FINANCIAL FLEXIBILITY AND EMPLOYEE JOB COMMITMENT IN DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between financial flexibility and employee job commitment, specifically focusing on affective commitment and continuance commitment dimensions, among employees of Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. The study was anchored on Social Exchange Theory, Organizational Support Theory, and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model. Adopting an explanatory cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 124 usable responses drawn from a target population of 209 employees using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sample size determination formula. A validated structured questionnaire served as the primary data collection instrument, and Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient was used for hypothesis testing with the aid of SPSS version 25. Findings revealed that financial flexibility had a moderate and significant positive relationship with affective commitment (r = 0.602, p < 0.05) and a significant positive relationship with continuance commitment (r = 0.479, p < 0.05). Both null hypotheses were rejected, confirming the importance of financial flexibility as a strategic determinant of employee commitment in the banking sector. The study concluded that DMBs that institutionalize robust financial flexibility practices including incentive-based pay, profit-sharing and flexible compensation schemes significantly enhance employees' emotional attachment to, and perceived cost of leaving, their organizations. Recommendations were made for bank management to design competitive, transparent, and performance-aligned financial reward systems to strengthen employee commitment and reduce turnover intentions.