Economists have been somewhat remiss in dealing with the issue of worker absence. This is surprising given the figures involved. In the year of the last miners' strike, 27 million working days were lost as a result of strike activity, a figure which pales by comparison with the 375 million working days lost on average as a result of absenteeism over the 1980's [Economic Trends]. Furthermore, a study by management consultants, Arthur Anderson, recently estimated the cost of absenteeism to the UK industry at £6 billion per year [The Independent, 22/10/91]. Despite all this, relatively little attention has been paid in the economic literature to either the causes and/or the effects of absenteeism. Nevertheless, the discipline has benefited from a basic yet rigorous theoretical structure founded on static neo-classical labour supply theory. The aim of this Thesis is to address two main weaknesses of the existing theory of absence behaviour. Firstly, there is a distinct shortage of models which explicitly incorporate labour demand considerations and, consequently, ways in which employers might attempt to control absenteeism. Hence, emphasis in this Thesis is placed on the analysis of methods of absence control such as the provision of experience rated sick pay and overtime. A second weakness of the existing theory concerns the somewhat limited 'static' approach which has generally been adopted in the economic literature. Thus, this Thesis acknowledges the role of risk and uncertainty in absence behaviour by setting the analysis within a dynamic framework. The key objective of this Thesis is to explore the determinants of absence behaviour and identify ways in which contractual arrangements and, therefore, labour demand considerations manipulate the incentive to absent from the work place. The empirical analysis supports the hypothesis that observed absence behaviour is primarily influenced by the nature of the employment contract and, therefore, by the interaction of labour supply and labour demand.

M.A. (Social Work) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The research regarding the effect of policy on teacher absenteeism is scarce and research examining teacher absenteeism from a state perspective is very limited. This mixed methods study analyzed selected school variables for public schools and districts in Virginia contained in the 2011-2012 and 2013-2014 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) and in the National Center for Educational Statistics. In addition, a content analysis was performed on leave policies for all 132 school districts in Virginia yielding policy variables for the study. The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship of school and policy characteristics to teacher absences. The analysis for this study involved computing descriptive statistics, correlating continuous variables, and running multiple regressions for each dataset (school and district for each year) to determine the predictors of the dependent variable, chronically absent teachers, defined as the percentage of teachers absent for more than 10 days. Although the school models were significant, neither was a particularly strong predictor of chronically absent teachers, only accounting for 15.2 percent variation (2011-2012 model with R2=.152) and 9.6 percent variation (2013-2014 model with R2=.096) that is predicted by the independent variables. Nevertheless, there were independent policy and school variables that were significant predictors in both school years. The most prominent variables included: total leave, personal leave maximums, income protection provisions (sick leave banks, short-term disability), free and reduced lunch population percentage of a school, pupil/teacher ratio of the school, and the grade level of the school (elementary, middle, and high). / Ed. D.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1967.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1967.

The main research problem in this study centred around the assessment of the impact of an absenteeism monitoring and management system at Willard Batteries. The main research problem had five sub-problems which were addressed through the following actions: A literature study was conducted to identify the causes and impact of absenteeism in the workplace. The researcher also conducted interviews with the Human Resources Manager, line managers and employees at Willard Batteries to obtain their views of the absenteeism management strategies utilised, as well as the effects of absenteeism in their organisation. The insights gained from these interviews were incorporated into the questionnaire. The absenteeism figures of the organisation for the period 2005 to 2008 were analysed and compared against the internationally accepted absenteeism norm of three percent. An absence rate above three percent is considered as unacceptable and would imply that the current absenteeism management system is not effective. The theoretical study also entailed the reviewing of the legal framework within which absenteeism needs to be managed, as well as the literature that deals with strategies for the effective management of absenteeism. These strategies relate to the recording, calculation, analysis, benchmarking and practical management of absenteeism in the workplace. A survey questionnaire was developed to determine the perceptions of managers, supervisors and employees in relation to the impact of absenteeism on the company as well as the extent to which managers and supervisors were utilising selected absenteeism monitoring and management strategies within the company. The results from the empirical study revealed that management and supervisors were more aware of the impact of absenteeism on the organisation than their employees. It can therefore be concluded that employees perceived their absence from work to have little impact on aspects such as employee morale, cost, production and the customer. This could possibly be due to ineffective communication in terms of the cost and other consequences of absenteeism in the organisation. Employees also felt that managers were effective in taking the necessary disciplinary action with regards to absenteeism-related transgressions, but that they were not diligent in the recording and communication of absence information, as well as comparing absenteeism information inter-departmentally. Absenteeism has proven to be globally pervasive, expensive and extremely disruptive to organisations. Managers and supervisors who employ the various absence monitoring and management strategies, could be more effective in improving employee attendance. Their efforts could be further enhanced if employees are made aware of the negative impact that their absence has on the morale of their fellow employees, the cost to the company, the customer, as well as the achievement of production targets and the quality of outputs.

Thousands of children are absent from school every day. Students miss school for a multitude of reasons connected to the student, their family, the school, and the wider society. This research conceptualizes absenteeism as voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary absences revolve around students’ deliberate decisions to miss school; whereas involuntary absences are often imposed on the student. For example, preferring to engage in some recreational activity outside of the school is considered a voluntary absence, whereas having to work during school hours to earn an income is an involuntary absence. Unfortunately, the majority of mainstream schools do not demarcate between voluntary and involuntary absences and reprimand pupils for absenteeism regardless of its cause. As a result of these actions, many youths are pushed, pulled, or fade away from their education. A lucky few find their way to alternative schools where they are offered a last chance to earn a high school diploma. Some alternative schools are able to not only raise attendance, but also to accommodate involuntary absenteeism, where a student is allowed to miss some class without penalty. However, little Canadian evidence exists documenting how alternative schools respond to absenteeism. This research interviewed 40 students and 17 staff members in four alternative schools in Ontario, Canada, to capture their perspectives on absenteeism. The findings indicate that mainstream schools the students attended were not effective in responding to absenteeism; whereas the alternative schools were better positioned to ensure that the students were able to progress with their education regardless of their ability to attend consistently. Nevertheless, there are concerns about the pupils’ readiness to succeed in postsecondary education and/or subsequent work upon graduation from an alternative school.

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, public school systems have been engaged in a system of educational reform fueled by a level of accountability that includes not only the performance of the students, but also the performance of the teachers and the administrators. Recent studies have found that student achievement has been negatively impacted by teacher absenteeism; however, there have been scant studies conducted in the United States regarding teacher absence behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the teacher absence data of a school division in central Virginia in order to determine teacher absence behaviors. This study focused on two specific research questions: What is the frequency of teacher absence? What are the predictors of teacher absence? The design of this quantitative study was secondary data analysis. The data set included absence data for 1,198 classroom teachers who were continuously employed for the 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08 school years. Data analysis included running descriptive statistics in order to determine the frequency of teacher absence, and by performing bivariate and multivariate analyses to determine the predictors of teacher absence. The dependent variable was the total number of absences taken, and the independent variables included demographic information, days of absence, teaching assignments, and types of leave. Analysis of the data found that absences occurred most frequently on Fridays and that sick leave accounted for most of the absences. There is evidence that teachers use leave to extend weekend or holiday leisure time. The use of leave under the Family Medical Leave Act rose from .1 percent to 1 percent of the total leave days over the course of the study. The total number of absences increased by almost 4 percent after the introduction of an electronic absence reporting system. Women are more likely to be absent than are men. Teachers at the specialty schools had the highest rates of absenteeism, and high school teachers had the lowest absence rates. As age advanced, teachers were less likely to be absent, but as years of experience advanced, teachers were more likely to be absent.

A research report submitted to The Faculty of Management University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management / Research in America shows that the traditional lifestyles (poor diet, lack of exercise, chronic illness, poor stress management and substance abuse) play a large role in causing the major dreaded diseases like cancer, coronary heart disease and strokes, and impact negatively on absenteeism. Traditional lifestyles and absenteeism (absent without permission and sick leave) of 126 employees were measured in a manufacturing plant, and the results correlated by using the Spearman's Rank Order Correlation Co-efficient and co- efficient of determination. It was established that the traditional lifestyle behaviours do impact on absenteeism i.e. the more severe the lifestyle and the unhealthier lifestyle practised, the higher the individual absenteeism is likely to be. There was no correlation between age and absenteeism and job grade and absenteeism. Before applying the traditional absentee reducing interventions, an organisation should measure lifestyles of their employees and if unhealthy, lifestyle change interventions should be introduced before or concurrently with traditional absentee reducing interventions if days absent are mainly due to sick leave. / AC2017

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.