Developing and testing a taxonomy of lateness behavior.

Abstract

Compared with other physical withdrawal behaviors such as employee turnover and absenteeism, employee lateness has been theoretically neglected. Three categories of lateness behavior (increasing chronic, stable periodic, and unavoidable) were denned on the basis of pattern, frequency, and duration of incidents. Hypothesized antecedents of each lateness category were tested using 2 samples, 353 hospital employees and 402 bank employees. Support was found for the idea that each category exhibits differential relationships to other work behaviors and specific antecedents. Additional empirical results showed that the "never late" subgroup from each sample was significantly different from the lateness subgroups on various antecedents and work behaviors. Results and limitations of the study are further discussed.

Israeli Teachers’ Perceptions of Lateness: A Gender Comparison

“…This hypothesis is supported by Meyer et al (1993), who found that affective commitment was significantly negatively related to selfreported general tardiness. Several more studies have confirmed the relationship between commitment and lateness (Blau 1994;Blau et al 2004;Dishon-Berkovits and Koslowsky 2002;Foust et al 2006). As women's choices outside school are limited (Rosin and Korabik 1995), and as women in the teaching profession are able to cope more easily with the work-family conflict than other employed women, owing to their flexible hours and the short workday, it can be assumed that they are more committed to school than men and that the relationship between commitment and lateness will be stronger for them.…”

“…Studies on gender and lateness indicate that women tend to be late more than men for demographic and occupational reasons (Barling et al 1994;Blau 1994;Gupta and Jenkis 1983;Hammer et al 2003). They usually ascribe this to the tendency for women to endure workfamily conflict more than men (Boyar et al 2005).…”

“…Employee lateness, which is ubiquitous in many organizations, influences employees' perceptions and behavior, as well as the organizational climate and effectiveness, and carries financial costs (Blau 1994), such as loss of productivity. In high schools, it causes loss of time for principals, who have to find solutions for the teacher's lateness.…”

Withdrawal Behaviors Syndrome: An Ethical Perspective

“…This means that they have a considerable voluntary component. Thus, in many cases, the nurses' ethical perspective plays a key role in explaining decisions to withdraw from work (Blau, 1994). Many established foundational theories, including equity theory (Adams, 1965), inducements-contributions theory (March and Simon, 1958), and social exchange theory (Thibault and Kelly, 1959) note the role of withdrawal behaviors as a means by which employees can withhold inputs from an organization.…”

“…The rationale for defining lateness as 6 min or more draws on hospital policy which defines lateness as arriving six or more minutes after the shift began and is supported by previous studies that indicated that this length of time is normatively unacceptable in various organizations (Blau, 1994(Blau, , 1995Blau et al, 2004). The data indicated 21.9 cumulative percent of 0-5 lateness frequency events; 15.8 cumulative percent of 7-13 lateness frequency events; and 13.7 cumulative percent of 14-39 lateness frequency events.…”