The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors affecting absenteeism from work at Meru Central Coffee Co-operative Union. The research findings will benefit the management of Meru Central Coffee Co-operative Union in that they will consider the following factors when trying to curb absenteeism at work; health condition, family issues, supervision and physical facilities. The study used causal design. Data were collected from all employees, 70 in total, by the use of a questionnaire. Descriptive analysis of data was done. The study found out that forty six (46.7%) of the respondents said medical cover would help reduce cases of absenteeism with those advocating for availing the necessary physical facilities to reduce absenteeism being (46%) and those for improving and repairing existing facilities being (16.7%). A good number of respondents agree that supervision is necessary with 26.7% posting that. Twenty (20%) said that delegation of authority and power is the way to go sixty three (63.3%) of the respondents proposing counselling and training as a remedy to absenteeism, and 20% saying giving off days and providing help where required were the best ways to deal with absenteeism from work. Absenteeism from work is a big challenge which requires a multi-faceted approach. From the findings above, there is no one single way on dealing with absenteeism. The respondents propose a raft of ideas against each variable and still they do not exhaust the proposed remedies. Provision of medical cover, availing necessary physical facilities, delegation of authority, training of employees and counselling were cited as issues that the management should concentrate its efforts in to minimize cases of absenteeism from work.
Download Free PDF View PDF
Effective management practices play a pivotal role in influencing positive behavior among employees at the work place [1]-[2]. Absenteeism of employees signals organizational ill health. Studies indicate that management practices can negatively or positively influence the employee absence rate in an organization [3]. This study assessed the relationship between management practices and health worker absenteeism in public general hospitals in East Central Uganda. It was prompted by the findings of Medicines and Health Services Delivery Monitoring Unit [4] that health worker absenteeism was rampant in Uganda. The study objectives were: to find out the magnitude and causes of health worker absenteeism in public general hospitals in East Central Uganda, establish the relationship between performance management practices and health worker absenteeism, establish the relationship between attendance and absence management practices and absenteeism, finally to establish the relationship between employee motivation and absenteeism.The study employed a mixed research design. Data were collected from 46 key informants, 220 health workers and 3 focus group discussions (FGDs). An absenteeism tracking tool was also used as a measure of health worker absenteeism.Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions and logistic regression were employed for data analysis alongside content analysis.Findings revealed that socio-demographic factors, performance management practices; attendance and absence management practices; and employee motivation practices did influence absenteeism.We concluded that Magnitude of absenteeism is still of management importance (influenced by management practices and socio-demography) and varied by hospital, time of assessment and day of the week. The implementation of management practices varied from one hospital to another – strengthening the performance management practices; attendance and absence management practices; and employee motivation practices while addressing the socio-demographic characteristics (that predict absenteeism) along the continuum of the hierarchy of needs could further reduce absenteeism.
Download Free PDF View PDF
Journal of Vocational Behavior
