Retaining contingent frontline staff through job enrichment: the case of seasonal student workers

ABSTRACT

Rationale/Purpose: Frontline staff are central to co-creating desirable outcomes of leisure services. Many frontline staff in these services are contingent (e.g. temporary or part-time) and turnover amongst contingent staff is high. This study examined whether frontline staff perceptions of job enrichment (a feeling of knowledge, meaning, and responsibility in one’s job) enhances intentions to return to the service in the future.

Methodology: A theoretical model was developed and tested using data collected from one contingent staff group, seasonal student workers (n = 124) who completed a four-month long summer job. Work engagement (positive energetic feeling about work in general) and organizational commitment (psychology bond with the organization) were proposed as mediators of the relationship between job enrichment and intention to return.

Findings: Job enrichment did not directly influence intention to return, but did so serially through work engagement and organizational commitment.

Practical implications: Managers can enrich contingent staff members’ jobs to improve retention outcomes

Research contribution: This study is the first to examine job enrichment as a retention strategy for contingent staff in sport and leisure settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Contingent staff
• job enrichment
• work engagement
• organizational commitment
• turnover
• retention

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

David Drewery http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9211-4520