Absence and the Physical Conditions of Work

Abstract

The early studies of the Health of Munition Workers Committee and of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board clearly demonstrated the effects of conditions of work on lost time. Loveday (1917) showed that when hours of work were long absence increased and that this was particularly marked on heavy work. Vernon (1920) Walker, 1956). However, the relative importance of these factors can only be assessed after the effects of the physical conditions on absence have been determined. It therefore seemed desirable to re-examine the relation between absence and the physical conditions of work. This paper gives the results of studies in an engineering firm and two iron and steel works where, on the whole, the conditions have improved markedly and bear little resemblance to those described in the earlier reports.The iron and steel works were large plants employing about 4,000 and 7,000 male workers, excluding staff employees. All the processes which go to make steel products such as strip, plate, or sections, were carried out on each site. The main departments included ore preparation plants, sinter plants, coke ovens, blast furnaces, steel melting shops, and rolling mills. Most of the departments had been built or reconstructed since 1930, and many of them since the war. The working conditions were probably representative of other large undertakings in the industry. The engineering works contained a foundry and a forge in addition to three heavy engineering departments.Sources of Data The required information was copied from the firms' records. Such details as a man's age, length of service, and job were taken from the personnel cards; wages and income tax code number (an approximate index of family responsibilities) were extracted from the wages cards. The absences were obtained for 1952 from the absence record cards where these were maintained, and wherever possible their reliability was checked against samples of clock cards. In one of the steel firms which did not generally keep separate absence records the information was obtained from the wages cards. These were weekly records and it was not possible to determine the exact number of short-term absences although the amount of lost time was stated accurately. In one department the information had to be collected directly from the clock cards. The reasons for absence and other data, such as a list of the registered disabled persons, were recorded when they were available. Assessment of ConditionsThe multiplicity of jobs in the works made it impracticable for the investigators to attempt an objective measurement of the conditions of work. The assessment of conditions was therefore obtained from the managers and foremen who were asked to rate and rank the jobs according to the conditions which were associated with them. This was done for 296 jobs which included different and similar occupations; the latter were in different departments. The manager or foreman was given a number of cards on each of which was written the name of one of the principal jobs in his department...

Age-related differences in work attitudes and behavior: A review and conceptual analysis.

“…Also common, however, are nonsignificant relationships (Baumgartel & Sobol, 1959;Cooper & Payne, 1965 [2 samples]; Nicholson et al, 1977 [8 samples]). Other relationships that have occurred include Ushaped (Hedges, 1977;Kossoris, 1948;Nicholson et al, 1977;Shepherd & Walker, 1957), negative (Blumberg, 1980;Kossoris, 1948;Taylor, 1967a;Weaver, 1970), and inverted-U (Collins, 1962). Testing for other than linear relationships is important in view of the Nicholson et al study in which nonsignificant correlations were reported for four samples of continuous process workers, yet a Neuman-Keuls test revealed a curvilinear relationship.…”

“…Avoidable absence has generally been found to be inversely related to age in male samples (Bernardin, 1977 [2 samples]; Hill, 1967;Nicholson et al, 1977 [9 samples]; Taylor, 1967aTaylor, , 1967bTucker & Lotz, 1957;Walker & de la Mare, 1971 [3 samples]). However, positive (Baumgartel & Sobol, 1959;Buzzard &Shaw, 1952;Cooper & Payne, 1965 [2 samples]), U-shaped (de la Mare & Sergean, 1961;Hedges, 1977;Shepherd & Walker, 1957), inverted-U-shaped (Collins, 1962;Isambert-Jamati, 1962), and nonsignificant relationships (Baumgartel & Sobol, 1959;Cooper & Payne, 1965 [2 samples]; de la Mare & Sergean, 1961;Gordon, Emerson, & Pugh, 1959;Ivancevich & McMahon, 1977;Metzner & Mann, 1953;Nicholson et al,.1977 [3 samples]; Taylor, 1967a) have also been reported for male avoidable absence. The Nicholson et al (1977) study included two measures of avoidable absence for 12 samples.…”

Comments on employee absence/attendance as a dependent variable in organizational research.

“…Two often-neglected (e.g., Steers & Rhodes, 1978) groups of variables connected to the physical well-being of the employee are relevant for an absence model. The first is related to the job situation and comprises the variables shift work (Nicholson, Jackson, & Howes, 1978;Philipsen, 1969) and working conditions (Gadourek, 1965;Liddell, 1954;Philipsen, 1969;Shepherd & Walker, 1957). The second group of variables is connected with the length of absence spells.…”

Absence from Work in Relation to Wage Level and Family Responsibility

“…Heaviness was rated from 1 for very heavy work to 7 for very light work, and temperature of the work situation as 1, 2, and 3 for hot conditions, some heat, and normal respectively. For further discussion of the procedure see Shepherd and Walker (1957). Ratings on most jobs were made by more than one person and the agreement between judges was found to be high.…”