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Are happy employees healthy employees? Researching the effects of employee engagement on absenteeism
Abstract
In 2007, a survey was conducted to measure the levels of workplace engagement for British Columbian civil servants. Following the Heskett et al. model of the "service profit chain" (1994, 2002), the government's primary concerns were the increasing attrition rates and their effects on service delivery. Essentially, the model demonstrated that employees who were more engaged were more committed to their work and more likely to stay within the civil service and that this culminated in improved customer service. Under the joint rubrics of absenteeism and job satisfaction, this study uses a construct of engagement (i.e., job satisfaction) to test whether different levels of engagement have any effect on the amount of sick time (absenteeism) an employee incurs. Specifically, the author looks at whether there is any correlation between the amount of sick time used and an individual's level of engagement and proposes that there is an inverse negative relationship: as job engagement increases, sick time used decreases. Testing the old adage "A happy employee is a healthy employee," this research demonstrates that, though a more engaged employee may use less sick time, the differences in use between highly engaged employees and those not engaged are fairly marginal and that correlations are further confounded by a host of other (often missing) factors.
... These include the lack of meaningful work, a less inclusive workplace and the disregard for opportunities for growth. Hoxsey (2010) indicates that absenteeism can be an indicator of lack of employee engagement at work. If an organisation is subject to high levels of unplanned and unauthorised absence, it is essential to identify the root causes using an anonymous employee engagement survey. ...
... Hence, Cherry (2016) defined it as the level of commitment and the involvement an employee has towards their organisation and its values. Hoxsey (2010) studied the relationship between employee engagement, organisational commitment and absenteeism. He indicates that, by looking at employees' absenteeism records, an organisation could pinpoint which employees may not be engaged in their current job. ...
Background: Productivity of the South African work force remains an issue of central concern for business. It plays an important role in the life of every person and the performance of every business. Creating a working environment that encourages worker participation is one way to create the kind of workplace that attracts motivated work teams for productivity improvement. This sentiment underpins the concept of employee engagement. Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organisation and its values.
Aim: This study examines the influence of employee engagement on labour productivity improvement in the automotive assembly organisations in South Africa.
Settings: The study objectives were achieved by examining the production and related experiences of an automotive assembly organisation that has adopted an employee engagement strategy for labour productivity improvement. The company operates in the eThekwini District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal. It assessed if employee engagement is responsible for company’s labour productivity.
Method: The investigation was achieved by collecting quarterly data on absenteeism, employee participation in quality circles and labour productivity before and after the implementation of the strategy.
Results: Employee engagement does not have the ability to improve labour productivity in an automotive assembly organisation in South Africa. However, absenteeism rate has an influence on labour productivity resulting from the implementation of employee engagement.
Conclusion: South African organisations should revise their performance management systems and develop employee engagement strategies that help achieve new business goals. Consequently, this study uncovers the strengths and weaknesses of employee engagement for labour productivity improvement in South Africa.
... Hence, happiness, engagement and performance are likely intertwined, making a happier employee more likely to be a productive one. In a similar vein, Ref. [61] reported that happier employees were less likely to be absent, highlighting the notion that a happier employee is a healthy employee. Thus, this 'moto' might be expanded to say happy employees are healthier and more productive. ...
... For organizations, we suggest a happy leader means a happy workforce and organization, and the foundation might start with positive relationships (i.e., PRM). The links between happiness and absenteeism [61], satisfaction with performance [60], as well as happiness with engagement [57] and engagement with productivity [59] provide a strong business case for organizations focusing on employee happiness. Hence, happiness should not be considered a 'nice' organizational focus but an important and potentially imperative employee factor to focus on, due to the consequences of being a healthy and productive business. ...
Interpersonal relationships at work are important especially for the well-being of employees. The present study tests Positive Relational Management (PRM) and its influence on employee happiness, and we include two firm-level moderators and an individual-level mediator to better understand the potential complexity of effects. Importantly, we test this in the context of New Zealand, which has been under-represented in employee studies of happiness and is important due to a growing national interest in wellbeing. We test whether positive relationships at work shape greater meaningful work (MFW) and this then influences happiness and mediates the effects of PRM. We also include Human Capital (the quality of people inside the firm) and firm size as moderators and combine these all to test a moderated moderated mediation model in PROCESS. We test this on a sample of 302 New Zealand managers with time-separated data. We confirm the dimensionality and reliability of the PRM scale and find it is positively related to MFW and happiness, while MFW fully mediates the direct effect of PRM. We find interaction effects including a moderated moderated mediation effect, with the indirect effect of PRM differing depending on firm size and the strength of human capital. The implications for understanding the importance of relationships on employee happiness is discussed.
... Entre algunos de los beneficios de potencializar el engagement se encuentran una mayor confianza de los empleados en las habilidades de toma de decisiones y una mayor innovación en el lugar de trabajo. Algunas investigaciones reportan que los empleadores deberían desarrollar e implementar un plan de acción que tenga como objetivo hacer que la experiencia de cada empleado sea positiva, puesto que un alto nivel de engagement no solo se asocia con menos presentismo y ausentismo (Admasachew y Dawson, 2011;Hoxsey, 2010), sino también con una mayor satisfacción laboral (Sun y Bunchapattanasakda, 2019), calidad en el servicio (Salanova Soria et ál., 2005), rendimiento (Xanthopoulou et ál., 2009) o incluso un mejor nivel de salud de los trabajadores (Llorens et ál., 2007). ...
This article provides an overview of the concept of labor engagement on studies conducted in Colombia in the last 10 years. A systematic review study of the literature of publications was conducted within the framework of positive organizational psychology. To demonstrate the findings, an analysis of the main characteristics of components, factors, and applications that various researchers have studied about the construct, and it was found that companies that promote employee engagement achieve better results in terms of productivity and performance, which establishes the need to investigate in greater detail the relationship between work engagement and other organizational factors.
... These include the lack of meaningful work, a less inclusive workplace and the disregard for opportunities for growth. Accordingly, Hoxsey (2010) indicates that absenteeism can be an indicator of lack of EE at work. If an organisation is subject to high levels of unplanned and unauthorised absence, it is essential to identify the root causes using an anonymous EE survey. ...
... Numerous studies (Thorsen et al., 2021;Løkke and Krøtel, 2020;Clausen et al., 2020;Sørensen et al., 2020;Stengård et al., 2020;Buys et al., 2019;Nielsen et al., 2019;Harvey et al., 2018;Bernstrøm, 2018;Schmid et al., 2017;Shapira-Lishchinsky and Raftar-Ozery, 2016;Miraglia and Johns, 2016;Nielsen and Daniels, 2016;Halbesleben et al., 2014;Clausen et al., 2014;Hassan et al., 2014;Elshout et al., 2013;Frooman et al., 2012;Bernstrom and Kjekshus, 2012;Figueiredo-Ferraz et al., 2012;Rantanen and Tuominen, 2011;Yuksel and Tuncsiper, 2011;Hoxsey, 2010;Ybema et al., 2010;Hilton et al., 2009;Bryant et al., 2009;Nyberg et al., 2008;Kristensen et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2005;Bourbonnais et al., 2005) show that the causes of sickness absence are linked to work environment-related factors, including working conditions, co-workers, leadership, bullying, organisational culture and climate, job satisfaction, etc. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to find the connection between leader behaviour and employee sickness absence in public administration.
Design/methodology/approach
The research data was collected with the help of an online questionnaire. The SPSS statistical programme and structural equation modelling in AMOS were used to analyse the data.
Findings
The research was conducted in public administration institutions, and 3,220 employees from public administration were included in the research sample. The author found a negative one-way relationship between certain types of behaviour and sickness absence. The author defines leader behaviour as a multidimensional construct in which each dimension represents a separate cluster of leader behavioural characteristics. Leaders’ “progressiveness” is the most important dimension, and a one-point increase in “progressiveness” (five-point scale) leads to a reduction of 2.8 days in sickness absence for one employee.
Research limitations/implications
The author focused only on one segment of factors (the behaviour of leaders) that affects sickness absence. To explain the maximum possible measure of the variability in sickness absence, it would be best to include several different influencing factors.
Practical implications
The study represents a structured model of the link between sickness absence and leader behaviour. With the model, it is possible to determine which behavioural forms of leaders influence sickness absence, where leader behaviour is treated as a complex whole, and not as an individual behavioural characteristic.
Originality/value
The study addresses calls for research on the relationship between leader behaviour and employee sickness absence within countries.
... Along such lines, dynamics of employee presenteeism and commitment could be shaped by job withdrawal caused by loneliness in the workplace (Johns, 2009). Loneliness is linked to decreased worker engagement (Jung et al., 2021), and less engaged workers have higher rates of absenteeism (Soane et al., 2013;Hoxsey, 2010). Other investigations show negative associations between worker loneliness and organizational commitment (Jung et al., 2021;Ayazlar and G€ uzel, 2014;Aykan, 2014). ...
Purpose
Loneliness is known to adversely impact employee health, performance and affective commitment. This study involves a quantitative cross-sectional analysis of online survey data reported by adults employed in the United States ( n = 5,927) to explore how loneliness and other related factors may influence avoidable absenteeism and turnover intention.
Design/methodology/approach
Worker loneliness was assessed using the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3). Composite variables were constructed as proxy measures of worker job and personal resources. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine independent variable effects on dependent outcomes of (a) work days missed in the last month due to stress (stress-related absenteeism) and (b) likelihood to quit within the next year (turnover intention).
Findings
The job resources of social companionship, work-life balance and satisfaction with communication had significant negative relationships to loneliness in the SEM, as did the personal resources of resilience and less perceived alienation. Results further show lonely workers have significantly greater stress-related absenteeism ( p = 0.000) and higher turnover intention ratings ( p = 0.000) compared to workers who are not lonely. Respondent demographics (age, race and gender) and other occupational characteristics also produced significant outcomes.
Practical implications
Study findings underscore the importance of proactively addressing loneliness among workers and facilitating job and personal resource development as an employee engagement and retention strategy.
Originality/value
Loneliness substantially contributes to worker job withdrawal and has negative implications for organizational effectiveness and costs.
... In the same line of argument, extrinsic job satisfaction relates to aspects external to the nature of the work (working conditions, job safety) (Golbasi et al., 2008). ISSN 2162-3058 2021 Nevertheless, the association of burnout with work engagement is characterized by complexity, as the two constructs appear to influence work behavior and interaction independently, including work performance and absence (Halbesleben et al., 2009;Hoxsey, 2010;James K. Harter et al., 2002;Leon et al., 2015). Due to the above complexity, the relationship between burnout and work engagement is under constant discussion (Cole et al., 2012;Leon et al., 2015;W. ...
Work engagement’s relation with burnout intensively concerns the research community. A plethora of works has tried to interpret the kind of correlation of the above structures with reference to their structural elements and phenomena deriving from their common causal network. Therefore, in this research, the correlation between work engagement and burnout is investigated via their main structural elements and on the basis of job satisfaction’s interpretive role. For this purpose, the responses of 561 employees from various economic sectors in Greece, were analyzed using path analysis after the data had first been approached via item response theory. Job satisfaction’s interpretive role appeared to be of importance in regards to the positive sign of the correlation between work engagement and burnout as emerged in this work. The intrinsic job satisfaction’s positive effect on both constructs that is burnout and work engagement, also arose as a research outcome, while the extrinsic job satisfaction appeared to operate positively to work engagement and negatively to burnout, regulating in this way the overall correlation exerted, therefore giving rise to theoretical and practical implications.
... Coherently with our hypothesis, in the current sample of Italian teachers, work engagement was negatively associated with burnout. It is an expected result in line with abundant international findings that have shown that the more workers are engaged, the less burnout symptoms they experience during their career (e.g., [26][27][28][43][44][45][46][47]). Furthermore, our findings have shown that engaged teachers express high confidence towards professional training. ...
Teachers’ work engagement positively impacts teachers’ attitudes towards their job. Nevertheless, teachers may experience burnout during their career, which negatively impacts their professional learning opportunities. In this study we investigated the relationship between teachers’ levels of burnout, work engagement, and their confidence in in-service training in a sample of Italian teachers. We expected that burnout mediated the relationship between work engagement and teachers’ confidence in training. A total of 481 teachers completed self-report questionnaires about engagement and burnout, with an ad hoc Confidence in Training Index developed to assess their attitudes towards professional development courses. The mediation analysis confirmed that the teachers’ levels of burnout mediated the relationship between their work engagement and their confidence in in-service training. Findings suggest that teacher confidence in policies about professional training should be evaluated by taking into account their level of engagement and burnout.
... Employee happiness has been operationalized and measured in a variety of ways, including through self-reported measures of well-being, life satisfaction, positive affect, positivity, job satisfaction, work engagement, and affective organizational commitment (Boehm and Lyubomirsky 2008;Fisher 2010;Hoxsey 2010;Rodríguez-Muñoz et al. 2014;Tadić et al. 2013). While these variables may be highly correlated with happiness, happiness is, in actuality, a distinct construct. ...
Albert Schweitzer once stated that “success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success.” Despite this widespread belief, employee happiness is often perceived by organizations as an insubstantial topic, irrelevant to bottom-line outcomes. Equally as problematic, past investigations have primarily utilized other positive emotion variables as a proxy for happiness, thus convoluting the relationships between happiness and work outcomes. As such, taking a scientist-practitioner approach, the present study sought to address the need to: (a) directly measure employees’ happiness, (b) link employee happiness to outcomes of organizational interest, and (c) assess the impact that organizational psychosocial factors have in decreasing employee happiness levels. Therefore, by measuring employee happiness, job demands, and organizational outcomes through a two-wave full panel design, the present study provided evidence for employee happiness’s ability to significantly mediate the relationship between job demands and organizational outcomes. Explicitly, a high level of job demands decreased employee happiness, which subsequently decreased employees’ organizational commitment, task performance, and contextual performance, while increasing turnover intentions and counterproductive work behaviors. These results carry significant theoretical and practical implications. Future QOL (Quality of Life) and organizational research would benefit from building on the present findings and establishing a nomological net of employee happiness. Additionally, practitioners have the opportunity to utilize this evidence to demonstrate the impact that employee happiness has on organizationally-relevant outcomes and the role that organizations can have in fostering employee happiness.
... Hence, Cherry (2016) defined it as the level of commitment and the involvement an employee has towards their organisation and its values. Hoxsey (2010) studied the relationship between employee engagement within the SFM system, the organisational commitment and absenteeism. He indicates that, by looking at employees' absenteeism records, an organisation could pinpoint which employees may not be committed in their current job. ...
Background: South Africa’s labour productivity at the shop floor remains an issue of central concern for business. It plays a role in the life of every person and the performance of every business, thus requiring the business to solve problems at the shop floor level. This sentiment underpins the concept of a shop floor management (SFM) system. An SFM system refers to the extent of control exercised at the shop floor level for commitment and involvement of shop floor employees aimed at improving productivity. It is a process that facilitates employee engagement.
Aim: This study examines the influence of an SFM system for productivity improvement in automotive parts manufacturing companies in South Africa. Productivity in the South African’s manufacturing sector is low compared to its counterpart industries in the Asian and Western countries. This sector experiences the lack in short to medium term growth in productivity.
Setting: The automotive parts manufacturing company that has adopted an SFM strategy for productivity improvement participated in the study.
Methods: The study objectives were achieved by examining the production and related experiences in the company. The collection of data was carried out in two phases. This includes the collection of results pre and post-SFM implementation from company records for spoilage, absenteeism and housekeeping rates. The pre-SFM results were quarterly data reflecting the company’s performance over the three-year period prior to the implementation of the SFM. This company operates in the eThekwini District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
Results: The study established that housekeeping and SFM have no relation to labour productivity. However, it revealed the relationship of both absenteeism and spoilage rates with labour productivity.
Conclusion: SFM is an employee engagement process that creates a working environment that encourage worker participation and commitment.
Contribution: The original value of this paper is its approach in uncovering strengths and weaknesses of SFM for productivity in South Africa.
... When employees meet the expectations of the employer it is likely to enhance work performance and employees will adhere to the terms and conditions of employment . When employees know that their expectations are being met, they usually feel happy and passionate at work; they are committed and put in an extra effort when going about their duties (Hoxsey, 2010) . Employees will generally be productive when they know that their employer ensures that they receive what was promised, and in due time . ...
This study explored call centre agents’ perceived psychological contract and job security in a South African call centre
setting. We interviewed a purposive sample of 12 call centre agents (female = 8, male = 4; black = 10, coloured = 2;
permanent employees = 12; mean period of service = 3 years). The agents responded to semi-structured interviews.
Thematic analysis of the data indicated that the call centre agents perceived their psychological contracts with the employer
to influence their job security over and above their legal contracts. Call centre agents’ perceptions of unmet psychological
expectations and obligations contributed to their workplace demotivation and disengagement. We propose a preliminary
conceptual model for studying psychological contract and job security among call centre agents.
... From analyzing VPC, it can be observed that the VPC framework can be implemented in the IT sector [21], [38]. In the 1970s, Heskett et al. [21], [39] aimed to prove that VPC could be applied in numerous fields by identifying the common attributes of successful companies. They found that firms that are successful have a good record of high employee capability and fulfillment, with a focus on increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction by offering increased customer value. ...
Nowadays, company competencies are significantly improving as a result of Information Technology (IT), which also acts as a support and leading player in businesses. IT employees are accredited as a crucial resource, but they are not given as much care as other IT assets. The minimal attention given in retaining professional and worthy employees may result in their leaving their profession. This may impact business performance, as company performance and quality that employees deliver to the customers are also affected. This research was conducted to explore the tools for measuring IT employee value within a company. From a review of past studies, the Value Profit Chain (VPC) framework was found to propose a method to estimate the value of an employee in a model known as the Employee Value Equation. Although this is a good method for measuring employee value, only the theoretical aspect of employee value is defined, so further investigation is required to support this equation.
... Another example possibility using a basket of organisational health measures known to predict employee satisfaction, such as employee engagement (Saks, 2006), unplanned turnover (Markos and Sridevi, 2010), and sick leave (Hoxsey, 2010). Managers may be able to manipulate ("game") some measures, but combining multiple measures including some that are less easily gamed could reduce this risk (Propper and Wilson, 2003). ...
... Thus, we control for three variables: Union Status (1=union member, 0=non-union member), Marital Status (1=married/de facto, 0=single) and Job Tenure (in years). We control for these effects because these have been controlled for in the work-life balance and engagement literatures (Chen & Kao, 2012;Haar, 2013;& Hoxsey, 2010). For example, we expect respondents with higher tenure to be more engaged. ...
While the effect of leadership is established, the influence and process towards work engagement is under researched. This is particularly true of servant leadership, despite the links suggesting followers of such leaders are likely to be more engaged. The present study tests servant leadership towards the three dimensions of work engagement: (1) vigour, (2) dedication and (3) absorption. In addition, we test the role of work-life balance as a potential mediator, to test whether servant leadership builds work-life balance, which ultimately leads to higher work engagement. The present study is based on a sample of 123 New Zealand employees from a wide range of professions. Using structural equation modelling we test a number of path models to determine the best fit to the data, with the best fitting model being a full mediation model. Overall, we find strong support for servant leadership predicting work-life balance and the three work engagement dimensions. However, the influence of servant leadership is fully mediated by work-life balance. Ultimately work-life balance is positively related to all three work engagement dimensions and fully mediates the effect of servant leadership, highlighting the important role that work-life balance may play in achieving higher work engagement. The implications for human resource management (HRM) are discussed.
... An alternative solution is to combine multiple measures, such that the cost and effort of comprehensive gaming becomes prohibitive (Propper and Wilson, 2003). For example, the assessment of the 'people' expectation could be supported by using a basket of organisational health measures known to predict employee satisfaction, such as employee engagement (Saks, 2006), unplanned turnover (Markos and Sridevi, 2010), and sick leave (Hoxsey, 2010). Chief executives would need to be able to explain discrepancies between related measures, for example an improvement in employee engagement while unplanned turnover remained high. ...
... The link between burnout and engagement is complex; both constructs have been shown to independently influence employee behavior and interactions, including OCBs, absenteeism, and performance (Halbesleben, Harvey, & Bolino, 2009;Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002;Hoxsey, 2010). However, scholars remain undecided on a unified perspective of the properties of burnout and engagement in relation to the other. ...
With strong empirical evidence existing for conflicting models, the nature of burnout and engagement continues to be debated. Scholars have recognized the need to theoretically clarify the nature of the burnout–engagement relationship in order to advance empirical research related to both topics. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile existing perspectives through an alternative approach that provides an alternate view of burnout and engagement based on dialectical theory. Implications for common theories used to study burnout and engagement are discussed, followed by suggestions and models for future research utilizing dialectics.
Purpose
This study presents a systematic review of “employee happiness” research from 1991–2023. In this way, this study aims to critically appraise the existing literature, and synthesize themes, thereby, paving a clearer understanding of the construct, along with providing the future research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
By adopting a systematic approach, this study followed scientific procedures and rationales for systematic literature reviews for article selection. A total of 57 articles were finally chosen after a careful examination from 110 selected journals.
Findings
The current study identified three major themes after evaluating the selected literature on Employee happiness: (1) work, family and personal blend, (2) organizational support, and (3) Ebullience sentiment. Amidst an ambiguous usage of several related constructs in employee happiness research, the review provided a clear definition of “employee happiness” along with proposing crucial research directions.
Originality/value
There is a lack of systematic reviews on employee happiness in the existing literature. Thus, by far, this effort is one of the earliest endeavors that researchers undertook toward understanding employee happiness.
Remote work is a well-known concept that experienced an enormous upswing with the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated massive digitization processes as well as the changed attitudes, desires, and motivations of employees for new work concepts and their unwillingness to return to the office. The discussion about the changed work design is diverse and often revolves around the topics of trust and control. Affected are changing leadership concepts, effects on teamwork, engagement of the employees, and organizational culture, as well as issues such as greater participation and inclusion of diverse workers and new human resource policies. The authors will explore the question of how remote work policies must be designed to do justice to the principles of personnel and organizational policy. Based on our study, they demonstrate that remote work brings many advantages to the organization on an individual, team, and organizational level. However, they identified the “dark side” of remote work, especially for women with care responsibilities, as a negative impact on their professional activities.
In the last two decades, scholars and practitioners have paid close attention to employee engagement. Human Resource (HR) managers believe that engaged workers will willingly contribute beyond their job requirements for the organization, becoming a significant resource for business success. The employee engagement is one of the top three HR program goals that must be taken into account. A high degree of engagement is a conditio sine qua non to achieve a sustained competitive advantage. This present review article aims to identify several factors of antecedents and consequences of employee engagement to support future researches. The method used is a scoping (literature) review presented in a narrative manner.
Case and contact management (CCM) teams play a vital role in the COVID-19 pandemic response. This study aims to understand the experiences of CCM team members during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify areas of improvement for future crises. A mixed-methods, cross-sectional online survey was conducted from November 2020 to March 2021. There were a total of 49 relevant survey responses. Participants were CCM team members responding to the pandemic in Ontario. Frequency tabulations were used to analyze closed-ended survey responses, and both a conventional content analysis and thematic analysis were conducted on the open-ended responses. Study results revealed that inadequate planning and preparedness, poor communication, high workloads, and stress levels of CCM team members were notable areas of concern. These matters ultimately affected the well-being of CCM team members and acted as barriers to completing CCM work. It is imperative that adequate staffing and accessibility to mental health support from employers are improved in future times of crisis to ensure that CCM teams are able to meet the demands of their work. Further studies should be conducted to examine the experiences of CCM team members as well as barriers and facilitators to completing CCM work.
Both researchers and practitioners agree that having highly engaged employees results in individuals and organizations reaping various positive consequences related to performance and absenteeism. However, available research syntheses date from the early years of this line of research, thus cover only a small fraction (under 10%) of the available studies. The present meta-analysis updates the results of work engagement and its three facets (vigour, dedication, and absorption) on task performance and includes a substantial number of studies on absenteeism with separate analyses of longitudinal studies. A total of 179 unique correlations representing an overall sample size of N = 139,182 was examined, confirming and enhancing a positive association between work engagement and task performance (ρ = .483) and a negative association between work engagement and absenteeism (ρ = −.171). The three facets of engagement had similar effects on performance, but only vigour and dedication correlated significantly negatively with absenteeism. Work engagement is linked positively to future task performance and negatively to future absenteeism. The influence of several methodical moderators is examined. Finally, we discuss how these findings can inform research and practice in order to contribute to a more effective and healthy work environment for employees.
Mierniki dotyczące poziomu absencji są wymieniane wśród informacji wykorzystywanych do oceny efektywności procesów zarządzania zasobami ludzkimi w organizacji i stopnia wykorzystania zaangażowanego kapitału ludzkiego. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie na podstawie przeprowadzonej analizy studiów literaturowych stosowanych rozwiązań w zakresie pomiaru i analizy absencji pracowniczej na poziomie organizacji. Rozważania podzielono na cztery części. W pierwszej skoncentrowano się na omówieniu źródeł informacji do pomiaru i analizy absencji. Kolejne trzy dotyczą mierzenia i analizowania odpowiednio: poziomu absencji, jej przyczyn i kosztów.
Vzroki za nastanek zdravstvenega absentizma so stevilni in med eno od skupin vzrokov uvrscamo tudi skupino dejavnikov, ki so vezani na posameznika oziroma njegove osebnostne lastnosti. Clanek se osredotoca na vidik povezanosti zdravstvenega absentizma s temperamentom in predstavlja rezultate raziskave v slovenski javni upravi. Rezultati raziskave (februar 2015) kažejo, da so bili v povprecju najmanj dni zacasno odsotni z dela zaposleni, katerih prevladujoci temperament je kolerik (8,6 dni) in flegmatik (8,7 dni), ki jih je sicer tudi najvec med zaposlenimi v javni upravi; nekoliko vec dni so bili zacasno odsotni zaposleni s temperamentom sangvinika (10,8 dni), najvec pa melanholiki (15,8 dni). Na podlagi rezultatov raziskave ugotavljamo, da v skupnem stevilu dni zdravstvenega absentizma statisticno znacilnih razlik med posameznimi zaposlenimi glede na njihov temperament ne moremo potrditi. Lahko pa potrdimo statisticno znacilno povezanost v skupnem povprecnem stevilu pogostosti zdravstvenega absentizma med zaposlenimi glede na njihov temperament. The causes that lead to sickness absenteeism are numerous. Among the groups of the causes there is a set of factors tied to the individual or his/her personality traits. The article focuses on the aspect of the correlation between sickness absenteeism and temperament and presents the results of the research carried out in the public administration in Slovenia. The results of the research (February 2015) show that on average the employees who were temporarily absent from work for the fewest days were those with dominant temperament choleric (8.6 days) or phlegmatic (8.7 days), who also account for the largest number of employees in the public administration; those with a sanguine temperament were temporarily absent for slightly more days (10.8 days), while melancholics were absent for the largest number of days (15.8 days). On the basis of the results of the research, we find that in the total number of days of sickness absence we are unable to confirm statistically significant differences between individual employees with regard to their temperament. We can, however, confirm a statistically significant correlation in the overall average number of frequencies of sickness absenteeism among employees with regard to their temperament.
What can we learn by applying a meta-analysis to the public administration literature on job satisfaction? More generally, how can public management scholars use this method to capitalize on the decades of research on other topics within our field? This study reports the findings of the first quantitative review of the public administration literature on job satisfaction. We retrieved quantitative data from primary studies published in 42 public administration journals since 1969 and performed a meta-analysis of the relationships between job satisfaction and 43 correlates. The findings include meta-analytically derived effect sizes, measures of the heterogeneity in the effect size underlying all primary studies, and several indicators of publication bias. In presenting the results of our meta-analysis, we address the merits and limitations of this methodology and discuss how public administration scholars could take full advantage of this information to advance knowledge in other areas within the field.
The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) is a widely used facet measure of job satisfaction that has undergone several revisions since its first publication in 1969. A revision in 1985 added items that, in subsequent research, appeared to tap work stress rather than work satisfaction. To illuminate the contaminating effect of these items, the authors analyzed two samples (n = 1,623 and n = 314) that also contained test items hypothesized to tap job control. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis supported a three-factor solution and provided evidence supporting the removal of the contaminating items from the JDI. The presence of factorially complex items, however, indicated that some content overlap remains in the measure. Hierarchical regression results supported predictions about relationships between satisfaction, stress, and control. Results of the study have implications for development of occupational satisfaction measures and further refinement of stress, control, and satisfaction constructs.
The Job Descriptive Index family of job attitude measures includes the Job in General (JIG) scale, a measure of global satisfaction with one’s job. The scale was originally developed and validated by Ironson, Smith, Brannick, Gibson, and Paul. Following structured scale reduction procedures developed by Stanton, Sinar, Balzer, and Smith, the current authors developed an abridged version of the JIG for use by practitioners and researchers of organizational behavior. They report the results of three validation studies documenting the process of scale reduction and the psychometric suitability of the reduced-length scale.
Despite the consistent finding in the absence literature that women tend to be absent more often than men, little attention has been paid to whether the process of absence differs by sex. This issue is examined using data collected from 1401 Australian employees from 61 different workplaces. Hypotheses suggest that the predictive ability of job satisfaction, age, commuting time, family responsibilities, stressful life events and shift work on absence behavior differs for men and women. To test these hypotheses, a multivariate model is developed and estimated. The results indicate that there are structural differences in the absence behavior of men and women, requiring the estimation of models separately for each sex. Moreover, strong support for all but one of the hypotheses is found. These results show the critical importance of considering the sex of employees when developing explanatory models of absence.
This study investigates the crossover of burnout and work engagement among
2,229 Royal Dutch constabulary officers, working in one of 85 teams. The
authors hypothesized that both states may transfer from teams to individual
team members. The results of multilevel analyses confirm this crossover phenomenon
by showing that team-level burnout and work engagement are related
to individual team members’ burnout (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced
professional efficacy) and work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption),
after controlling for individual members’ job demands and resources. The
implications of these findings for interventions aimed at the promotion of
employee well-being are discussed.
Occupational stress is an increasing health problem for the high-risk industries. The occupation of correctional officers has received relatively scant attention, contributing to a recent increase in formal occupational stress claims. This research evaluates the ability of the Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) model to predict strain in 132 Australian correctional officers. A specific measure of job demands predicts the psychological outcome (job satisfaction) to a greater extent than the generic (JDCS) demands measure. The ability of supervisor support to moderate the consequences of these job demands is also demonstrated and has implications for the training of correctional supervisors. Arguments for including sample-specific measures of job demands are discussed. Yes Yes
In exemplary service organizations, executives understand that they need to put customers and frontline workers at the center of their focus. Those managers heed the factors that drive profitability in this service paradigm: investment in people, technology that supports frontline workers, revamped recruiting and training practices, and compensation linked to performance. They also express a vision of leadership in somewhat unconventional terms, referring to an organization's "patina of spirituality" and the "importance of the mundane." In this article, Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser, and Schtesinger take a close look at the links in the service-profit chain, which puts hard values on soft measures so that managers can calibrate the impact of employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity on the value of products and services delivered. Managers can then use this information to build customer satisfaction and loyalty and assess the corresponding impact on profitability and growth. Describing the links in the service-profit chain, the authors explain that profit and growth are stimulated by customer loyalty; loyalty is a direct result of customer satisfaction; satisfaction is largely influenced by the value of services provided to customers; value is created by satisfied, loyal, and productive employees; and employee satisfaction, in turn, results from high-quality support services and policies that enable employees to deliver results to customers. By completing the authors' service-profit chain audit, companies can determine not only what drives their profit but how they can sustain it in the long term.
The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to measure employee's job satisfaction in Greece. Exploratory factor-analytic results indicated a six-factor solution with high internal consistency. The six factors obtained were Working Conditions, Supervisor, Pay, Job Itself, Organization as a Whole, and Promotion. Structural equation modeling analysis (EQS) showed that although the fit of the model is fairly good, there is need for slight improvement.
The growing prevalence of shift work and non-standard working hours is challenging many taken-for-granted notions about family and household life. This article examines how rotating shift schedules shape household strategies with regard to childcare and unpaid domestic work. In 1993-94 in-depth interviews were conducted with 90 predominantly male newsprint mill-workers and their spouses living in three communities located in different regions of Canada. The analysis in this article is based on these interviews as well as data collected in a questionnaire survey administered to a much larger sample. The article focuses on the effects of rotating shifts and the extent to which household strategies differ between households with one or two wage-earners. The findings reveal that the onus for adjusting to shifts fell mainly on the spouses of mill-workers, who felt constrained in their own choices regarding employment and childcare by the demanding regimen of their partner's shift schedules. In the vast majority of households a traditional division of labour predominated with regard to both childcare and domestic work. When women quit paid employment to accommodate the schedules of shift-workers and ensure time for the family to be together, traditional values reassert themselves. Surprisingly, a high level of satisfaction with current shift schedules was found, despite the significant adjustments to family life they had necessitated. By comparing families employed in the same industry but living in three very different communities, the analysis underscores the importance of local circumstances in mediating the strategies households deploy in coping with shift work, especially with regard to childcare.
Previous research suggested weak relations between work attitudes and indirect measures of employee absenteeism (e.g., frequency and time-lost; Hackett, 1989). In the present study, absences were regarded as voluntary or involuntary based on the reasons provided by the employees or supervisors. It was hypothesized that voluntary as opposed to involuntary absenteeism can be predicted by organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and their interactive effect. Intention to quit was expected to predict voluntary absenteeism as well. Subjects were 140 clerks in an Israeli municipality (average age was 41). Moderated multiple regression analyses of attitudes and objective (personnel records) or subjective (self-reported) absence data yielded support for the first hypothesis. Nonetheless, the intention to quit was not significantly related to either type of absence. Theoretical and methodological considerations were discussed and implications for continued research were outlined.
La maternité est généralement considérée comme constituant un tournant dans la carrière des femmes professionnelles, particulièrement chez celles qui occupent des emplois à prédominance masculine. S'inspirant de la documentation dans le domaine des femmes et du travail non traditionnel, l'auteure de cet article tente d'expliquer la signification critique de la maternité, antieipée ou réelle, pour les femmes travaillant dans le domaine de l'ingénierie. Elle va au-delà des arguments plus conventionnels sur l'équilibre travail-famille en suggérant que les femmes entreprennent une carrière en génie non en tant que femmes, mais conceptuellement comme des hommes – un statut qu'elles peuvent trouver difficile à conserver en tant que mères. Le défi pour celles qui deviennent effectivement mères est alors de gérer la tension découlant de l'obligation d'équilibrer deux identités potentiellement incompatibles – celle de«mère» et celle d'« ingénieure ». Cette conception est étudiée empiriquement au moyen de données d'interviews de 37 femmes formées comme ingénieures.
Motherhood is widely considered to be a watershed in the careers of professional women, particularly those working in male-dominated occupations. Building on the literature in the field of women and non-traditional work, this paper seeks to account for the critical significance of motherhood, either anticipated or actual, for women in engineering. The paper moves beyond more conventional work-family balance arguments in suggesting that women enter engineering not as women, but conceptually as men–a status that, as mothers, they may find difficult to maintain. The challenge for those who do become mothers, then, is to manage the tension of balancing two potentially incongruous identities–“mother” and “engineer.” This view is explored empirically through interview data from 37 women trained as engineers.
This article reviews the literature on work attitudes and outcomes for the years 1993-1997. Models of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and turnover behaviors were used to develop an organizational structure for the literature. Key constructs pertaining to individual and work environment characteristics, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and turnover intentions were reviewed and summarized. General conclusions and recommendations for future work are presented in the final section.
This study was designed to explore the relations among tenure, age, and job satisfaction as a way of testing two alternative paradigmatic perspectives. Accordingly, it tells a “tale of two perspectives” in which previous researchers, using different “lenses,” have seen different things even though ostensibly viewing the same employee characteristics. Hierarchical polynomial regression analysis was used to assess the form of the relations between tenure/age and job satisfaction, and to compare the stability of the relations as suggested by job experience and career stage models for separate samples of male (n = 172) and female (n = 592) respondents. Results indicate that though age and tenure are natural dependent, time-related variables which co-vary with one another, they are distinct variables leading to different outcomes. Tenure (however measured) was a more consistent and stable predictor of job satisfaction than chronological age. The functional relation between tenure and job satisfaction, however, was found to differ for males and females.
The Value Profit Chain: Treat Employees Like Customers and Customers Like Employees
- James L Heskett
- W Earl
- Leonard A Sasser
- Schlesinger
Heskett, James L., Earl W. Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger. 2002. The Value Profit Chain: Treat Employees Like Customers and Customers Like Employees. New York: Free Press.
Citizen Surveys: How to Do Them, How to Use Them and What They Mean
- T I Miller
- M A Miller
Miller, T.I., and M.A. Miller. 1991. Citizen Surveys: How to Do Them, How to Use Them and What They Mean. Washington: International City/Country Management Association.
BC Public Service Work Environment Survey Survey administered on behalf of BC Public Service Agency. Victoria: Province of British Columbia. ———. 2007b. Improving your Work Environment: Suggestions from within
- Bc
- Stats
BC Stats. 2007a. BC Public Service Work Environment Survey. Survey administered on behalf of BC Public Service Agency. Victoria: Province of British Columbia. ———. 2007b. Improving your Work Environment: Suggestions from within. Victoria: Queen's Printer.
People, service and trust: Links in a public sector service value chainPutting the service profit chain to work
- Heintzman
- Brian Ralph
- T O Jones
- G W Loveman
- Earl W Sasser
- Leonard A Schlesinger
Heintzman, Ralph, and Brian Marson. 2006. ''People, service and trust: Links in a public sector service value chain.'' Canadian Government Executive 12 (5), available at http://www.psagency-agencefp.gc.ca/rp/pstc-eng.asp. Heskett, James L., T.O. Jones, G.W. Loveman, Earl W. Sasser, and Leonard A. Schlesinger. 1994. ''Putting the service profit chain to work.'' Harvard Business Review 72 (2) March/April: 167–74.
Shorter can also be better
- Russell
Mental health and absence from work
- Almond
People, service and trust
- Heintzman Ralph
Annual review, 1993-1997
- Lease
Age, tenure, and job satisfaction
- Bedeian
The Employee Satisfaction Inventory (ESI)
- Koustelios