PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

WHY ABSENTEEISM RAMPANT

IN AN ORGANIZATION

In partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the subject

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

By:

AIVIE PEARL V. BALASAN

Student, Master of Public Administration

Submitted to:

Dr. IDELFONSO TOLEDO

Professor, Personnel Management in Public Administration
 I. INTRODUCTION

In a basketball team or even in any sports team, every member has an important
role in the game. One player could be specialized in earning score, other could be in
defense. All players have a great part in the team’s overall performance and success.
So, when a player failed to attend one game due to injuries, illness or other some
reasons, it creates a large gap in the team, which affect its overall performance. It can
also affect the outcome of the game and even affects the overall result of the season.
This is definitely the same with the absenteeism within the workplace. Every employee
has an important role to do in the organization as the whole team is working with one
common goal. Just like any sports team, if one player or two is absent, it affects the
overall strength and the efficiency of the team decreases.

There are lot of definition of absenteeism. Maybe because there are also lot of
reasons why someone is more likely to be absent in a workplace. Senel and Senel,
2012 defined absenteeism as the "lack of presence of an employee for planned work".
Based on the definition given, absenteeism is any unexcused or unauthorized absence
by the worker from the workplace. This includes, tardiness or showing up late in the
workplace, committing under time or leaving before the end of the shift, taking
extended break or lunch, leaving the workplace for a day for no valid reason and simply
not showing up at all. If you relate this in a sport’s team, just imagine how can this
terribly affects the performance of the whole team.

The definition excludes planned absences or leave which were approved in

advance. Most of employers already have leave policies that allow employees a certain
number of paid days each year for involuntary absences. This is also to minimize
unplanned absences that could cause problems and conflict within the delivery of
performance of the employees. Planned leave of absence can give time to the
management to do necessary actions to avoid delay in work performance by putting
someone as a replacement of the absent employee.

Absenteeism has been recognized as one of the major problem in all industries,
private and even in the government organizations. Swarnalatha and Sureshkrishna,
2013 suggested that employees who are habitually absent from their workplace are a
threat to the organization and turn it into a "deviant workplace". Excessive absences
can equate to decreased productivity and can have a major effect in organization’s
finances and morale. This paper seeks to determine the factors why absenteeism is
rampant among public and private organizations and to address its effect to the overall
performance and result of an organization.
 II. CAUSES OF ABSENTEEISM

Absenteeism could be intentional or habitual absence from work. Employees can

be absent at work for some reasons or just deciding to be rebellious as a sign of
registering some concerns especially associated with job dissatisfaction in the
workplace. However, just like in sports, there are different reasons of the sudden
absence of the employees, like illness, injury or personal emergency or crises that
need to take care as much as possible. The mentioned causes are not included in the
reasons to be discuss below.
Various causes of employee absenteeism have been identified by some authors.
Kaman (1995) lists three diverse but highly interrelated variables that play a major
role in absenteeism:

A. Personal Factor

Study shows that age and occupational status are the primary variables that
affects absenteeism rate. Most younger employees are inclined to take
unauthorized leave compare to those in middle age workers. Younger generation
have lot of extra-activities as their attention is divided in other things. Believing
that it is their right to report at work or not if they want to according to their
designations; they lack commitment to their work since their priority is to enjoy life
and do the best in it, which they can’t do if they put all their time inside the
workplace. This may cause to abusing sick leave. However, as employees approach
middle age, the absenteeism rate decreases. It was also mentioned that the second
rise of absenteeism rate is observe to the employees in the age 50 years onwards
due to health issues. Workers in this age are more prone to any kind of diseases
resulting to work absences.
The following factors have been found to contribute to absenteeism under
personal factor:

a. Family responsibilities – this is anchored to one of the famous

Filipino Culture, Close Family Ties. It is ordinary for Filipinos to prioritize
their family’s necessity, believing that family is the priority above all the
priorities in their hands. Especially the younger workers, they want
more control over their work life enjoying their liberty and having more
symbolic interaction to their non-work life. Nothing is wrong with this
belief until it was abused and result to excessive absences.

b. Work fulfillment – employees especially the millennials think that

their work is not giving them fulfilment in sense that their passion is
gradually fading, resulting for their snail-paced professional growth and
their work is not giving them enough opportunities to learn and enhance
their knowledge and skills that will be used for achieving the
organization’s goal and excellence. They tend to loss interest, feeling
 as if everything’s a routine causing them exhausted that will lead to
their absences.

c. Alcoholic or other vices – employees with these vices tend to

experience incapacitating hangover that prevent them in going to work.
If not controlled, it may result to habitual tardiness as they are related
to other problems such as absenteeism. Alcohol or drug addiction is a
serious problem and organization should have policy on this matter to
be properly addressed.

It was also observed that employees with regular status has a lower
absenteeism rate compare to contractual and Job Order Personnel in government
sectors.

B. Attitudinal characteristic

When you look for a job, there are factors that people usually considers, like
good compensation, working conditions, training opportunity and of course,
bonuses, rewards and awards. If these expectations are not met, this could result
to loss of interest for the employee and may resort to abusing sick leave as a
means of seeking a temporary withdrawal from the work situation. Here are some
reasons absenteeism is committed under attitudinal characteristic:

a. Burnout and fatigue – it is the prolonged work-related stress, just

like working a month for the deadline. It may also result from on-
going work overload or working for a long period of time without
rest. So, after some extreme stressful days, the employee tends to
have a day or more leave for an escape from the work situation.

b. Unmet expectations – employees may absent themselves if their

expectations to the organization fails to realize. For example,
benefits that are not given to employees or the organization have
policies that is not for the welfare of the workers. In this case,
absenteeism may be a form of expressing disapproval of the
management.

c. Job-employee mismatch – employee’s skills set may not match

the task assigned to him/her, which create boredom and frustration
because they feel that they can’t give their maximum performance
knowing that the job does not match their qualifications. Frustration
in job may result to the decision to stay away from work.
 C. Organizational factors

If an organization entertains an absence-tolerant culture, employees may use it as

a benefit and tent to abuse absences. It’s an opportunity that they can’t afford to miss.
One main reason noted is the Poor supervision, control and management, some
organizations have ineffective systems to monitor and record work attendance, just
like the traditional use of log book to encode time of coming in the office and out. This
system is ineffective since an employee can just put anytime or even ask his/her co-
employee to sign for her behalf even he/she is still not present. Employees may take
advantage of this poor supervision to absent themselves from work without proper
permission or legitimate reasons. It is important that employers should check the
attendance record of employees strictly to distinguish between genuine sick leave and
sick leave that are abused.

Human Resource Management Department of every organization should develop

different strategies to address the problems that may occur due to absenteeism.
Absenteeism has its domino effect from the employee’s performance up to the
performance and competence of the whole organization. Just like for example, the co-
worker who step in for the absent employee may experience intense work pressure
and stress. Employees who are guilty for absenteeism must understand that excessive
absence will just result for increase of workload as they return to work. Running away
from the problem will not solve the problem. It only caused delayed production
especially in manual workers, lower quality level of product, low morale and general
dissatisfaction which lead to lower productivity. Organizations should have policies and
measures to prevent absenteeism from becoming a burden and rendering them to
dysfunctional.

As HR involves specifying responsibilities in certain jobs, managers should deeply

study correct placement of employees to avoid job-employee-mismatch which is one
of the reason for frustration in job and may result to the decision to stay away from
work. Proper placement maximizes the productivity within the organization.

In addition, employers should have regular trainings and seminars for its
employees. Trainings and seminars is an opportunity to grow professionally which
most employees desired to as they start their career. It shows the capability of the
organization to create a healthy competitive environment for the employees. If they
feel appreciated and motivated by the organization, they will be more satisfied and
interested to do be more productive towards their job.

Lastly, in order to motivate employees to come to work regularly, employers

should have program that gives rewards and incentives. This will motivate the
employees not only to come to work but also strive harder in achieving organizational
goal. Not enough compensation is considered one of the factors resulting in
absenteeism of employees and it encourage doing part-time jobs that cause division
of concentration of the employee to its task and cause poor performance.
 III. CONCLUSION

Absenteeism is a major problem that every private or public organizations are

dealing with their employees. It is a threat in achieving organizational goal. Just like in
a sports team, if one player was not able to attend the game nor give their best, it
greatly affects the overall result of the game. Absenteeism is a result of dissatisfaction
of an employee to their work, with their colleagues and with the organization. The
nature of work and the work environment affects job satisfaction hence lead to
committing absences. The four pillars of Human Resource Management are the most
suggested strategy that can minimize absenteeism rate. That includes from the
Recruitment and Selection Process, Placement of Employees, the Training and
Development and of course the Rewards and Incentives. If the HR managers is not
careful in every process, most likely it will result to absenteeism and failure to achieve
organizational goal. Hence, extending the bridge of HR’s efforts and innovations to
formulate different strategies in solving the rampant absenteeism will boost the overall
performance and competitiveness of the whole organization.

IV. REFERENCES

Akhunjonov, U & Obrenovic, B. “ A Critical Risk Analysis of Absenteeism in the Work

Place” Journal of International Business Research and Marketing Volume 2,
Issue 6, 2017 journal homepage: www.researchleap.com, 2017.

Al-Fudail, M., & Mellar, H. Investigating teacher stress when using technology.
Computers and education. 2008 (51), 1103-1110. Crossref.

Arnell, A.T. & Brown, S.L. Measuring the effect teacher absenteeism has on student
achievement at a “urban but not too urban:” Title I Elementary School
International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 2012,2 (17): 172-183.

Couglan Clark, A., & Oswald, A. 2004. Satisfaction and comparison income [J]. Journal
of Public Economics, 2004(61),359-381.

Evans, L. “Understanding teacher morale and job satisfaction,”. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 2001, Vol. 13, No. 8, pp. 831–845. Crossref

Fraser, J. and Simkins, B. Enterprise Risk Management New Jersey: John Willy and
sons Inc, 2010.

Goodman, P.S. and Atkin, R.S. Absenteeism: New approaches to understanding,

measuring, and managing employee absence. San Fransisco: Josey-Bass,
1994.

Greenglass, E.R, & Burke, R.J. Teacher Stress. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2003.
Crossref

Grobler, P., Warnich, S., Carrell M.R., Elbert, N.F. and Hatfield, R.D. Human resource
management in South Africa, 3rd Edition. London: Thomson Learning, High
Holborn House; 50-51 Bedford Row, 2006.
Kaman, R. L. Worksite health promotion economics: consensus and analysis. Buffalo:
New York, 1995.

Kyriacon, C. Teacher Stress: Directions of future research. Education review,

2001(53),27-35.

Levy, A. An examination and baseline report on some aspects of absenteeism in South

Africa. The Vanishing Workforce. Pretoria: Juta & co, 2006.

Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W.B., & Leiter, M. P. Job burnout Annual Review Psychology,
2003(52), 397-422. Crossref

McHugh, M. Employee absence: an impediment to organizational health in local

government. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 2001, Volume
14. Crossref
Nel, P.S. Gerber, P.D. van Dyk, P.S. Haasbroek, G.D. Schultz, H.B. Sono, T. Werner,
A. Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Nel, P.S., Werner, A., Haasbroek, G.D., Poisat, P., Sono, T. and Schultz, H. Human
Resources Management7th edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Ramadubu, D. Teachers down tools. Botswana Gazette, 2011(7), 10 November.

Robbins, S.P and Judge, T.A. Organisational Behaviour. 12th.ed. New Jersey: Pearson
Education, Incorporated, 2004.

Schultz, H., &Schultz , J. Industrial Psychology: Science and Practice. Pretoria: Van
Schaik Publishers, 2006.

Senel, B & Senel, M. The cost of absenteeism and the effect of demographic
characteristics and tenure on absenteeism. Interdisciplinary Journal of
Contemporary Research in Business, 2012,4 (4): 1142-1151.