Associations between physical work environment, workplace support for health, and presenteeism: a COVID-19 context

Abstract

Objective Presenteeism has, in a larger sense, been viewed as a negative behaviour, although a limited body of studies suggests and reports its positive implications in an organizational context. This study assessed the association between the physical work environment (PWE) and presenteeism as well as the moderating influence of workplace support for health (WSH) on this relationship. Methods This study adopted the cross-sectional design alongside a sensitivity analysis and techniques against common methods bias. The study population was employees of private and public organizations in Accra, Ghana. A total of 590 employees participated in the study and hierarchical linear regression was used to present the results. Results PWE had a positive relationship with presenteeism (β = 0.15; t = 3.04; p < 0.05), which means that higher presenteeism was associated with larger PWE scores. WSH positively moderated the relationship between PWE and presenteeism (β = 0.23; t = 4.84; p < 0.001). Conclusions Organizations with more satisfactory work environments may serve as preferred protective places for employees during a pandemic, more so within organizations with higher WSH. Interventions rolled out to improve PWE and to provide WSH can attenuate the potential negative influences of presenteeism on individual health and organizational productivity.

Digital workplace health promotion: a pilot study during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Germany

“…Also, initiatives successful in a pandemic (Manning and Pattani, 2020) may not be required afterwards, as, for example, the importance of physical safety perception (Danquah and Asiamah, 2022) loses relevance. However, the data show the general main barriers and wishes regarding any type of DWHP, and participants may have been more critical towards digital offers due to digital overload.…”

Effect of COVID-19 Infection on Presenteeism

“…10,[25][26][27] Several studies have been conducted on presenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic. 14,15,[28][29][30][31][32] However, to our knowledge, no previous studies have directly compared presenteeism between COVID-19infected and noninfected individuals, and there are no studies on the effect of COVID-19 on presenteeism. Therefore, the study aimed to examine the effect of COVID-19 on presenteeism using large health insurance-based data.…”

“…Several studies have been conducted on presenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic 14,15,28–32 . However, to our knowledge, no previous studies have directly compared presenteeism between COVID-19-infected and noninfected individuals, and there are no studies on the effect of COVID-19 on presenteeism.…”