Transformational and passive avoidant leadership as determinants of absenteeism

Abstract

Purpose -Does leadership style affect absenteeism in a company? The purpose of this paper is to contrast the effects of two leadership styles -transformational and passive avoidant -on absenteeism, both legitimate and illegitimate, as mediated by job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach -A self-report questionnaire was completed by a sample of 120 employees of a national mail delivery company. Hierarchical regressions were used to analyze the data. Findings -It was found that transformational leadership decreases illegitimate absenteeism, while passive avoidant leadership increases it. In regard to legitimate absenteeism, transformational leadership is shown to have no effect, while passive avoidant leadership is shown to be negatively related to it. Together, the findings regarding passive avoidant leaders suggest their subordinates tend to come to work when ill (presenteeism), but stay away from work when well (illegitimate absenteeism). Practical implications -For managers trying to reduce the costs of absenteeism, this suggests that leadership style can make a difference. Managers who give subordinates very little attention, or attention only when they have done something wrong -the passive avoidant style -are likely to experience the higher costs of both absenteeism and presenteeism. Adopting the transformational style may help to reduce these costs. Originality/value -The paper helps to extend the current work on leadership; it examines the passive avoidant style, which remains understudied to date; and it enriches our understanding of the relationship between leadership style and absenteeism as an outcome variable by moving beyond a uni-dimensional conceptualization of absenteeism. Finally, it serves as a basis for future research by providing evidence for a somewhat counter-intuitive finding that, under passive avoidant leaders, workers appear to come to work when sick, but stay away from work when well.

The effects of passive leadership on workplace incivility

“…Study 1 scale means, standard deviations, correlations, and reliabilities. (Nunnally, 1978) and was consistent with previous research reporting reliability estimates in the .80-.90 range for this scale (e.g., Avolio et al, 1999;Druskat, 1994;Frooman, Mendelson, & Murphy, 2012). In addition to having employees assess their supervisor's leadership, supervisors self-reported their own leadership style using the leader self-report version of the MLQ (Bass & Avolio, 1997).…”

The contextual role of subjective age in the chronological age/absenteeism relationship in blue and white collar teams

“…Thus, we next measured the average perceived participation with three items (sample item: "I can contribute my perspective if it comes to decisions that are relevant for my work"; Cronbach's α = .84). Twelfth, we measured average perceived leadership support with a four-item measure, e.g., asking employees to rate if their supervisor offers constructive feedback about their work (Cronbach's α = .95), as meta-analyses review supervisory support is an impact factor on employee' absenteeism (Frooman, Mendelson, & Murphy, 2012). Additionally, Schaufeli et al (2009) underline the role of social support for employee engagement and absenteeism.…”

The conundrum of absenteeism in the Canadian public service: A wicked problem perspective

“…Absenteeism, most generally, “is the failure to report for work as scheduled” (Johns : 160). It is an important issue because it has been increasing in many countries, and incurs great financial costs (Gaudine and Saks ; Frooman, Mendelson and Murphy ; De Paola, Scoppa and Pupo ). Such costs are direct and indirect.…”

“…These include employee replacement (Gaudine and Saks ; Biron and Saksvik ), decreased productivity (such as missed deadlines, mistakes, and delays), increased administrative costs (like time lost to finding replacements), a decrease in employee morale due to heavier workloads, decreased customer satisfaction (Conference Board of Canada ), and reduced performance or safety, like when a highly skilled or essential employee is absent (such as when a general duty nurse replaces a paediatric nurse, quality of care could be reduced) (Gaudine and Saks ). Given these considerations and costs, academics and practitioners have looked at absenteeism from numerous different perspectives to better understand it (Blau and Boal ; Frooman, Mendelson and Murphy ).…”

“…However, it has come to be understood as a complex problem, that is, the product of “a variety of behaviours with different causes masquerading as a unitary phenomenon” (Johns : 159; see also Johns and Nicholson ; Gosselin, Lemyre and Corneil ). For instance, absenteeism has been linked to a wide variety of causes, such as job dissatisfaction (Johns ; Hackett ), sickness (Johns ; Bergström et al ), childcare associated problems (including sick children as well as childcare arrangements) (Johns ; Goff, Mount and Jamison ), poor weather (Markham and Markham ), generous collective bargaining agreements (Dalton and Perry ; Conference Board of Canada ), shiftwork (Böckerman and Laukkanen ), socio‐demographical characteristics such as gender and age (women and older employees have higher rates of absenteeism) (Poschmann and Chatur ; Uppal and LaRochelle‐Côté ; Conference Board of Canada ), negative attitudes towards work (Gellatly and Luchak ), workplace behaviour and culture (Blau and Boal ; Gellatly and Luchak ; Johns ; Gosselin, Lemyre and Corneil ), and strict managerial practices (Frooman, Mendelson and Murphy ), among others. Further compounding its complexity is that it is not always clear if absenteeism is a consequence of other factors, an antecedent or another variable (Johns ; Martocchio and Jimeno ).…”