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A Study of the Relationship Between Absenteeism and Job Satisfaction

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A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ABSENTEEISM AND JOB SATISFACTION ABSTRACT Absenteeism - employees not showing up for work when scheduled is a major problem for organizations. Absenteeism is a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation. Traditionally, absenteeism has been viewed as an indicator of poor individual performance, as well as a breach of an implicit contract between employee and employer As competitiveness of companies increases and fierce cost reduction applied to all factors of production, more attention is being given to reduce workplace absenteeism and its associated cost. Most research has concluded that absence is a complex variable and that it is influenced by multiple causes, both personal and …show more content…

Various studies have attempted to examine the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction as absence is commonly viewed as one of the means of withdrawal from stressful work situations. According to Luthans (1995), research has generally revealed a consistent inverse relationship between job satisfaction and absenteeism, i.e. when satisfaction is high, absenteeism tends to be low and when satisfaction is low, absenteeism tends to be high. Even though this correlation has been found to be rather moderate, the underlying assumption is that absence is at least in part, the result of dissatisfaction on the job (Anderson, 2004; Hardy, Woods & Wall, 2003). There is a further suggestion that the effects of job satisfaction will be more evident from the frequency of absences rather than from the total number of days absent (Johns, 1996). However, even though it makes sense that dissatisfied employees are more likely to miss work, absenteeism is a complex variable and is influenced by multiple factors. (Robbins, 1998; Robbins, Odendaal & Roodt, 2003; Spector, 1997). An employee might therefore be absent for various other reasons, than being dissatisfied with the job. ABSENTEEISM Unscheduled absences affect almost every type of organisation. Hoque and Islam (2003, p. 81) describe absenteeism as a “subject to be studied, matter to be thought over and a problem to

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