedness correlates with performance of employee in selected oil and gas firms in Bayelsa State. The specific objective of the study is to address the extent to which community fit relates to employee retention. The research question and hypothesis were drafted considering the specific objective of the study. Survey research design was adopted for the study. Two hundred and fifty three was derived as the population, and complete enumeration was used. Data were analyzed with Pearson Product Moment Correlation. The result revealed that there is a significant correlation between community fit and employee retention in the studied oil and gas firms. The study concluded that high job embeddedness which was measured by community fit can help to keep the employees from leaving the organization (employee retention) which was also used to measure employee performance. The study recommends that oil and gas firms in Bayelsa State should focus on community fit as an effective strategy in improving relations between workers and the community to guarantee the retention of the employees. Key words: Job embeddedness, employee performance, community fit and employee retention.