Educational Theory and Practice

Random musings by people who think about educational psychology and the practice of instructional
design

September 23, 2009

Student Absenteeism

by Lauren Hynicka - Assistant Professor, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy

The branch campus is becoming ever more popular in higher education. As a result, lectures are
recorded for students at the distance campus to view asynchronously and often students on the "main"
campus also have access. The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy recently started its own
branch campus at Shady Grove. I have heard during my short time here that there has been a decline in
student attendance since the adoption of the recorded lecture. [Editor's Note: Dr. Hynicka joined our
faculty in August 2009]

Over the past several weeks, we have been discussing teaching and learning styles. I was curious to see
if I could find any information that might give me a clue as to the types of students who would be more
apt to be absent from lectures and what if anything could be done to encourage attendance. In my
search I found an article by Westrick and colleagues entitled, “Factors influencing pharmacy students’
attendance decisions in large lectures.” (Citation: Westrick SC, Helms KL, McDonough SK, Breland ML.
Am J Pharm Educ 2009; 73: 1-9).

The authors introduce the topic by identifying the reasons why educators should be concerned about
absenteeism in the classroom. Negative impacts on both academic performance as well as professional
development were identified as two major consequences of student absenteeism. In order to better
delineate strategies to improve student attendance at classes, a study was conducted at the Auburn
University School of Pharmacy. The study consisted of a two step process - the first step was to develop
a survey instrument. All students were invited to participate in a discussion on student absenteeism.
They were asked to identify reasons to attend and not to attend classes. Following the generation of this
list, the students ranked the reasons based on how much they agreed or disagreed. In addition to
student generated ideas about absenteeism, a literature search revealed two research studies
evaluating similar research questions. A compilation of these sources lead to the generation of the
survey instrument.

A cross-sectional survey was disseminated to 131 second-year pharmacy students via email. Students
were asked to identify the number of times they were absent from 3 courses: integrated pharmaceutical
sciences, management, and pharmaceutics. Demographic information was also collected. Finally,
students were asked rate 14 reasons to attend class and 22 reasons not to attend class. Students were
asked to use the following scale: main reason, moderately important reason, minor reason, or not a
reason.

A total of 98 (75%) students responded. Three-quarters of the students were female and unmarried.
Prior education was split down the middle, with half of the students earning prior college degrees. The
majority of the students was not working during school and lived less than 10 minutes from campus. The
average age was 23 with a cumulative GPA of 3.0. Student reports of absenteeism were highest in the
pharmaceutics course with 38% of students reporting 11 or more absences and lowest in the
management course with 100% of student reporting ≤ 2 absences. When analyzing the effect of student
characteristics on absenteeism there were no statistically significant differences in the pharmaceutics or
management courses. In the integrated pharmaceutical sciences course students were more likely to
miss more classes if they lived more than 10 minutes from campus (p=0.04) and paid for their own
education (p=0.04).

The main reasons to attend or not to attend class varied based on the course. A resounding reason to
attend class (common to all courses) was the desire to take notes and to hear what the instructor
considered important to know. In the management course a strong motivator for student attendance
was the implementation of pop quizzes and activities that would impact student grades, with 97.7% of
students reporting this as a reason to attend class. In terms of reasons not to attend class, students
stated they would skip class if they were sick, they were studying or working on an assignment for
another course, and the material was available from another source. These reasons were common to all
three courses.

One thing I have gleaned from this article is that awarding credit (or points toward the student’s grade)
for attending class is a strong incentive. I also think one of the students' justification for not attending
class - the need to study or work for other courses - is an interesting one. In pharmacy education we
have the unique advantage in that our students are taking essentially the same classes and we (the
teachers and administrators) have access to their schedules. While I recognize that developing time
management skills is important, perhaps we (the faculty and administration) are doing a disservice to
ourselves and our students by not exploring better ways to schedule course-related activities that would
enable more students to complete assignments, study for tests, and attend class.

Relative to the student reasons to attend class it is interesting to note that one is an intrinsic
characteristic of the learner (a desire to take notes) and the other is a quality related to how the teacher
presents the material (emphasizing what’s important). While the authors were not able to delineate
which students were more likely to miss class based on demographic characteristics, I would argue that
the authors failed to collect some important information. I believe information about the students’
learning style, perhaps by using an inventory such as Kolb’s learning style indicator, would have been
helpful . This might have provided additional insight into student responses to the survey and may be
helpful for instructors to design learning activities for large groups that would entice more students to
attend. Instructors are the other piece to the equation of classroom attendance and yet this crucial
stakeholder was not surveyed in this study.

I think that this study could be used as a tool for faculty development. Having faculty members
participate in a similar survey to see what biases / beliefs they have as it relates to student absenteeism
would add an interesting dimension. Taking this a step further I would like to see faculty members
complete an inventory to identify their teaching style. A better understanding of their own teaching
tendencies will allow faculty members to see what areas they should strive to develop to better meet
the needs of their students.

[Editor’s Commentary: Should we force, coerce, or bribe students to attend lectures (e.g. take
attendance, administer pop quizzes, give attendance points)? Is there any evidence that attendance (per
se) improves outcomes? If students perform equally well (or perhaps better) on assessments and exams
when they skip class, what is the incentive to attend? From the student’s perspective, if the benefits of
not attending outweigh the potential consequences, being absent is a simple benefit-risk decision. Does
absenteeism bother us (the faculty) because it reflects badly on us (the faculty)? Does it annoy us
because its boring talking to a bunch of empty seats? Are we failing to measure and assess important
aspects of learning that best occur during face-to-face encounters with and between students? Or are
students simply making rational decisions about how best to use their time? Food for thought. S.H.]

Posted by Stuart T. Haines, Pharm.D. at 9:20 AM

1 comment:

TanyaT said...

This is an interesting topic. Having graduated in the recent past, I can recall mixed emotions on this very
topic. The way that things went was something like this: Students attended class on the first day and
maybe a couple of times after that as well. As time went on, the students knew which instructors were
worth listening to and from which instructors they could glean more information from a textbook than
from their lecture. Most students took this time to catch up on things that they had left behind (ie sleep,
breakfast, work). Some students stuck around and many of them were net-surfing in the back rows of
the room. Is that what the aim is? I know how resistant I am to learning when I am forced to do so, so
forcing people to go to class I think actually creates a barrier to learning. It even goes as far as to distract
the other students in the room as the student in front of them is checking out the latest posts on
facebook.
Students should have the liberty to decide what works for them. When deciding on an institution the
learner themselves should be responsible for choosing a school that meets their needs. Students, by the
time they get to professional school, are aware of what works for them and know that the choice to
attend class may benefit them or not. Maintaining interactions in small group work like cases and labs
help keep that interpersonal learning interaction without requiring students to attend lectures. Students
are motivated to come to these as they are not taped and there is likely some assessment for which
their attendance will benefit.

September 23, 2009 at 10:14 PM

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Managing Absenteeism Theories In Organisational Behaviour Management Essay

Published: 23rd March, 2015

This essay has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work written by our
professional essay writers.

Absenteeism is the term generally used to pass on to rash employee absences from the workplace.
Many causes of absenteeism are legal personal illness or family issues for example but absenteeism also
can often be traced to other factors such as a reduced work environment or workers who are not
devoted to their jobs. If such absences become extreme they can have a critically adverse crash on a
business's operations and finally its success.
A three part model of organizational commitment was used to study job removal intentions proceeds
and absenteeism. Affective commitment emerged as the most reliable analyst of these result variables
and was the only view of commitment related to turnover and to absenteeism. In difference normative
commitment was linked only to removal intentions while no direct belongings for maintenance
obligation were experiential. Resolution commitment however interacts with emotional commitment in
predicting job removal intentions and absenteeism. The form of the interaction was such that high sunk
costs tempered contact between moving commitment and the associated outcome variables.

Recent thinking about top management has been unfair by alternative models of man. Economic
approaches to governance such as agency theory tend to believe some form of homo-economics, which
show subordinates as strange opportunistic and self serving. Alternatively sociological and psychological
approaches to control such as stewardship theory describe subordinates as collectivists pro-
organizational and dependable. Through this research we effort to settle the difference between these
assumptions by proposing a model based upon the subordinate's psychological attributes and the
organization's situational personality.

Absenteeism Measure

Absence measurement is necessary in order for management to evaluate between person absence and
departmental absences. Measuring absence is serious to recognize the different patterns of employee
absence and aim the variables moving it. There are different ways to calculate absenteeism the most
typically used is the lost time rate formula and the person frequency formula.

Absenteeism rate = Number of Man days lost *100

Individual frequency = number of absent employees/average number of employees*100

Boundaries do live when trying to measure absenteeism whether with data compilation or data
appropriateness thus managers should be attentive to stay on top of such limitations and grip them with
mind and rightness.

Types of absenteeism

Absenteeism are classified in to four types

Authorized Absenteeism

If and employee absent himself from work by taking permission form his better and applying for leave.

Unauthorized Absenteeism

If an employee absent himself from work without informing or taking permission and without applying
for leave.

Willful Absenteeism

If an employee absents himself from duty willfully.

Absenteeism caused by circumstances beyond one's control

If an employee absents himself from duty owing to the situation past his control likes accidents or
infection.

Causes for Absenteeism

In order to recognize the causes and amount of absenteeism proper report should be kept in every
section for various causes of absenteeism such as age sex days of the week and classes of jobs by each
division. Generally following reasons are attributable for absenteeism at work

Nature of the work

Poor working conditions

Absence of regular leave arrangements

Accidents

Poor control

Irregular transport facilities

Lack of interest

Indebt ness

Alcoholism and gambling habits

Low level of wages

Miscellaneous causes

The responsibilities of the manager about absenteeism. In addition to ensuring that work is suitably
enclosed during the employee's absence there are a number of her grave proceedings that supervisors
need to take to manage absenteeism, they should: assurance that all employees are fully conscious of
the organization's policies and events for trade with absence be the first point of make get in touch with
with when an employee phones in poor health, preserve suitably full accreted up to date absence report
for their staff recognize any patterns or trends of absence which reason anxiety behavior return to work
interviews and apply punitive procedures where necessary.

Looking at reasons for unscheduled absence the CCH survey found only 34 percent were for individual
illness but more than two out of three 66% were for other reasons including family issues 22% personal
needs 18% right attitude 13% and workplace demands said Wolf. Another key finding of the review was
how important employee confidence was in the workplace. The survey identified a strong link between
employee morale and absenteeism. "For example, twice as many employers with poor or fair morale
view absenteeism as a serious problem (44%), in contrast with 21 percent of employers whose firm has
employees with good or very good morale," said Wolf. Not surprisingly, absenteeism is higher in
companies where morale is low. In 2007, the higher rate was 2.7 percent, and the average was 2.3
percent. The future of a company's absenteeism is also conditioned by employee morale. The survey
found one in three companies (36%) with low or poor employee morale expected an increase of
absenteeism in the next two years, whereas only 19 percent of firms with good morale expected such an
increase.

Effects of Absenteeism

Absenteeism cause harmful to both the employees and the workers for the following reasons.

Normal work - flow in the factory is disturbed.

Overall production in the factory goes down.

Difficulty is faced in executing the orders in time.

Casual workers may have to be employed to meet production schedules. Such workers are not trained
properly.

Overtime allowance bill increases considerably because of higher absenteeism.

When a number of workers absent themselves there is extra pressure of work on their colleagues who
are present.

Workers lose wages for the unauthorized absence from work.

Habitual absentees may be removed from services causing them great hardship.

Motivation Theory

Motives initiate sustain and channel behaviour.

Managers and employees may often confuse them they are separate and distinct concepts.
Performance implies evaluation after it occurs and therefore it suggests the presence of some sort of
measuring system. Motivation on the other hand is only one of several psychological states that
influence performance. For instance an engineer's performance is reflected in the quality of his designs
the number of patents he obtains and the customers satisfaction with cost and performance of his new
product. While we would expect a highly motivated engineer to produce excellent products that satisfy
the needs of customers it would also be true that his performance could be affected by many other
factors besides his motivation level. Such factors include

His ability.

His need for achievement or his type.

The difficultly of the design task.

The extent of job resources available.

His working conditions.

His organizational commitment and job involvement.

Content theory of Motivation

Motivation theories are of two types

content theory

process theory

a content theory of motivation specifies those human needs which activate behaviours aimed at need
reduction. Therefore a content theory of motivation answers the question what specific needs cause
motivation?

Maslow's Hierarchy

Abraham Maslow according to professor's Lawler and suttle 1972 believed that motivation could be
explained by organizing human needs into five levels. He made his theory sufficiently broad to address
human behaviour in all settings. Not to his surprise his theory was quickly applied to the narrower range
of human behaviour in organizational settings. The five levels of Maslow's hierarchy are shown

The five needs

Physiological needs are to do with the preservation of the human body. If we are unwell then little also
matters until we get well.

Safety needs are about putting a roof above our heads and custody us from damage. If we are rich
strong and powerful, or have good friends we can make ourselves safe.

Belonging needs introduce our tribal nature. If we are obliging and type to others they will want us as
friends.

Esteem needs are for a higher place within a collection. If people respect us, we have greater power.

Self-actualization needs are to become what we are able of becoming which would our greatest
achievement.

Managing absenteeism and Maslow's hierarchy

The need hierarchy tends to parallel employee career development. Early career stages are
characterized by security concerns and learning organizational values. After five years or so the
employee's concern shifts to the establishment of a professional identity in the firm and in his chosen
profession both forms of recognition help to meet esteem needs. At the same time that esteem needs
become active the employee will pursue increased autonomy via promotion and choice project
assignments. Increases in authority and responsibility at the expected times on a career path will help
employees satisfy esteem needs. Self-actualisation is active during career progress but it evolves in
scope.

ERG Theory

Clayton Alderfer extended and simplified Maslow's Hierarchy into a shorter set of three needs

Existence

Relatedness

Growth

At the lowest level is the need to stay alive and safe now and in the predictable future. When we have
content existence needs we feel safe and physically at ease. The next level once we are safe and secure
we consider our social needs. We are not interested in relations with other people and what they think
of us. When we are connected we sense logic of individuality and position within our direct society. This
encompasses Maslow's love/belonging and Esteem needs. At the highest level we look for to grow be
creative for ourselves and for our environment. When we are successfully growing we feel a sense of
completeness success and completion. This covers Maslow's self-actualization and transcendence.

Hertzberg's two factor theory of motivation

A content theory of work motivation which is closely related to Maslow's hierarchy is Professor
Herzberg's two factor theory or the motivator hygiene theory. In this study of engineers and
accountants, Herzberg discovered that the reasons these professionals gave for experiencing motivation
were quite different. The employee's motivation range from: unmotivated dissatisfaction: to neutral: to
motivation/satisfaction with the job. The level of experience job motivation/satisfaction depends on the
availability of hygiene and motivators. It is apparent that hygiene by them is insufficient to sustain
motivation and satisfaction.

Process theories of motivation

Now we turn our attention to those process theories of motivation that help us understand how
employees decide to be motivated. Process theories target decision making perception and element of
the work environment: especially the available rewards. In this section we will return to equity theory
and discuss its important contributions to managers understanding of employee motivation in
organizations.

Equity Theory

Equity theory as developed by Professor Stacy Adams (1965) makes a contribution to understanding
how employees react to incentives and outcomes in the context of the performance job satisfaction
relationship. On its own equity theory is a prominent process theory of motivation. The theory proposes
that employees gauge the fairness of their work outcomes in comparison to the work outcomes
received by others who perform comparable jobs. To the extent that employees feel that their rewards
are inadequate they experience a state of imbalance or perceive inequity. Felt or perceived inequity
motivates the employee to take action to address his dissatisfaction. Inequities at work exist whenever
employees feel that their rewards for their efforts are less than the rewards or inducements received by
others for their efforts or contributions. Both of these mental states are motivating and the employee in
question seeks to remove the felt inequity and return to a state of balance or equity. To restore a state
of equity and employee might:

change work inputs and reduce performance efforts

change the outcomes received

exist the circumstances

change the people who are used for comparison

mentally distort or alter the comparison

take a decision to alter the inputs or outcomes of the comparison other

Expectancy Theory

Expectancy theory is a useful managerial tool for understanding employee behaviour. It specifies the
relationships between effort performance and rewards. The theory articulates the significance of
expectancy instrumentality and valence. These concepts can be applied to work to help employees
understand the crucial relationship between performance and rewards. The components of expectancy
theory are sensitive to individual differences and organizational factors.

Goal Theory (Locke)

values

emotions and desires

goals or intentions

responses, actions, work behaviour, performance

consequences, feedback

challenging goals stretch goals lead to higher performance

specific goals lead to higher performance

participation in goal setting increases performance

knowledge of results in necessary for effective achieving of goals

X and Y theory

Theory X

The standard person dislikes work and will avoid it he/she can.

Therefore most people must be forced with the risk of punishment to work towards organizational
objectives.

The average person prefers to be directed to avoid responsibility is relatively unambitious and wants
security above all else.

Theory Y

Effort in work is as usual as work and play.

People will apply personality manage and self direction in the chase of organizational objectives without
outer control or the threat of punishment.

Commitment to objectives is a function of rewards linked with their achievement.

People usually accept and often seek responsibility.

The ability to use a high degree of mind's eye ingenuity and originality in solving organizational problem
is extensively not narrowly dispersed in the population.

In industry the thinker possible of the average person is only partly utillised.

Organizational Life- Cycle Theory

Like the people who work in them organizations progress through stages. Organizations are started and
if they avoid early failure they expand and mature. Through these various stages the challenges and
questions they face change. Understanding the firms life cycle helps managers to recognize signs of an
aging and less relevant business model. They need to realize that the kind of structures and activities
which work in one stage of a company's life cycle may not work in another. Therefore the criteria used
to judge success and competitiveness may vary with a company stage of development. Organizational
life cycle theory has four stages of development.

There are five level/stages in any organization.

Birth

Growth

Maturity

Decline
Death

Locus of Control

Locus of control refers to one's beliefs about what cause outcomes in life. Internals believe in the
causality of personal behavior while externals believe in the causality of environmental forces. Internals
connect responsibility to outcomes in life while externals believe outcomes are created by forces and
events outside themselves.

Survey Background and analysis

The unscheduled absence rate for 2007 was 2.3 percent down slightly from 2006 when it was at 2.5
percent according to the CCH survey. Broken down in working hours this means that for every 100 hours
of paid productive time companies are also paying for 2.3 hours for unproductive time due to an
unscheduled absence. Although this rate seems low at first glance. Wolf said when taken into account
the economic costs to an organization can be enormous. The survey tracked rates costs and reasons for
unscheduled absences programs used to control these absences most and least effective programs
impact of morale on unscheduled absenteeism and presenteeism. If your company suffers from high
absenteeism, Wolf suggests measuring and tracking it to focus efforts to reduce absence identifying
pockets of absenteeism in particular groups within departments and developing objectives.

Absence control and work/life programs

Most companies must nip the situation at the bud if they want this developing problem to be curbed.
According to the survey nearly 66 percent of survey respondents offer flu shot programs to employees.
This number has risen from 2006 64 percent. Another option being offered by many firms are health
maintenance programs which include proper fitness diet and hygiene classes. Gorovsky suggested these
tips for controlling absenteeism and presenteeism:

Use absence control programs, such as paid leave banks. This eliminates the differentiation between
absence types such as vacation illness or personal leave. This also provides employees with more
discretion flexibility and control. The survey findings revealed that 69 percent of employers use paid
leave banks or paid time off to control presenteeism.

Don't discipline employees for legitimate absences such as illnesses when they have depleted their
regularly scheduled leave.

Allow employees to carry over unused sick days.

Allow employees to telecommute the survey found 30 percent employers use telecommuting programs
to control presenteeism.

Absenteeism cannot be eliminated altogether, so measures should be taken to minimize the rate of
absenteeism. Measures are as follows

Popper hiring
It is necessary that people with rights skills and experience are selected. Every employee should as far as
possible be assigned work according to capabilities aptitude and interest.

Good working condition

Proper sanitation drinking water canteen first aid rest pauses and mechanization can help to reduce
absenteeism by making work environment pleasant.

Housing and Transport facilities

Provision of housing accommodation preferably neat the factory and bus facility will ensure regular
attendance of workers.

Safety programmes

Adequate safety measures help to minimize industrial accidents and reduce fear of injury among
employees. As a result attendance becomes improved.

Incentives

Special bonus cash prizes and preference in promotion to regular employees encourage workers to be
regular in their attendance.

Effective supervision

Supervisors can considerably reduce absenteeism by earning the confidence and commitment of
workers.

Disciplinary Action

Suitable action should be taken against chronic absentees. Punitive action may be in the form of
publishing their names in company house magazines fines withholding pay increatment denial of
promotion suspension dismissal etc.

Regular leave provision

A provision should be made wherein every worker can avail a few days of leave during a year. Holidays
with pay will enable a worker to attend to his private affairs.

Employee counseling

Guidance and counseling help employees to eliminate bad habits like drinking and gambling. Habitual
absentees can be persuaded become regulate by impressing upon them the loss arising to them due to
absenteeism. Education and training can be used to develop a sense of responsibility.

proper records
Detailed and update records of absenteeism should be maintained. Absenteeism above the
predetermined level should be carefully analyzed age wise sex month wise and other bases.

Organizational behaviour theory

Completion of this task, reflect In general relates to everyday practice.

Orgaianisation behaviour is used big or small firms. It is practices used theories. All theories of
organization behaviour are very use full. First of all I describe the motivation theory is helpful to the
management to solve the problem of absenteeism. The effect of absenteeism in the entire world in daily
normal work. In this case the production of the firms goes down. If manager apply the motivation theory
then they get positive result. The management understands the employee's behaviour. They are
motivating all employees. In Maslow's Hierarchy needs theory is very important because management
knows that the problem of employees that they are absent. Management complete or fulfill the basic
needs of employees. In equity theory the manager checks the employer and if they are in dribble or not
good performs and absenteeism are increasing the management change work and reduce performance
efforts. One more thing they change the people who are used for comparison and less motivated.
Expectancy theory is useful full for manager because it helps the manager to understand the employee
behaviour. In organization must be used reward system because all employee work hard and good
performance in organization. Reward system is good tool to reduce the absenteeism. In organization
have positive punishment which is reduce the absenteeism. In organization behaviour locus of control is
very important. Locus of control is basically believed of management or employers. Some workers are
believes in internal or some of them externals. So management understands the employee believes and
solves the problem which employee is faced in organization. Organization achieve target when they gets
the interest of employee and known about employee values, emotions, desires, work behaviour, action
and higher performance. If organization give specific goals of employee then it will depends of these
factor. All firms have two types of management or employee divided in two categories are X and Y. In all
organization have five stags. If organization is going good and all employees are motivated and give
good result. If organization is going down then employee are absent or other effect occurred.
Organization needs to commute the employee they makes a record of all employees and updated.