Research problem Absence refers to the non-attendance of employees for scheduled work when they are expected to attend.
The different ways in which absence is calculated has made inter-company comparison difficult and international comparison impossible. The issue is also something of a taboo in organizations for different, but related, reasons. First, it may be that organizations are just too embarrassed to address this issue internally let alone discuss it publicly in management journals. Thus, for a company to admit that it has an absence problem is perhaps to admit to being perceived as being a bad employer. Second, managers may treat absenteeism as an act of God that has to be endured, rather than as an organizational problem that is capable of being solved (Tyson 2006). Even if they believe that something can be done about it, there is surprisingly little up-to-date information on absence causes and controls available in a form that can be directly used by management. As well as definitional issues, there is a serious issue of peoples ability to attend. Family responsibilities, transportation problems, illness and accidents all have a role to play. But what is perhaps noticeable about the plethora of studies in this area is the neglect of individual differences. Critics of absenteeism measures have observed that they are frequently loaded with error variance and are therefore contaminated because a person can be off the job for a variety of reasons. Reasons for nonattendance at work are often situation and organization specific, so much so that individual difference factors are washed out by these more powerful factors (Hitt & Smith 2005). This paper is a proposal to create a study on the causes of absenteeism in the work place and its effects to the performance of an organization. Aims and objectives 1. To review the existing literature that is available on employee absenteeism, employee motivation and employee performance. 2. To investigate the impact of employee absences in business performance. 3. To analyze the performance of employees and determine if absence changes their performance. 4. To determine the usual cause of absence and the usual excuse of the employees for their absence. 5. To provide recommendation for companies who have high absenteeism rates to help them build programs that will increase employee performance and lessen absenteeism and therefore productivity.
Literature review Absenteeism, sickness, complaints, requirements to resign, commendations and numbers of arrests are nearly always too low in frequency to be of a great deal of use. They may also vary between busy urban and rural areas. Promotion is not a good measure either because a good officer will not necessarily be promoted or seek promotion. Although personality factors have been shown to play a part in absenteeism, these are frequently washed out by powerful organizational factors that are the primary determinant of absenteeism. A variety of sociological and organizational factors combined to affect absenteeism levels. While personality factors do play a small part, these probably only operate in very loose or un rulebound organizations. Alas, however, the fact that individual difference factors seem less important has meant that there has been comparatively little research in this area (Arthur 2006).In some cases, job attitudes and withdrawal behaviors occur smoothly, gradually, and monotonically; in other cases, distinctive stimuli punctuate these occurrences. Any substantive withdrawal theory must deal directly with how these processes unfold over time. Simultaneously, the magnitude for the motivational forces to attend to the non work alternatives increases over time, particularly when there has been little or no opportunity to attend to these non work activities (Sinclair 2007).Absenteeism reduces the performance of personnel and makes a firm lose productivity. Methodology Sample collection To determine the number of respondents that will be asked to participate and give information regarding the study convenience sampling will be used. Convenience sampling means to collect or interview individuals who actually experience the phenomenon. Convenience sampling will focus on individuals that experienced diabetes mellitus or has someone in the family that experienced such disease. Methodology/Data Collection Surveys will the primary method of data collection. Internet surveys would be used. Internet surveys have been both hyped for their capabilities and criticized for the security issues it brings. Internet surveys require less finances since there would be no printing of paper and there would be no need to travel just to gather data. Internet surveys would also require less time for the researchers and the respondents. Data Analysis The will be analyzed through descriptive statistics and it would focus on graphical and tabular analysis. Tabular analysis involves presenting the results of analysis in tables. Frequently the information contained in a table can be presented as a graph.
References Arthur, D 2006, Recruiting, interviewing, selecting and orienting new employees, AMACOM, New York. Hitt, MA & Smith, KG (eds.) 2005, Great minds in management: The process of theory development, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. Sinclair, A 2007, Leadership for the disillusioned: Moving beyond myths and heroes to leading that liberates, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, N.S.W. Tyson, S 2006, Essentials of human resource management, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, England.
