Absenteeism in a more social context

Abstract

Past research on absenteeism has relied heavily on assessing the roles of work attitudes as correlates of absence measures. This study examined the effects of variables identified as promising areas of research, yet have been investigated little; namely, absence culture, organizational permissiveness, extent of non-work activities and value of non-work time. These variables, along with measures of organizational commitment and work group cohesion, were assessed in terms of their ability to account for significant amounts of variance in three absence indices: self-reported absence frequency; absence frequency collected from personnel files; and total hours absent as recorded in personnel files. Work group cohesion was useful in predicting the frequency measure obtained from personnel files while employee absence ethic and non-work responsibilities were useful in predicting self-reported frequency. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of the measures in predicting different absence measures. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are also presented. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)