From the Introduction, p. 1-2. The main purposes of this study are to examine the methods by which one particular aspect of industrial behaviour, namely that of the worker's final withdrawal from the work situation, can be measured; to offer a more refined technique for the measurement of such withdrawals, and thirdly to attempt to relate this measurable phenomenon of withdrawal, commonly known as Labour Turnover, to the less easily measurable phenomenon of the integration of the individual worker into his working group. Labour Turnover - or the loss, over time, of employees from an employing organisation - is normally regarded as a province of study appropriate to the field of Industrial Psychology, and to its related applied field of Personnel Management. To a large extent, however, (as will be illustrated in Chapter II of this work) the results of such studies have proved inconclusive, and contradictory, and there is little evidence of progress towards a comprehensive understanding of the subject. This is undoubtedly due to the fragmentary nature of most studies in this field. These have generally been limited to the narrow confines of one particular aspect of the phenomenon, and consequently it has not been viewed against a sufficiently broad background.

The research problem in this study was to identify best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. To achieve this goal, the following actions were taken: A literature study was conducted to identify the scope and impact of health-related absenteeism on organisations and the legal parameters within which health-related absenteeism should be managed. A literature study was also conducted to identify strategies to prevent and reduce health-related absenteeism and strategies to ensure the continuous provision of products and services in periods of high absenteeism. The theoretical study focused on the management of absenteeism, wellness, ill-health/mental problems and HIV/AIDS, as well as contingency strategies aimed at maintaining production and service provision. iii The findings from the literature study were integrated into a model of best practices for the contingency management of health-related absenteeism. This model was used as a basis for the development of a survey questionnaire to determine whether senior human resources practitioners, occupational health practitioners or line managers, who were responsible for the management of health-related absenteeism in organisations, agreed with the best practice guidelines developed in the study. The survey was conducted in the motor and motor component industry in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and Buffalo City Metropole. The empirical results from the study showed a strong concurrence with the best practices guidelines developed in the study, with the exception of the strategies aimed at maintaining undisrupted production and service provision during periods of high absenteeism. In particular, disagreement was shown with regard to alternative work arrangements such as flexible work-hours, a compressed workweek, telecommuting and job-sharing. Absenteeism, in general, is an issue that organisations are challenged with on a daily basis. The proliferation of various diseases, specifically HIV/AIDS, is contributing to this problem. An integrated and strategic approach is required to deal effectively and constructively with the immediate and expected future impact of health-related issues on absenteeism. Organisations could use the best practices guidelines, identified in this study, as a mechanism to benchmark how well they manage health-related absenteeism

The aim of this study was to explore views of the township high school principals regarding their approaches to teacher absenteeism management, with the objective of formulating an integrated strategic management model, which can be used to manage teacher absenteeism. To realise this goal, the following actions were undertaken: A literature study was conducted to uncover the absenteeism curbing strategies that will assist the school principals to deal with teacher absenteeism. A literature study was also conducted to determine the scope and the nature of teacher absenteeism as well as the legal framework that governs the management of absenteeism. A documental analysis of the policies, as provided by the Department of Education, was conducted to determine exactly what they entail regarding absenteeism management. The forces driving absenteeism and the variables involved in those forces, as well as elements making up those variables were identified and their influences were investigated. Hence, a theoretical framework consisting of these causal variables was developed to focus on the management of teacher absenteeism. As a result of this theoretical framework, an instrument in the form of a questionnaire was designed to determine the principals’ approach to teacher absenteeism as well as their consistency with the model. The survey was conducted in the township high schools in the Port Elizabeth District of Education. The findings from the empirical research indicated a strong agreement amongst the respondents, with the prevalence of unauthorised teacher absences, factors influencing absenteeism, teacher absenteeism management strategies as well as compliance with the teacher absenteeism management programme/plan.

In a globally competitive market place companies strive to become as efficient as possible. Absenteeism is a worldwide problem as it impacts on company efficiency and cost effectiveness. A large portion of absenteeism can be attributed to ill health absences. Companies have prioritized the need to find ways of managing and reducing absenteeism. In South Africa such processes have to occur within the confines of a constitutional right to fair labour practices and other prescriptive labour legislation. The issue is somewhat complicated by the fact that employees have a right to paid time off due to illness. It is thus clear that not all ill health absenteeism can be deemed problematic. A balancing act needs to occur between the operational needs of the employer and the rights of employees. Ill health absenteeism becomes problematic once a threshold is reached at which point it becomes intolerable for the employer, thus deemed excessive. Excessive ill health absenteeism is not a difficult concept to understand, however it is not specifically defined. A universal concept of when absence is deemed to have reached the threshold of excessiveness does not exist and varies from one employer to the next. Excessive ill health absence is a multi-facetted concept (as a result of the various types of ill health absence) and thus a universal process cannot be adopted to deal with all types of excessive ill health absenteeism. In an attempt to deal with the different types of ill health absenteeism it is pertinent to categorize the issues. The author suggests various ways of dealing with ill health absenteeism, depending on the facts of each case. A misconduct process should only be applicable in instances where it can be proved that sick leave is used inappropriately or the reason for absence is unknown. Although case law suggests the prevalence of dealing with ill health absence as misconduct, especially in the case of persistent short term absence, these cases rarely prove that abuse is taking place. Suspicions regarding abuse without proper evidence to support such claims will not satisfy the substantive fairness requirements. In the event that illness is of a medium to long term nature, an ill health incapacity process may be the most appropriate process to apply, as in such instances a clearly distinguishable illness exists, which makes accommodation less problematic. Such a process is less suited to persistent short term absence as this can be the result of many illnesses or injuries. In the case of persistent short term absence, the individual may be fully capable of performing their duties upon returning to work, however their frequent absence causes unreliability and inefficiency. It is clear in this instance that accommodation cannot take place due to the unpredictable nature of the absences. The concern with persistent short term absence is less with the illness or illnesses displayed and more with the absences itself. The author suggests that it may be appropriate to deal with such absences on the basis of incapacity due to poor work performance. This assertion is based on the fact that the concern is with frequent short term absence that causes the employee to be unreliable; however the illnesses are not of such a nature that it can warrant accommodation. If it is accepted that the employee is not malingering or if the malingering cannot be proved the employee has failed to meet a performance standard (attendance standard). It is suggested that as part of any incapacity investigation consideration should be given to whether the illness or injury can be deemed a disability. This is necessary as disabled individuals are afforded special protection and treatment. A dismissal of an incapacitated individual that is actually deemed “disabled” could be held to be automatically unfair and therefore it is pertinent that this is established at the outset.

Absenteeism places huge financial burdens on organisations and has a detrimental effect on productivity. Aware of the direct and indirect costs associated with absenteeism, management must determine what factors are responsible for the absenteeism and how these factors can be rectified in order to reduce the rate of employee absenteeism in the organisation. The study’s main aims were firstly to determine which key factors are responsible for employees being absent from work and secondly, how they can be rectified in order to reduce absenteeism. From the data that was obtained from the literature study stress, substance abuse, lack of job commitment and organisational factors account for some reasons given for absenteeism. Employee absenteeism may also be partly due to not enough emphasis being placed on career development, staff retention and salaries. Other causes of absenteeism include personal responsibilities, lack of motivation and low morale in the workplace. Only recently have managers become aware of the true impact which alcohol and substance abuse have on organisations. More productivity is lost through on-the-job absenteeism than due to any other single factor. On-the-job absenteeism is difficult to define and very difficult to identify. Such absenteeism includes the presence of employees at work while they are sick but incapable of performing to their true capabilities – this often occurring on Mondays or Fridays or the day after payday. With current staff retention programs, mergers and joint ventures, organisations now demand the same level of production with fewer employees. This has given rise to an increase in the level of stress employees experience, which led to stress becoming a key factor responsible for absenteeism. When managing absenteeism the implementation of a proper measurement system is essential. This will enable the company to determine the extent of their absenteeism. An evaluation and comparison of these statistics over a period of time will also shed light on the nature of the absenteeism. These will result in the proactive handling of a company’s absenteeism. This is also the first step away from the acceptance of absenteeism and subsequently the nurturing of an absence culture. Employers can take a number of steps to reduce absenteeism, such as giving responsibility for absence management to senior or human resource managers rather than line managers, introducing return to work interviews, introducing discipline procedures and others. The great majority of absence management solutions completely overlook organisational factors, instead focusing on individual, claim processing and health-related factors in the quest to reduce lost productive days. Absence management programs should focus on organisational (not individual) drivers of absence to encourage a present and committed workforce. Absenteeism will never be eradicated, but through careful management organisations can reduce the absentee rate and the effect it has on the organization.

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 / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

A qualitative transcendental phenomenological methodology was used to identify the essence of healthcare workers' perceptions at the workplace. In-depth interviews were conducted on 25 physical therapists and physical therapist assistants consisting of over 214 years of clinical experience representing 11 clinical sites in the South Florida area. The perceptions towards their coworkers and managers during times of change were explored from a variety of angles and yielded an insightful essence of the work they do on a day to day basis as front-line medical professionals. There were eight major concerns identified as influential factors that impact job performance, coworker and manager relationships, and patient care in this segment of the healthcare system. Based on the essence derived from the therapists' and assistants' experiences, 14 functional propositions were posited and lay the foundation for future research. Managerial recommendations along with the Healthcare Workers Systematic Daily Flow Model were offered to guide in the development of the recommended initiatives.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The thesis examines the patterns of school attendance across the nine Provinces of South Africa. With reference to individuals of eligible age, school attendance is conceived of three statuses: effective attendance (those who are presently attending an educational institution), definitive non-attendance (those with no intentions of going back to school), and temporary non-attendance (possibility of going back to the educational system within a specified time frame). The focus of the study is on the primary and secondary levels of schooling. A household based approach is pursued to profile the extent to which young people aged 20 years and below either who attend/do not attend schooling institutions in each of the nine Provinces. Differentials in school attendance are examined along the lines of some socio-demographic and spatial variables drawn from the 2004 general household survey conducted by Statistics South Africa. The core hypothesis is that school attendance is subjected to the influence of both individual attributes and household characteristics. The study also attempts to profile the causes of non-attendance (definitive and temporary) through a set of instrumental variables. To complement this subjective profiling,appropriate statistical methods are used to assess the significance of contributing factors to non-school attendance at the household level.

No description available.

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to explore a possible relationship between the number of students in grades 9-12 classified as chronically absent and the inclusion of the Chronically Out of School indicator in Tennessee’s accountability model for schools and school districts. Using publicly available data from the Tennessee Department of Education, the research study examined 6 years of data from the 2014-2015 to 2019-2020 school years. Data were divided into 3 years before and 3 years after implementation. Results of the study indicated that the mean number of chronically absent students in grades 9-12 were significantly lower during the 3 years after implementation of the Chronically Out of School indicator. Data was further disaggregated and analyzed based on the following subgroups: Black/Hispanic/Native American, Economically Disadvantaged, and Students with Disabilities. Results indicated a significant difference in the number of chronically absent Black/Hispanic/Native American subgroup after implementation, but there were no significant differences found in the Economically Disadvantaged and Students with Disabilities subgroups. In addition to a summary of the research findings, implications, and recommendations for future research and current practice are discussed.