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Recessionary actions and absence: a workplace-level study
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 20:34 authored by Stephen Wood, George Michaelides, Chidiebere OgbonnayaActions such as work restructuring and wage and employment freezes taken by organizations in response to recessions are widely assumed to decrease employees’ job security and detrimentally affect perceptions of management’s trustworthiness. We assess whether these effects occur and if, in turn, they affect workplace absenteeism. Using data from Britain’s Workplace Employee Relations Survey 2011, we show that the effects on stress-based absence are limited and not as predicted, but the effects on withdrawal-based absence are strong and as predicted. Reductions in well-being or job security’s effect on well-being did not affected absence, and while reduction of trust perceptions’ effect was to increase anxiety, anxiety did not increase but reduced absenteeism. The effects on withdrawal absence differ: those of recessionary action through job security reduce absenteeism, while those through trust perceptions increase it, both as predicted. The two effects involving trust perceptions are less pronounced when recessionary actions are accompanied by voluntary layoffs, but not by compulsory layoffs. The implications for management are that they should be more conscious of the effects on absence when planning recessionary actions, and more generally their effects on presenteeism.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Human Resource ManagementISSN
0090-4848Publisher
WileyExternal DOI
Issue
6Volume
59Page range
501-520Department affiliated with
- Management Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2020-02-12First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-02-12First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-02-12Usage metrics
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