The Relation of Group Morale to the Incidence and Duration of Medical Incapacity in Industry

Precipitating Proximal Factors in the Occurrence of Mental Disorders: Epidemiological Evidence

“…There is, unfortunately, a dearth of epidemiological data on the psychiatric consequences, rather than the effects on production, of industrial conditions, methods of man-management and group morale. That such features of industrial life may be relevant to mental health is implicit in the results of studies such as those of Brodman et al (6). They showed that there were consistent differences over a period of time between the twenty-four departments of a mail order firm in indices such as the incidence of long and short term absences for medical reasons, the number of reports to the medical department and the frequency of unexcused lateness.…”

The Control of Absenteeism

“…2 C. Investigation of sickness records in a given depart111ent show that they do not reflect the health status of that group of people but rather the l110rale in that depart111ent; group nlorale has been shown statistically to be related to the occurrences and duration of short medical absences. 3 D. Lost ti111e sickness is not distributed evenly anlong a vvorking population. 1:\ snlall per cent of any elTIployee body is responsible for a rather large per cent of tinle lost fronl the job.…”