CAREER DEVELOPMENT AND EMPLOYEE EMBEDDEDNESS IN THE CIVIL SERVICE IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

Retaining employees in organizations has always been one of the greatest challenges for many businesses and organizations, hence, the need to look at the role career development plays in retaining employees in the civil service of Anambra State. This study specifically examined the relationship between career capabilities and employee embeddedness and the nexus between career experience and employee embeddedness in the civil service in Anambra State, Nigeria. The work was anchored on George Elton Mayo's Human Relations Theory. A survey research design was deployed for the work, with a population of 1108 civil servants working across the three senatorial zones of Anambra state. The sample size of the study was 286 arrived at by deploying the use of Krejcie and Morgan's 1970 sample size determination formula. The data collected were analyzed using simple regression analysis and hypotheses tested at a 5% level of significance, signifying a 95% confidence level. Findings revealed that a 95% relationship exists between career capabilities and employee embeddedness, while career capabilities had a 90% influence on employee embeddedness in the civil service of Anambra State. Similarly, a 97% nexus exists between career experience and employee embeddedness, while a 95% change in employee embeddedness was accounted for by changes in the career experience of employees in civil service of Anambra State. Sequel to this, it was concluded that career development is a huge determining factor for predicting employees embeddedness. Following this, among others, it was recommended that the civil service in Anambra State needs to improve the capabilities of employees by training and developing them as it is seen that the more capable an employee is at executing his/her duties, the more the employee will embedded to the organization. Keywords: Career Development, Employee embeddedness, Civil Service, Career Capabilities and Career Experience.