Chapter 15 Flashcards
What are the different cost types of sickness absence?
- Costs for the worker: adverse outcomes such as job loss and a weakened financial position, but it also allows them to recover
- Costs for colleagues: loss of job satisfaction, increasing workload
- Costs for the organization: financial costs due to sick leave provision
- Costs for society: the costs of public health, lower overall productivity in society
How can we measure sickness absence?
- Frequency-based approaches -> how often?
- Duration-based approaches -> total days absent?
- Volition-based approaches -> looks at voluntary and avoidable absence (best measured in frequency) and involuntary and unavoidable absence (best measured in duration)
What is the general work stress model in the traditional approaches of examining sickness absence?
Using general job stress model (e.g., the DCS model and the ERI model) to identify potential antecedents of sickness absence. High job demands and high effort predicted short+long term absence.
What is the job strain approach in the traditional approaches of examining sickness absence?
This approach developed the job strain-sickness absence model. This model states that (1) sickness absence is a form of withdrawal behaviour; job strain leads to sickness absence and (2) the restorative function of sickness absence; employees can restore their resources and their ability to cope with job strain when they are sick.
What is the burnout approach in the traditional approaches of examining sickness absence?
The PUMA Model on burnout-sickness absence assumes that burnout and sickness absence will mutually influence each other. However research confirmed that burnout could lead to sickness absence, but not vice versa
What is sickness presence?
Being present at the job while feeling sick
Why is sickness presence especially high in contractual professions such as health care and education?
Workers consider themselves irreplaceable
What are the costs of sickness presence of individual level?
- Future ill-health
- Work more inefficiently, work at reduced capacity, making more mistakes, etc.
What are the costs of sickness presence at group level?
- Colleagues are at risk of becoming sick
- Sick present group members may negatively affect collective performance, cohesion and JS
What are the costs of sickness presence at organizational level?
- Reduced productivity and lower profits
- A competitive presenteeism culture can arise when the organizational culture is focusing on sickness presence at all costs
What are the costs of sickness presence at societal level?
- Overall productivity losses and long-term public health effects
Explain the Illness Flexibility Model (IF Model) (contemporary model of sickness absence)
The illness flexibility model assumes that whether a worker will report sick depends on two factors:
- their opportunities to reduce or alter work effort when feeling ill
- the attendance requirements in the organization
- > Chances are high that sick workers will report sick when there are little opportunities to reduce work efforts and when the attendance requirements are low and vice versa
Explain the model of sickness presence and sickness absence by Aronsson and Gustafsson
Whether sick workers decide to go work or to stay home depends on person- and work-related demands for presence.
- Person-related demands e.g., individual boundarylessness and financial needs
- Work-related demands for presence e.g., having sufficient job resources, control and pace at work
What are positive and negative demands for presence
- Positive demands for presence are associated with higher levels of sickness presence
- Negative demands for presence are associated with sickness absence
Explain Johns’ dynamic model of presenteeism and absenteeism
Absence and presence are affected by context and person factors, such as job security, ease of replacement, work attitudes and personality factors
