Effect of Job Enrichment on Employee Performance in the National Electric Power Authority Distribution Companies in Ondo State

This study evaluates the effect of job enrichment on employee performance in electricity distribution companies operating in Ondo State, South West Nigeria. The electricity distribution sector in Nigeria is characterized by chronic underperformance, customer dissatisfaction, and poor staff productivity, raising questions about the extent to which job design reforms such as enrichment can reverse these trends. A descriptive survey design was employed, with 150 technical and administrative employees of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), Ondo business unit, completing validated questionnaires. Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Model provides the primary theoretical lens, supplemented by recent empirical studies on motivation through job design in public utilities. Findings demonstrate that employees whose roles incorporate higher skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback report better performance outcomes across maintenance, billing, and customer service metrics. The study specifically finds that field engineers given greater autonomy over fault restoration scheduling outperform those operating under rigid supervisory control, both in terms of response time and customer satisfaction. Administrative staff whose roles include meaningful client-facing responsibilities perform significantly better than those relegated to purely clerical duties. Recommendations include a comprehensive job redesign exercise across all departments, delegation of appropriate decision authority to technical staff, and integration of job enrichment outcomes into the performance management system. This study contributes to HR literature on utility sector workforce management in Nigeria. Keywords: job enrichment, employee performance, electricity distribution, Ondo State, job design