Academic literature on the topic 'Absenteeism'

Thousands of children are absent from school every day. Students miss school for a multitude of reasons connected to the student, their family, the school, and the wider society. This research conceptualizes absenteeism as voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary absences revolve around students’ deliberate decisions to miss school; whereas involuntary absences are often imposed on the student. For example, preferring to engage in some recreational activity outside of the school is considered a voluntary absence, whereas having to work during school hours to earn an income is an involuntary absence. Unfortunately, the majority of mainstream schools do not demarcate between voluntary and involuntary absences and reprimand pupils for absenteeism regardless of its cause. As a result of these actions, many youths are pushed, pulled, or fade away from their education. A lucky few find their way to alternative schools where they are offered a last chance to earn a high school diploma. Some alternative schools are able to not only raise attendance, but also to accommodate involuntary absenteeism, where a student is allowed to miss some class without penalty. However, little Canadian evidence exists documenting how alternative schools respond to absenteeism. This research interviewed 40 students and 17 staff members in four alternative schools in Ontario, Canada, to capture their perspectives on absenteeism. The findings indicate that mainstream schools the students attended were not effective in responding to absenteeism; whereas the alternative schools were better positioned to ensure that the students were able to progress with their education regardless of their ability to attend consistently. Nevertheless, there are concerns about the pupils’ readiness to succeed in postsecondary education and/or subsequent work upon graduation from an alternative school.

Absenteeism is a community problem when one looks at the amount of money spent because of it, an amount that could have been used on other more important matters. For this thesis I set out to study absenteeism in nursing homes here in my town, Trondheim. I wanted to study the nursing homes with relatively low absenteeism rate and the nursing homes with relatively high absenteeism rate to see if I could find differences that could explain the differences in their absenteeism rates. Interviews were used to gather data from four different nursing homes in Trondheim, and the participants were the manager and two caregivers from each nursing home, a total of twelve participants. A qualitative analysis approach was chosen to analyze the data I had obtained in order to increase my understanding of them, and the findings indicate that the differences between the nursing homes are there. The results indicate that there are individual, leadership and organizational differences. Individually, the employees from the nursing homes with low absenteeism rate handle stressful situations better and they are healthier than those from nursing homes with high absenteeism. On the leadership’s side, the managers from the nursing homes with low absenteeism have more insight into the employees every day work situation; they are more visible, supportive and protective of the employees than the managers of the nursing homes with high absenteeism. Organizationally, the nursing homes with low absenteeism use fewer substitutes and they distribute the available caregivers better on the different shifts. Based on this study’s findings, absenteeism is a complex problem that requires commitment from each member and collaboration between all the members of the organization if it is to be kept at the acceptable.

The main research problem in this study centred around the assessment of the impact of an absenteeism monitoring and management system at Willard Batteries. The main research problem had five sub-problems which were addressed through the following actions: A literature study was conducted to identify the causes and impact of absenteeism in the workplace. The researcher also conducted interviews with the Human Resources Manager, line managers and employees at Willard Batteries to obtain their views of the absenteeism management strategies utilised, as well as the effects of absenteeism in their organisation. The insights gained from these interviews were incorporated into the questionnaire. The absenteeism figures of the organisation for the period 2005 to 2008 were analysed and compared against the internationally accepted absenteeism norm of three percent. An absence rate above three percent is considered as unacceptable and would imply that the current absenteeism management system is not effective. The theoretical study also entailed the reviewing of the legal framework within which absenteeism needs to be managed, as well as the literature that deals with strategies for the effective management of absenteeism. These strategies relate to the recording, calculation, analysis, benchmarking and practical management of absenteeism in the workplace. A survey questionnaire was developed to determine the perceptions of managers, supervisors and employees in relation to the impact of absenteeism on the company as well as the extent to which managers and supervisors were utilising selected absenteeism monitoring and management strategies within the company. The results from the empirical study revealed that management and supervisors were more aware of the impact of absenteeism on the organisation than their employees. It can therefore be concluded that employees perceived their absence from work to have little impact on aspects such as employee morale, cost, production and the customer. This could possibly be due to ineffective communication in terms of the cost and other consequences of absenteeism in the organisation. Employees also felt that managers were effective in taking the necessary disciplinary action with regards to absenteeism-related transgressions, but that they were not diligent in the recording and communication of absence information, as well as comparing absenteeism information inter-departmentally. Absenteeism has proven to be globally pervasive, expensive and extremely disruptive to organisations. Managers and supervisors who employ the various absence monitoring and management strategies, could be more effective in improving employee attendance. Their efforts could be further enhanced if employees are made aware of the negative impact that their absence has on the morale of their fellow employees, the cost to the company, the customer, as well as the achievement of production targets and the quality of outputs.

The present research examined whether the attributions a supervisor makes in response to subordinate absenteeism are influenced by a subordinate's prior absence history, the nature of the subordinate's excuse, and the outcomes of the absence episode. In addition, this study investigated the effects these absence variables have on supervisors' selection of both appropriate absence labels (excused vs. unexcused), and the type of disciplinary action taken. 160 psychology students and 85 MBA candidates from a large Southeastern university were given a scenario describing a hypothetical absence episode, and completed a questionnaire pertaining to the dependent measures above. Results of multivariate analyses of variance conducted on measures of attributions, absence labels, and disciplinary actions supported the hypotheses that (a) prior absence histories based on a high frequency of absences and subordinate excuses for absences due to visiting friends will result in more internal attributions, unexcused absence labels, and more severe forms of disciplinary action taken by the supervisor; while (b) prior absence histories based on a low frequency of absences and subordinate excuses due to a child's accident will result in external attributions, excused absence labels, and less severe forms of disciplinary action. The consequences of absenteeism did not have an effect on subjects' attributions, and only marginally influenced subjects' absence labels and sanction decisions. Results of regression analyses also supported the hypotheses that the type of attribution a supervisor makes will directly influence the chosen absence label, and the absence label will, in turn, influence the type of disciplinary action taken. Implications of the study's findings for future absence research are discussed.<br>M.S.

Absenteeism is a widely observed phenomenon that has received a great deal of attention from academics who argue that it is an excellent proxy for individuals' attitude to work and commitment to their jobs. Unfortunately, very little of this work has been done by economists. The little economics that has been done has tended to view absenteeism as a measure of the supply of effort. Given the paucity of economic analysis on absenteeism, the psychology, sociology and management literature is reviewed to examine the extent to which their approach and that of an economist have common ground. Upon careful reading, it becomes evident these disciplines offer similar perspectives. Probably the most researched area of absenteeism is the relationship between absence and turnover. Although there is much contention as to what the relationship between these two phenomena should be, most researchers view this as a means to test the hypothesis of withdrawal. This thesis examines the problem somewhat differently and suggests that the approach of much of the empirical work is misguided. An alternative methodology to examine these phenomena is suggested and tested using a very large and detailed database. The results suggest there is a positive correlation between absence and turnover, although the relationship is more complex than described in the literature. One area where economists have made a great deal of theoretical progress is in the examination of why absence might vary across firms. The key insight is that production technology may affect the shadow cost of absence and if the costs of absence differ across firms, then there will be different levels of motivation to reduce it. It is argued that not only will the shadow cost of absence vary across firms, it will also vary over time and a theoretical model is developed to demonstrate this. There is a presumption in the literature that absenteeism is inversely related with the business cycle. However, the empirical work on the subject only models absence as a supply side phenomenon. This introduces a significant identification problem. At the very time when individuals are least likely to go absent, firms' demand for reliable labour will be at its lowest. The empirical work in the chapter models absence from both the supply and the demand side and the findings confirm that both play a significant role in determining absence. The finding that firms' demand for reliable labour may vary through the business cycle is novel and receives further investigation. The data is dissaggregated to determine the robustness of the relationship between demand side factors and the business cycle. At broad levels of disaggregation, the results remain quite strong, although there does appear to be a difference between unionised and nonunionised workers. At finer levels of dissaggregation the results are not as conclusive. This is attributed to the relatively small samples used to derive the individual absence series and the resulting increased volatility that emerges due increased variability from the use of small samples.

Occupational fitness programs have enjoyed enormous popularity over the course of the past decade. Their continuing penetration into all sectors of the business community coupled with the rapid growth of organizations serving professional fitness personnel, suggests that their presence may be permanent. A major reason for the popularity of occupational fitness programs, is the claim that fitness programs can reduce employee absenteeism. Two important issues at this time are: (1) the role of physical fitness in mediating sickness absence behavior, and, (2) the role of participation in occupational fitness programs as a way of enhancing worker attendance motivation. These issues fit in well with the Steers & Rhodes (1978) Process Model, a conceptual framework which deals with employee absenteeism from the standpoints of ability to attend (ie. high fitness) and motivation to attend (ie. high morale). The Steers & Rhodes theoretical model was chosen as an appropriate vehicle to guide this study. Part I reviewed the claim that physical fitness as a physiological state, is inversely related to sickness absence among employees. The literature review suggested that fit employees would miss fewer days from work than unfit employees. The prediction that physical fitness and sickness absence will be inversely related, formed the core of the hypotheses generated in Part I. In addition, hypotheses were also developed concerning the possible effects of gender, age, length of service and company affiliation. Correlational analyses were performed on several physiological and absence variables obtained from a sample of employees from the years 1979 through 1984. Modest but significant inverse correlations were found to exist between MVO₂ and a number of different absence measures. The magnitude of these correlations disappeared in some cases when the groups were controlled for gender. Significant correlations were also found between variables such as length of service and absence or age and absence. Absence patterns for males and females and management and classified employees also showed significant group differences. These results point to the need to consider these personal and socio cultural variables when attempting to describe any relationships between occupational fitness and absenteeism. Part II chose the Steers & Rhodes concept of motivation to attend. Based on the review of literature, it was expected that participants in the company fitness program would report positive changes in a number of attitudinal and personal variables. A simple questionnaire was developed to assess this change, and the entire population of a very large (n=1076) corporate fitness program was polled. Respondents in the main, indicated a significant improvement in their personal perception of a number of different attitudinal variables. The magnitude of this improvement was significantly related to the length of time they have been members of the program and their degree of participation in the program<br>Education, Faculty of<br>Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of<br>Graduate