THE CAUSES AND INFLUENCE OF

ABSENTEEISM IN THE BRITISH

WORKPLACES

Mahmudur Rahman
MSc International Business and Management
University of Central Lancashire

Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2
Theory ........................................................................................................................................ 2
Economic Theory ................................................................................................................... 3
Psychological Theory ............................................................................................................. 3
Sociological Theory ............................................................................................................... 3
Disability Theory.................................................................................................................... 3
Literature .................................................................................................................................... 4
Critical Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 5
Conclusions ................................................................................................................................ 8
References .................................................................................................................................. 9
Table and Figures ..................................................................................................................... 13
Table 1: Average level of employee absence, all employees by industry (CIPD, 2016) ..... 13
Figure 1: Model of Attendance Motivation (Nicholson, 1977)............................................ 14
Figure 2: Average number of days lost per employee per year (CIPD, 2016) ..................... 15
Figure 3: Short-term absence (CIPD, 2016) ......................................................................... 15
Figure 4: Number of Working Days Lost (ONS, 2014) ....................................................... 16

Introduction
In recent years, absenteeism in the workplace has caused a great deal of attention, due to the
financial and social costs affairs on organisational as well as national economy (Langenhoff,
2011; Hussey et al., 2012; Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013). Since the economic and social costs
of the phenomenon are quite substantial (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013), an increasing
awareness on this issue takes place for employers, particularly in the UK. According to CIPD
(2016) Absenteeism Survey 2016, the average absence of an employee in the UK is 6.3 days
which delivers a median cost of 522 per employee. To be absent from the work is a
complicated and complex issue that is affected by various causes, both personally and
organisationally (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013). There are many characteristics of
absenteeism that can be categorised under two main pillars, short- and long-term absence. This
study aims to analyse the causes and influence of absenteeism focuses on workplaces in Britain
as well as how to reduce absenteeism in the workplace.

Theory
Notwithstanding the fact that there are many findings on this research area, absenteeism has
been fairly termed as a social fact in need of a theory (s, 1962), since less attempts have
been conducted to theorise about this topic (Nicholson, 1977). During the research about this
phenomenon one can quickly figure out that there is lack of theory in absenteeism, while
ascertaining a unified theoretical framework is, however, rather unlikely. Moreover, many
different models such as the traditional model of labour supply and work-leisure model are
applied to find out the characteristics lead to absence in the workplace.
Nevertheless, there are few theories of absenteeism that can be found in the literature. Their
complexity with relationships of both personal and organisational characteristics as well as
critical composition within this issue which is influenced by various aspects makes it difficult
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to unify a theoretical framework (Dionne and Dostie, 2007). In spite of this complex issue, there
are some basis theories; for instance, economic, psychological, sociological and disability
theories that are presented in the literatures.

Economic Theory
From economic point of view labourers attend to work when there is a need of money (Shoss
and Penney, 2012). It argues that the reason for the absence of employees in the workplace
appear only when individuals are obligated to supply a specified amount of labour in given time
frame (Brown and Sessions, 1996). When the agreed working hours exceed, it gives workers a
motivation to absent themselves from their duties (Brown and Sessions, 1996).

Psychological Theory
Absenteeism is a behavioural response of labour; for instance, job satisfaction and job
involvement (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013; Wegge et al., 2007). Additionally, motivation in
the workplace has an impact on absenteeism (Brummelhuis et al., 2013; Nicholson, 1977;
Figure 1). If an individual is dissatisfied, demotivated, less involved and/or gets less recognition
for work achievements, it could lead absence (Wegge et al., 2007).

Sociological Theory
According to sociological theory of absenteeism, there are many aspects relating social,
organisational, work groups that simplifies the decision either attend or be absent from work
(Barmby, Orme and Treble, 1991).

Disability Theory
The theory states that unpredictable illness symptoms (psychological and physical) lead to be
absence from work (Hussey et al., 2012; Marmot et al., 1995). Furthermore, it takes into
consideration that while on the increase family-related duties effect on absenteeism as well
(Brummelhuis et al., 2013).
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Literature
Absenteeism in the workplace depends on various factors such as demographical characteristics
(Marmot et al., 1995), educational and professional level (Dionne and Dostie, 2007), health and
job characteristics (Braun et al., 2015; Vignoli et al., 2016), household aspects as well as
country related factors (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013). Research results from Bridges and
Mumford (2001) present that absence from work is affected by age of male stronger than
female. Furthermore, a higher absenteeism rate has been found for female with children,
particularly in preschool or aged below two, presents a significant higher rate of absenteeism.
Moreover, absenteeism rate is on the increase amongst female and sickness absence occurs
more often among them (Hussey et al., 2012).
However, the injury absence among men is relatively higher (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013).
Moreover, Culbertson (2009) interprets from his findings that women and men are equally
likely to withdraw from work when they are feeling particularly stressed or sick. However,
related to long-term sickness absence (LTSA) the return to work (RTW) rate is higher for
women compared to men (Board and Brown, 2011).
Educational level of employees has been identified with absenteeism positively (Dionne and
Dostie, 2007). From literature, it can be determined that senior employees are less absent since
they have more responsibility at work, while motivational factor, such as salary, has less
importance (Wegge et al., 2007). Moreover, for instance, older employees come to work despite
of an illness which is also called presentism (Baker-McClearn et al., 2010).
Health characteristics of employees are probably the most important factor of absenteeism.
Sickness absence, particularly minor illness, is the most common cause of involuntary
(unintentional) as well as short-term absence (CIPD, 2016; ONS, 2014; Figure 2). Healthy
worker is associated with less sickness absence (Brummelhuis et al., 2013). Further, a better
social and economic welfare are provided by healthy employees to business; thereby,
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productivity and job satisfaction increases whereas staff turnover reduces (Baxter et al., 2015).
Additionally, the costs for sickness occurring in the workplace are significantly high and hence
it is important to create healthier workplaces to impede sickness absenteeism (Baker-McClearn
et al., 2010; Braun et al., 2015). Another important aspect for work attendance is job
satisfaction, which is one of the main factors that affect absenteeism (Drakopoulos and Grimani
2013; Wegge et al., 2007). What is more, occupational injuries are affected by job
dissatisfaction significantly (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013).
Absenteeism is not only influenced by internal factors such as demographical and health
characteristics but also by various external aspects; for instance, household characteristics.
Bridges and Mumford (2001) argues that single person is more likely to be absent from work
than a married person since they have less responsibility at home. Furthermore, these
obligations lead to time pressure, stress, and conflict (Brummelhuis et al., 2013) that increase
the rate of absenteeism.
Research findings on absenteeism also depend on the country (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013)
as well as business industry (CIPD, 2016; Table 1). Drakopoulos and Grimani (2013) have
researched the absence data from UK and Greece and have found out that in many areas there
are significant differences as the legal system, work environment as well as external factors are
differently arranged.
For this study, the research studies from UK have been considered significantly.

Critical Analysis
One of the most important economic aspects for organisations is absenteeism in the workplace.
According to CIPD (2016) absence management survey 2016, the average number of day lost
per employee per year is 6.3 days (Figure 3) that presents a median cost of 522 per worker. In
particular, sickness absents in the UK has become an issue of concern as around 131 million
5

days were lost due to sickness absents (ONS, 2014; Figure 4). Although the absence levels at
all business sectors has declined since 1993 (Figure 4), nevertheless the costs of absenteeism
has grown significantly high (Culbertson, 2009).
As already mentioned there are different theories with various causes to be absent from work.
Viewed from economic perspective, causes such as employee wages, employment rate and
financial benefits (Shoss and Penney, 2012; Thomas, 1980) has been examined in numerous
studies. Employee wages are not only related to absenteeism in general but also a relationship
between sickness absence and benefits, and employee wages has been found (Thomas, 1980).
When workforces have more benefits from absence than its costs, it is very likely to assume
that employees are more driven to be absent from work (Baker-McClearn et al., 2010; Board
and Brown, 2011; Thomas, 1980). On the other hand, wage increase is a short-term motivational
aspect for workers, which in turn leads to less absenteeism (Brummelhuis et al., 2013).
Moreover, Shoss and Penney (2012) describe that unemployment rate of a country or region
has a great influence of absenteeism. When there is high demand of labour supply, the decision
whether to be absent from work for persons already in employment is difficult to take since
there is a great risk to lose the job. In this situation employees are more likely to attend work
(Shoss and Penney, 2012). However, a high labour demand has a negative impact of
absenteeism as workforce can exploit their market power.
As already stated, job satisfaction is one of the most important aspect to attend work. Although
there is no universal consensus regarding the specific nature of the association between job
satisfaction and absenteeism (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013), nonetheless some researches
have determined significant relationships between them. For instance, the level of frequency
of absence and the number of absent days (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013) are associated
with job satisfaction notably. Furthermore, age of employees plays an important role. As
already mentioned that the absence rate among younger workers is high, however, there are
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some other arguments pointed out in the literature. Particularly, Oswald and Warr (1996)
present that older employees are more likely to be absent from work as senior staffs might be
dissatisfied at work when they do the same activities every day. Whereby younger workers gain
experiences and are more motivated at this stage. On the other hand, from sociological point of
view, experienced employees in a workgroup have more responsibility and the level of respect
and appreciation drives them to attend work (Wegge et al., 2007).
Moreover, motivational factors have an important effect on job satisfaction and job involvement
as well as absenteeism. Employees are less absent from work when they are motivated (Hussey
et al., 2012). Absence regarding motivation appears when workforce gets less attention and
recognition of work achievement from managers, but also the workplace flexibility practices
(WFP) have an important role (Whyman and Petrescu, 2015). Additionally, WFPs helps to
approach a superior work-life balance which in turn has the capability to reduce the incidence
of accidents, grievances, stress, and labour turn-over, and increase job satisfaction and
commitment (Whyman and Petrescu, 2015). Furthermore, work motivation is also linked with
economic theory of absenteeism as workforces are motivated to be absent from work if the
benefits of not working are higher than the costs (Drakopoulos and Grimani 2013). Therefore,
some workplace developments such as health promotion (Braun et al., 2015) and work
flexibility (Whyman and Petrescu, 2015) should be considered and implemented by the firms.
Another sociological aspect that is related to absenteeism is the work group pressure such as
sales dependent income for salespersons (Barmby, Orme and Treble, 1991). Therefore, a
salesperson or project manager has an illness but still attend work (presenteeism) because of
the pressure of either salary or job-related responsibilities (Barmby, Orme and Treble, 1991).
One of the most common causes of absenteeism is sickness absence. As has been pointed out,
sickness absence is an involuntary absence from duty. Braun et al. (2015) describes that work
health improvement programs have a positive relationship with reducing sickness absence.
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Additionally, it is found that the reduction of sickness absence is significantly seen in public
sector organisations (Braun et al., 2015). On the other hand, Culbertson (2009) argues that such
intervention arrangements appear to be largely ineffective in reducing absenteeism and
suggests that organisations should rather concentrate on work flexibility which should help
reduce voluntary absenteeism. Furthermore, there are findings relating sickness absence with
gender and age. Sickness absence takes place more often among females as well as for longer
time frames (Hussey et al., 2012). At the age of 16 to 25 years, employees are less absence from
work and the absence rate increases with age (Hussey et al., 2012). Another key factor to
remember is that among self-employed workers have lower absenteeism rate ((Hussey et al.,
2012).
Nevertheless, one of the important causes for voluntary absence is that family-related
responsibility increases for male employees since women are entering in the labour market
therefore the absence in general among males increases (Brummelhuis et al., 2013). It is of
utmost importance that organisations increase work flexibility, family-friendly policies
(Whyman and Petrescu, 2015) and they should be aware about work-life balance as well.

Conclusions
All things considered, one can affirm that the absenteeism theories and the causes are all
interrelated. Literatures have shown that there is no universal agreement in this topic. Research
findings, facts and numbers have shown that absenteeism is a major issue to the business.
Organisations should be aware about this and should work and optimise on the provided
suggestions such as work flexibility, family-friendly policies and health improvement programs
to prevent absence from work.

References
s, D. (1962). 'Absenteeism a Social Fact in Need of a Theory', Acta Sociologica (Taylor &
Francis Ltd), 6(4), pp. 278-286.

Baker-McClearn, D., Greasley, K., Dale, J. and Griffith, F. (2010). 'Absence management and
presenteeism: the pressures on employees to attend work and the impact of attendance on
performance', Human Resource Management Journal, 20(3), pp. 311-328.

Barmby, T. A., Orme, C. D. and Treble, J. G. (1991). 'Worker absenteeism: an analysis using
microdata', Economic Journal, 101, pp. 214-229.

Baxter, S., Campbell, S., Sanderson, K., Cazaly, C., Venn, A., Owen, C. and Palmer, A. J.
(2015). 'Development of the Workplace Health Savings Calculator: a practical tool to measure
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Board, B. J. and Brown, J. (2011). 'Barriers and enablers to returning to work from long-term
sickness absence: Part I-A quantitative perspective', American Journal of Industrial Medicine,
54(4), pp. 307-324.

Braun, T., Bambra, C., Booth, M., Adetayo, K. and Milne, E. (2015). 'Better health at work?
An evaluation of the effects and costbenefits of a structured workplace health improvement
programme in reducing sickness absence', Journal of Public Health, 37(1), pp. 138-142.

Bridges, S. and Mumford, K. (2001). 'Absenteeism in the UK: A Comparison Across Genders',
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Brown, S. and Sessions, J. G. (1996). 'The economics of absence: Theory and evidence', Journal
of Economic Surveys, 10(1), pp. 22-53.

Brummelhuis, L. L., Hoeven, C. L., Jong, M. D. T. and Peper, B. (2013). 'Exploring the linkage
between the home domain and absence from work: Health, motivation, or both?', Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 34(3), pp. 273-290.

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Resulting Illness?', Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(1), pp. 77-79.

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Table and Figures

Table 1: Average level of employee absence, all employees by industry
(CIPD, 2016)

13

Figure 1: Model of Attendance Motivation (Nicholson, 1977)

14

Figure 2: Average number of days lost per employee per year (CIPD,
2016)

Figure 3: Short-term absence (CIPD, 2016)

15

Figure 4: Number of Working Days Lost (ONS, 2014)

16