I argue that the impact of context on organizational behavior is not sufficiently recognized or appreciated by researchers. I define context as situational opportunities and constraints that affect the occurrence and meaning of organizational behavior as well as functional relationships between variables, and I propose two levels of analysis for thinking about context-one grounded in journalistic practice and the other in classic social psychology. Several means of contextualizing research are considered.

SummaryPresenteeism refers to attending work while ill. Although it is a subject of intense interest to scholars in occupational medicine, relatively few organizational scholars are familiar with the concept. This article traces the development of interest in presenteeism, considers its various conceptualizations, and explains how presenteeism is typically measured. Organizational and occupational correlates of attending work when ill are reviewed, as are medical correlates of resulting productivity loss. It is argued that presenteeism has important implications for organizational theory and practice, and a research agenda for organizational scholars is presented.

conceptualized the article and wrote the original and revised versions with multiple rounds of input, editing, and review by each additional co-author (listed alphabetically by last name)

Interest in presenteeism, attending work while ill, has flourished in light of its consequences for individual well-being and organizational productivity. Our goal was to identify its most significant causes and correlates by quantitatively summarizing the extant research. Additionally, we built an empirical model of some key correlates and compared the etiology of presenteeism versus absenteeism. We used meta-analysis (in total, K=109 samples, N=175,965) to investigate the correlates of presenteeism and meta-analytic structural equation modeling to test the empirical model. Salient correlates of working while ill included general ill health, constraints on absenteeism (e.g., strict absence policies, job insecurity), elevated job demands and felt stress, lack of job and personal resources (e.g., low support and low optimism), negative relational experiences (e.g., perceived discrimination), and positive attitudes (satisfaction, engagement, commitment). Moreover, our dual process model clarified how job demands and job and personal resources elicit presenteeism via both health impairment and motivational paths, and they explained more variation in presenteeism than absenteeism. The study sheds light on the controversial act of presenteeism, uncovering both positive and negative underlying mechanisms.The greater variance explained in presenteeism as opposed to absenteeism underlines the opportunities for researchers to meaningfully investigate the behavior and for organizations to manage it.Keywords: presenteeism; absenteeism; meta-analysis; health; demands. The term presenteeism has been used in several ways in the literature over the years, and Johns (2010) reviewed nine distinct definitions of the concept (see also Wężyk & Merecz, 2013).However, recent scholarly treatment has converged on two main definitions. The first of these is attending work while ill (Aronsson, Gustafsson, & Dallner, 2000). The second definition, which dominates the occupational medicine literature, is productivity loss stemming from attending while ill (Turpin et al., 2004). Although affirming the importance of the latter phenomenon, Johns (2010Johns ( , 2012 questioned this definition for conflating cause with effect and pre-empting the study of the causes of going to work ill. In the meta-analyses to be reported here we restrict the purview to the causes and correlates of the act of presenteeism-going to work ill. Most research on productivity loss has concentrated on its association with various medical conditions. Perhaps the most interesting thing about presenteeism is that it represents a muchoccupied but only recently studied state between being absent (and ostensibly exhibiting no productivity) and fully productive work engagement. Presentees will vary in their productivity due to a host of personal and contextual circumstances, such as the exact nature of their health Presenteeism correlates: A meta-analysis 4 problems. Nonetheless, they are unlikely to be fully engaged and fully productive. Hence, the causes and corre...

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