ATTENDANCE ISSUES
We find a consistent negative relationship
satisfaction and absenteeism, but the correlation isn’t
high—usually less than 0.4044. While it certainly makes sense that
dissatisfied employees are more likely to miss work,other factors have an impact on the relationship and reduced the correlation coefficientOrganizations that provide liberal sick leave benefits are encouraging all their employees—including those who are highly satisfied –to take days off. Assuming that you have a reasonable degree of varied interests you can find work satisfying and yet still take off work to enjoy a three-day weekend ,tan yourself on a warm summer day. Or watch the World Series on television if those days come free with no penalties .Also as with productivity outside factors can act to reduce the correlation.
An excellent illustration of how
satisfaction directly leads to attendance, where there is a minimum impact from other factors is a study done at sears.Roebuck .Satisfaction data were available on employees at Sears two headquarters in Chicago and New york.Additionally it is important to note that Sears policy was not to permit employees to be absent from work for avoidable reasons without penalty The occurrence of a freak April 2 snowstorm in Chicago created the opportunity to compare employees attendance at the Chicago office with personnel in New York where the weather was quite nice.The interesting dimension in this study is that the snowstorm gave the Chicago employees a built-in excuse not to come to work. The storm crippled the city transportation and individuals knew they could miss work this day with no penalty.This natural experiment permitted the comparison of attendance records for satisfied and dissatisfied employees at twolocations –one where you were expected to be at work(with normal pressure for attendance) and the other where you were free to choose with no penalty involved .If satisfaction leads attendance ,where there is an absence of outside factors ,the more satisfied employees should have come to work in Chicago while dissatisfied employees should have stayed home.The study found that on this April day absenteeism rates in New York (control group) were just as high for satisfied groups of workers as for dissatisfied groups.But in Chicago , the workers with high satisfaction scores had much higher attendance than did those with lower satisfaction levels.These findings are exactly what we would have expected if satisfaction is negatively correlated with absenteeism.