Absence due to sickness is an issue that concerns many employers. In an effort to understand the underlying causes of sickness absence, a Swedish study explored the influence of workplace environment and work commitment.

Researchers studied two groups. The first was a group of 2,500 people randomly selected from the working population. The second group was of 3,000 people sick-listed for more than 14 days over a two-month period.

The researchers asked people to complete questionnaires that assessed their work environment and concluded:

• When the organisational climate was assessed to be poor, there was an increased likelihood of people being absent from work;
   
• If the individual was from an organisation where there was perceived to be a poor environment, and they had high levels of work commitment, they were even more likely to be marked off work as sick; and
   
• In organisations considered to have a report-level organisational climate or work environment, people with a high work commitment had between double and triple the likelihood that of being marked off work. 

Workplaces will often implement strategies to reduce sick leave, such as expecting workers to provide medical certificates and requiring employees to notify of illness in a certain manner. However, tackling the general workplace environment is also important if managers want to reduce levels of staff absenteeism.

Other studies have shown that workers’ compensation loss time also goes down when organisational climate improves. For more information on this topic, see our article on the benefits of improving the work environment through the use of employee surveys. 

Authors
Holmgren K. Hensing G. & Dellve L.

Institution
Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. kristina.holmgren@neuro.gu.se

Title
The association between poor organizational climate and high work commitments, and sickness absence in a general population of women and men.

Source

Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 52(12):1179-85, 2010 Dec.

Country of Publication
United States

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between organizational climate and work commitment, and sickness absence in a general population of workers and consecutively selected employed sick-listed.

METHODS: Questionnaire data used in this cross-sectional study consisted of two cohorts: (1) randomly selected individuals in a general working population cohort (2763) and (2) consecutively selected employed sick-listed cohort (3044) for more than 14 days over 2 months.

RESULTS: Poor organizational climate was associated with increased odds of belonging to the employed sick-listed cohort among both women and men, while high work commitments were associated with increased odds only among women. The increased adjusted odds ratio for the combinations of poor organizational climate and high work commitment was 1.80 (confidence interval 1.36 to 2.37) among women and 2.74 (confidence interval 1.84 to 4.08) among men.

CONCLUSIONS: These results support the magnitude of combining organizational climate and work commitment.

PubMed Link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21124245