Individual and group determinants of employee absenteeism: Test of a causal model

Abstract

Abstract This study examined whether an employee's level of absenteeism was affected by age, organizational tenure, perceptions of interactional justice, affective and continuance commitment, and the perceived absence norm in the employees' work unit or department. One hundred and sixty‐six nursing and food services employees in a mid‐size chronic care hospital provided attitudinal and perceptual data on an employee survey. Absence data (absence frequency and total days absent) were collected during the 12‐month period immediately following an employee survey. Hypothesized relations between the various individual‐ and group‐level factors and employee absenteeism were specified in a structural model and tested using LISREL 7 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1989). General support was found for the study hypotheses.