Group norms and excessive absenteeism: The role of peer referent others

Do Differences in Drinking Attitudes and Alcohol-Related Problems Explain Differences in Sick Leave? A Multilevel Analysis of 95 Work Units Within 14 Companies From the WIRUS Study

Background

Systematic reviews have shown a strong relationship between alcohol consumption and sick leave. The effect of alcohol consumption on sick leave may, however, vary according to the work environment. While attitudes toward drinking may impact sick leave, there is little research on the contribution of drinking attitudes to sick leave. Moreover, alcohol-related problems and drinking attitudes may be influenced by the broader sociocultural contexts of the organizational units where people work.

Objectives

This study aimed to explore the relationship of alcohol-related problems and drinking attitudes with sick leave while considering the nesting of employees within working units within companies.

Method

Data from the WIRUS (Workplace Interventions preventing Risky alcohol Use and Sick leave) study were linked to company-registered sick leave data for 2,560 employees from 95 different work units in public (n = 9) and private companies (n = 5) in Norway. Three-level (employee, work unit, and company) negative binomial regression models were estimated to explore the 12-month prospective association of alcohol-related problems and drinking attitudes with four measures of sick leave (one-day, short-term, long-term, and overall sick leave days). Models were adjusted for gender, age, cohabitation status, educational attainment, work position, and employment sector.

Results

We observed higher variation of one-day, short-term, and overall sick leave days between companies than between work units within companies (15, 12, and 30% vs. 0, 5, and 8%, respectively). However, neither alcohol-related problems nor drinking attitudes were associated with sick leave and, thus, those variations in sick leave were not explained by alcohol-related problems or drinking attitudes.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest company-level differences are more important than within company differences when explaining differences in sick leave. While alcohol-related problems or drinking attitudes were not associated with sick leave, future studies may need to explore the role of company policies, practices, or social norms in variations in sick leave rates.

The Moderating Role of Regulatory Institutional Environment in the Relationship Between Emotional Job Demands and Employee Absenteeism Likelihood of Healthcare Workers. Evidence From the Low-Income Country Context

Previous research has not clearly studied how the effects of emotional job demands on absenteeism likelihood are moderated by the contingent absenteeism-related regulatory institutional environments of low-income countries. In this regard, we surveyed 487 healthcare workers in a low-income country in order to test for the effect of emotional job demands on healthcare workers’ absenteeism likelihood. We also explored the mediating role of work engagement and the contingent role of context-specific regulatory institutional environments on the link between emotional job demands and absenteeism likelihood. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) emotional job demands have a direct positive effect on healthcare workers’ absenteeism likelihood, (2) work engagement plays a mediating role on the link between emotional job demands and healthcare workers’ absenteeism likelihood, and (3) the regulatory institutional environment related to absenteeism moderates the negative link between work engagement and absenteeism likelihood. Results in this study demonstrate the crucial role that the context-specific regulatory institutional environment related to absenteeism plays in suppressing the effect of emotional job demands on absenteeism likelihood when considered through the work-engagement pathway. The study’s findings clarify the mechanism through which emotional job demands affect absenteeism likelihood in a low-income country context. The study thus offers a new refined theoretical perspective on how emotional job demands, work engagement, and context-specific regulatory institutional environments interact in ways that predict absenteeism likelihood.

Sustainable Career Development of Newly Hired Executives—A Dynamic Process Perspective

While prior literature indicated the positive outcomes of successful executive successions for both individuals and organizations, we still know little about the influencing factors and mechanisms of successful executive successions from the individual perspectives of newly hired executives. As prior research of executive succession suggested to consider the contextual change on the entire duration of executive employment, we adopted a qualitative research design to explore important experiences in the process of career development after an executive, who was newly hired from outside the company, joined a new organization with a dynamic perspective. Our goal was to help newly hired executives realize their career development process with key tasks and core competencies in distinct stages, in order to achieve sustainable career development in a new enterprise. There are also implications for enhancing process-oriented career development research and advancing career-development managerial practices.

Overcoming destructive deviance: propositioning an integrated conceptual framework

Purpose

This study aims to provide a review of antecedents of destructive deviance and classify them into three levels, namely, personal, interpersonal and organizational level in the proposed integrated conceptual framework. Furthermore, it proposes three levels of interventions to prevent or modify destructive deviance.

Design/methodology/approach

Systematic literature review of the past 23 years was carried out for the current study to identify the antecedents of destructive deviance.

Findings

This study proposes an integrated conceptual framework incorporating three levels of antecedents and interventions for overcoming destructive deviance. Findings classified the antecedents of destructive deviance into three categories, namely, personal, interpersonal and organizational level variables. Similarly, the proposed interventions were classified into three levels, namely, individual (employee resilience, mindfulness), interpersonal (mentoring, peer support) and organizational-level interventions (talent management, internal corporate communication) that organizations should concentrate on to reduce destructive deviance and facilitate health and well-being of employees.

Practical implications

This study posits three-level interventions to reduce or transform negative characteristics and overcome the negative impact of interpersonal and organizational level antecedents on destructive deviance among employees. The suggested three-level interventions not only reduce the negative characteristics and transform negative behaviors but also lay a significant pavement for fostering positive emotions among employees.

Originality/value

This study classifies the antecedents of destructive deviance into three categories, namely, personal, interpersonal and organizational-level antecedents. Further, this study offers three-level interventions for overcoming destructive deviance among employees.

The lingering effects of work context: Ambient work-unit characteristics and the impact of retirement on alcohol consumption

While it is well established that workplace demands and culture can affect employee well-being, to what degree might these same factors have lingering implications on individual wellbeing after employees retire? To begin to answer this question, in this paper we propose and test a model explaining how retiree alcohol consumption may depend on pre-retirement contextual conditions. Specifically, we propose and test a moderated-mediation model in which two ambient work unit characteristics-work-unit stress climate and work-unit drinking norms-moderate the indirect effects of retirement, via distress, on modal alcohol consumption (i.e., the typical quantity and frequency of alcohol consumed). Using a prospective study design and a multi-level, zero-inflated negative binomial model for predicting modal alcohol consumption, our findings lend partial support for the proposed model. We found retirement (vs. continued employment) to be associated with a heightened probability of being an abstainer after retirement eligibility (i.e., at Time 2), regardless of the hypothesized unit-level moderators. Still, retirement had mixed effects on the level of modal consumption among those not abstaining at Time 2, with these effects being partially mediated by distress and contingent upon unit-level stress climate and unit-level drinking norms.

A Multilevel Study of Abusive Supervision, Norms, and Personal Control on Counterproductive Work Behavior: A Theory of Planned Behavior Approach

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is defined as behavior that harms organizations and people in organizations. There has been a growing interest among scholars in understanding CWB from a multilevel perspective. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this article reports results from two multilevel studies of how abusive supervision, workgroup CWB norms, and personal control influence CWB independently and how these three factors intertwine to predict CWB. In two studies (Study 1 was single-source with 597 employees from 31 work groups and Study 2 was multisource with 345 employees from 62 work groups), we consistently found that abusive supervision was positively related to CWB, and that high CWB norms was not only positively related to CWB, but also strengthened the abusive supervision–CWB link. Furthermore, the combination of strong workgroup CWB norms within groups and high personal control were found to have the greatest facilitating effect on CWB in response to abusive supervision.

The Determinants and Outcomes of Absence Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

This research aims to identify and analyze the frequency of the researched determinants and outcomes of absenteeism and thus create an extensive pool of knowledge that can be used for further research. A systematic review, based on Tranfield, Denyer, and Smart’s guidelines of 2003, was used. An electronic search of the Scopus database led to the inclusion of 388 peer-reviewed research articles. Finally, 100 top-quality articles were analyzed using content analysis. This article provides several starting points for practitioners and researchers when investigating absenteeism and its potential determinants and outcomes. It also shows that there is an evident imbalance between empirical research dealing with determinants and research dealing with absenteeism outcomes. Employee attitudes stand out among the most repetitive absenteeism causes, while turnover, organizational health, and loss of productivity are some of the most researched absenteeism outcomes. Most research takes place in the manufacturing industries, followed by hospitals and other public service organizations, banks, and insurance companies. This systematic literature review is the first known attempt of this kind of review of the causes and consequences of absence behavior. It covers a wide range of literature published from 1969 until today and includes more than 150 different absenteeism determinants and outcomes.

Collective norms of engagement link to individual engagement

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to apply a group norm approach to explain how average engagement across an organization is related to an individual’s level of engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

– Survey data were collected from over 46,000 participants from 140 organizations. Multi-level analysis tested the hypotheses that similarity (in terms of shared status) and likely interaction would determine the extent a group’s norms affected individual engagement. Normative data and the dependent variable data were provided by different participants.

Findings

– Results supported the aggregation of individuals’ measure of engagement to form three norms within an organization: an employee norm, a manager norm and a senior leader norm. These engagement norms were significantly related to an individual’s engagement at work beyond the effect of both organizational resources and manager support. Individuals were more strongly influenced by the norm of those in the organization with whom they were most similar and with whom they were likely to interact.

Originality/value

– Provides evidence that engagement exists at the group level and that status groups within the organization have norms that independently affect individual-level engagement.

Shiftwork and sickness absence among police officers: the BCOPS study

Shiftwork, regarded as a significant occupational stressor, has become increasingly prevalent across a wide range of occupations. The adverse health outcomes associated with shiftwork are well documented. Shiftwork is an integral part of law enforcement, a high-stress occupation with elevated risks of chronic disease and mortality. Sickness absence is an important source of productivity loss and may also serve as an indirect measure of workers' morbidity. Prior studies of shiftwork and sickness absenteeism have yielded varying results and the association has not been examined specifically among police officers. The objective of this study was to compare the incidence rate of sick leave (any, ≥3 consecutive days) among day-, afternoon-, and night-shift workers in a cohort of police officers and also examine the role of lifestyle factors as potential moderators of the association. Participants (N=464) from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study examined between 2004 and 2009 were used. Daily work history records that included the shift schedule, number of hours worked, and occurrence of sick leave were available for up to 15 yrs starting in 1994 to the date of the BCOPS study examination for each officer. Poisson regression analysis for ungrouped data was used to estimate incidence rates (IRs) of sick leave by shift, and comparison of IRs across shifts were made by computing incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Sick leave occurred at a higher rate on the night shift (4.37 per 10,000 person-hours) compared with either day (1.55 per 10,000 person-hours) or afternoon (1.96 per 10,000 person-hours) shifts. The association between shiftwork and sickness absence depended on body mass index (BMI). For overweight individuals (BMI≥25 kg/m2), the covariate-adjusted incidence rate of sick leave (≥1 day) was twice as large for night-shift officers compared with those working on the day (IRR=2.29, 95% CI: 1.69-3.10) or afternoon (IRR=1.74, 95% CI: 1.29-2.34) shift. The IR of three or more consecutive days of sick leave was 1.7 times larger for those working on night shift (IRR=1.65, 95% CI: 1.17-2.31) and 1.5 times larger for those working on afternoon shift (IRR=1.50, 95% CI: 1.08-2.08) compared with day shiftworkers. For subjects with normal BMI (<25 kg/m2), the incidence rates of sick leave did not differ significantly across shifts. In conclusion, shiftwork is independently associated with sickness absence, with officers who work the night shift having elevated incidence of sick leave. In addition, overweight officers who work the night shift may be at additional risk for sickness absence.

Attitudes and arrangements at workplace and sickness absence among blue‐ and white‐collar workers

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the associations of employees’ attitudes and human resource arrangements to sickness absence from the perspective of absence culture and work ability.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted in one of the largest food industry companies in Finland. Sickness absence register data were obtained from the years 2003 to 2005 and a survey from 2005. This survey included single propositions about work arrangements (five propositions) and attitudes (three propositions) during sickness absence. These were analysed by absence days and short (1‐7 days) and long spells (>7 days).

Findings

The attitude of blue‐collar workers who agreed that it is a matter of course that someone is absent was statistically significant regarding sickness absence. They had increased risk for sickness absence days and for short spells. From work arrangements during absence the fact that jobs will wait returning to the workplace decreased the risk for short and long sickness absence spells in both groups. In addition, the fact that the employer will take a substitute during workmates’ absence increased the risk for all measured sickness absence rates among white‐collar workers.

Practical implications

These findings should be noted in enterprises’ human resource management and occupational health services to manage and understand sickness absence.

Originality/value

Although sickness absence has been widely studied, very little is known about sickness absence related work arrangements and attitudes associated with sickness absence. This study increases knowledge about these issues.

Determinants in adolescence for adult sickness absence in women and men: a 26-year follow-up of a prospective population based cohort (Northern Swedish cohort)

BACKGROUND

To date little is known regarding how factors measured in adolescence predict sickness absence in adulthood, and whether different patterns of factors exist for women and men that could contribute to an explanation of adult gender differences in sickness absence.

METHODS

All pupils in the last year of compulsory school in the municipality of Luleå with complete information from surveys (questionnaires) in 1981 and 1983 (compulsory and upper-secondary schooling; 16 and 18 years of age, N=719) were followed with register data on medically certified sickness absence (1993-2007). Generalised linear models were applied to calculate Risk Ratios with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) comparing annual mean numbers of sickness absence spells in exposed versus unexposed groups.

RESULTS

In the multivariate model, the following factors were found to be predictive of future sickness absence in women: participating in an upper secondary school program in 1983 dominated by women (> 60%): 1.41 (95% CI 1.00 - 1.97); sometimes sickness absence from school in 1981: 1.60 (95% CI 1.18 - 2.17) and low parental socioeconomic status in 1981: 2.20 (95% CI 1.44 - 3.38). In men, low school grades in 1981: 4.36 (95% CI 2.06 - 9.22) and fathers not in gainful employment in 1981: 2.36 (95% CI 1.53 - 3.66) were predictive.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that sickness absence in adulthood is predicted by factors measured in adolescence. These predictors may differ for women and men. For women, early life absence and social environmental factors, for men low achievements at school and lack of employment of their father seem to be predictive.

Contextual Factors and Help Seeking Behaviors of People With Disabilities

The objective of this article is to provide a framework of contextual factors that affect help seeking expectancies and behaviors of people with disabilities. In particular, drawing on theories from disciplines such as social, cognitive, and educational psychology, I outline work unit norms (i.e., dependence, inclusion) and coworker perceptions (i.e., similarity, fairness) that influence help seeking expectancies and behaviors of people with disabilities. I discuss theoretical extensions of the framework in terms of attributes of the person with a disability, effects of time, and the notion of an inclusionary environment for people with disabilities. Finally, I discuss implications for human resource development professionals.

Bad Apples or Bad Barrels: An Examination of Group- and Organizational-Level Effects in the Study of Counterproductive Work Behavior

Research on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) has largely focused on the individual traits and perceptions that enhance or decrease CWB. Although useful, we propose that a multilevel perspective offers greater insight into CWB antecedents and outcomes by acknowledging the nested nature of the individual within the work group. We review the CWB literature and propose a testable multilevel model that incorporates individual, group, and organizational antecedents of CWB. We conclude with recommendations on alternative techniques to measuring individual CWB and its higher order antecedents.

Self-rated health and sickness-related absence: The modifying role of civic participation

In this study, we examined civic participation as an effect modifier between self-rated health and absence from work. Building on the theoretical framework of social exchange, we use German data to test a conceptual model relating self-rated health to sickness-related absence, as well as the interaction between self-rated health and civic participation. We used the 1996 wave of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study. Since sickness-related absence is a censored variable, we used a tobit regression model. The results confirmed the hypotheses: the effect between self-rated health and sickness-related absence was modified by civic participation, indicating that the effect of self-rated health on sickness-related absence is less pronounced for people who participate more as opposed to those who report less civic participation. In other words, those who are unhealthy and participate more, are fewer days absent from work. We argue that civic participation buffers the relationship between self-rated health and sickness-related absence because those who participate more have more resources to fulfill self-regulatory needs. Our findings emphasize the importance of civic participation outside the workplace for people at work when they do not feel physically well.

The moral regulation of the workplace: presenteeism and public health

This paper draws on Durkheimian concepts of moral forces, particularly anomie and fatalism, and the forced division of labour, to argue that the current institutional arrangements to protect and compensate workers in hazardous workplaces are insufficient. This argument is illustrated with interview data from workers at a meatworks in New Zealand which examined workers' responses to illness and injury in the workplace. It is suggested that an imbalance in moral forces leads to pathological outcomes for workers - seen in presenteeism - the phenomenon of staying at work when injured or ill - and workplace injustice. There are state institutions such as worker compensation schemes and occupational safely and health regulations, and other intermediary groups such as unions, that can act as a buffer against anomic and fatalistic forces in the workplace, but at present these countervailing regulatory and advocacy forces are not sufficiently protective of vulnerable workers. Public health advocacy and research could fill the current void.

The role of work group in individual sickness absence behavior

The purpose of our two-year follow-up study was to examine the effect of the social components of the work group, such as group absence norms and cohesion, on sickness absence behavior among individuals with varying attitudes toward work attendance. The social components were measured using a questionnaire survey and data on sickness absence behavior were collected from the employers' records. The study population consisted of 19,306 Finnish municipal employees working in 1,847 groups (78% women). Multilevel Poisson regression modeling was applied. The direct effects of work group characteristics on sickness absence were mostly insignificant. In contrast, both of the social components of a work group had an indirect impact: The more tolerant the group absence norms (at both individual- and cross-level) and the lower the group cohesion (at the individual level), the more the absence behavior of an individual was influenced by his or her attitude toward work attendance. We conclude that work group moderates the extent to which individuals with a liberal attitude toward work attendance actually engage in sickness absence behavior.