Importance of Managing Absenteeism and Motivational Theories in the Workplace

This document discusses the importance of proactively managing absenteeism in organizations and explores the reasons behind high levels of absence. It also delves into the impact of absenteeism on team performance, individual productivity, and profits. Additionally, it provides an overview of three motivational theories - Skinner's reinforcement theory and Vroom's expectancy theory - and their role in the workplace.

Introduction to Human Resource
Management & Learning and
Talent Development

Table of Contents
Some organisations have extremely high levels of absence. a) Why is it important to
proactively manage this? b) What might be included in a procedural document?.................3
Three motivational theories and their role in the workplace..................................................6
References......................................................................................................................................11

Some organisations have extremely high levels of absence. a) Why is it important to proactively
manage this? b) What might be included in a procedural document?
Absenteeism can be defined as a pattern of continuous leaves taken by the staff of the
organisation without any proper an adequate reason. These are generally on plant leaves measure
taken by the different individuals within the organisation and can lead to poor performance of the
individual as well as treated as a breach of implicit contract between the employer and employee
at the time of employment. There are different kinds of reasons which are related to the trend of
absenteeism organisation. Some of these reasons are mentioned as:
Disengagement: It can be seen as a behaviour of employee within the organisation
particularly those employees who are not committed to their jobs and the surrounding in the
organisation and find various ways to miss their work because they do not get any motivation at
their work and don't like working all days within the organisation (Keyser, Adeoluwa and
Fourie, 2020).
Changes: One of the reasons for absenteeism within the organisation is regular updating
within the organisation. due to continuous changes within the working conditions as well as
environment within the organisation employee will get resistance to the changes and can impact
on their performance as well as absenteeism trends within the firm. Because of these changes
employee will start feeling demotivated. this will directly result in increasing the trend of
absenteeism within the organisation.
Management system: Fault in management system can also impact on the increased
absenteeism within the organisation. this is because due to lack of management system with
proper training and development of the employee there will be a rise of problems related to
improper skills and quality for performing different jobs. This will impact on the performance of
individual and will directly develop the problem of low interest within the job which leads to
absenteeism.
Poor leadership: One more reason behind the increased absenteeism within the
organisation is directly related to the poor leadership. poor leadership will directly impact on the
dissatisfaction between employees in the organisation and will lead to increased absenteeism
because continuous avoidance from the side of leader will directly impact on the performance of
employee which engage low interest process.

Injuries or illness: It is a valid reason for increase absent because due to some regular
medical treatments and appointment employee has to take leave from the work. This also
increase the trend of absenteeism in an individual because of regular appointment with doctor
related to a medical treatment.
Harassment: It is also a reason behind the regular absent in which can be seen in female
staff of the organisation. Due to harassment and bullying within the organisation different co-
worker feels dissatisfied at the workplaces which also increase absent trend in these individuals.
This also impact on their performance which can lead to situation worsening and will directly
lead in resignation of employee.
Stress, low morale: This is important factor which also leads in absenteeism in employee
working in organisational. Stress direct impact on performance of employees and in
organisational it arises because of huge work load a man other factors, this will also lead to
dissatisfaction in employees and increase the chances of absenteeism in employees (Mastekaasa,
2020).
Lack of flexibility: Flexibility is also impact on absenteeism rate in organisational this is because
there is various factor in flexibility which impact on performance of organisational because it
helps in maintaining the working environment fit and healthy for each and every individual to
develop their personal goals by combining organization. If the organization structure will be
reached then it can impact on the performance of firm and will directly lead to dissatisfaction
between the employees and the trend of absenteeism will increase.
Absenteeism is a major problem to the organization and organisation also faces different
difficulties related to the extent of the employees in terms of financial as well as non-financial
losses. it is important for every organization to adopt a proper absent leave management system
so that it can reduced absenteeism within the organization and perform a better management
activity. in relation to organization absence of different individuals with the form can be
managed with use of difference methods (Karatepe, Rezapouraghdam and Hassannia, 2020). For
managing the absent the organization has to ensure a proper culture so that it can impact on the
apprentice and achieve a maximum satisfaction level regarding the absent because it is
impossible to achieve zero level within the firm for the absent is due to various circumstances.
For managing absenteeism within the organization as separate absenteeism a manager must be
higher within the organization who will keep eye and proper records related to the information of

different individual by identifying their behavior and needs of leave. This will help in achieving
a proper system recording center within the organization and directly help in controlling for the
different employees by proper planning and recording. For achieving a proper absent system
organization has to establish a proper mechanism which will directly related to the leaves of the
employee. For this organization can set a process where employee has to inform about their
leaves so that firm can manage their work as well as a valid reason regarding the leave.
Organizations should also use the feedback mechanism where employee can provide their
feedback regarding the atmosphere within the organization as well as different personal
complaints so that these complaints can be analyzed and tried to reduce. Manager HR manager
should arrange different kind of interviews are in formal and informal ways identification of
working conditions which are faced by the employees. A voluntary leave system must also be
adopted which will directly help management in reducing the action taken within the
organization. it is the responsibility of HR manager within the organization to identify that every
individual must inform about the voluntary leaves as well as a payment of these leaves must be
provided to individuals so that they can reduce their workload as well as enjoy their personal life
by doesn't interrupting their performance.
There are a number of different kind of negative impact on the organisation due to
absenteeism of employees in the organisation. Below mentioned are some of those impact:
Impact on team performance: It is often seen that when an employee is missing the work
the time which is missed by the employs are to be beard by the team in which the employees
working. In this way the pressure on the team performance is increased. It is often seen that other
employs and the team are they needed to do over work and over time in order to make sure that
they are filling in for absence of their co-workers. In this way the productivity of the team is
decreasing. It is often seen that the supervisor productivity is also affected due to absenteeism of
employs as the employs do not come to the work and the supervisor has to manage the work
which was to be done by employee. In other words it can be concluded that the absenteeism of
employee is adding the workload towards the colleagues of the employee and organisation is
negatively affected due to this (Reinwald and Kunze, 2020).
Impact on individual productivity: It is often seen that one of the major negative effect of
absenteeism is on the individual productivity of an employee it is clear that when an employee is
absent they will work less which will lead to less productivity by them. It is necessary that the

employer must look into the root causes which is resulting in absenteeism of employees. This
might include burnout, disengagement as well as various physical illness of employee or family.
Sure that organisation must continuously check out the employees in order to make sure that if
there is any issue with the employee they can immediately address it. It is necessary that moral
engagement should be increased so that the passion for work of employees towards the work and
organisation can be increased.
Impact on profits: The two different ways in which the absenteeism of employees can
directly impact the profit margins of the company. First is due to increased cost of the company
the profit margin can be reduced. It is necessary that employees are regularly completing their
work as absenteeism will lead to overpay to the employees who are fulfilling the work of absent
employers. In this way the cost of the organisation is increasing and the profit margin of the
company is decreasing. The second impact of absenteeism towards the revenue of a company is
seen as the specific roles of employs are not fulfilled. It is often seen that the employees who are
included in selling and marketing of the products and services of an organisation have direct
impact on revenues of the organisation. It is also often seen that when an employee is absent in
the production department the productivity of the department decreases. In this way the
organisation could not complete their goals and objectives on time. Due to which the profits of
the company are affected.
Three motivational theories and their role in the workplace
Motivational theory refers to various factors through which individuals in an organisation
can be derived towards the goals. The importance of motivational theory for a business is that it
will help a business to make sure that the employees in the organisation or productive. Process
theory of motivation refers to all those stories in which it is explained how individuals in an
organisation can change and develop towards productivity of an organisation. There are a
number of different theories which provide different system of ideas and explain how are various
variables dependent on encouraging employees. Below mentioned are three theories of
motivation:
Skinners reinforcement theory
This is the theory which focuses on different type of human motivations. The basic knowledge of
this theory is using the quality of employs and different types of rewards for the employs which
will help in motivating them. The basic motive of this theory is to make sure that change in

behaviour of an employee can be brought with a number of rewards which are positive, also
punishments are provided in order to change the behaviour of an employee in the organisation.
Below mentioned are various reinforcement theory is used by organisations to motivate the
employs:
Positive reinforcement: Positive reinforcement is used in order to bring in positive behaviour
from the employs. There are often different type of rewards provided to employees such as
bonus, incentives and recognition between the peers (Schjoedt and Shaver, 2020). It is necessary
to make sure that employees can be motivated to words positive behaviour.
Negative reinforcement: The theory which is helping organisations to remove certain
undesirable and negative influences. This is to increase the behaviour which is desired from the
employs.
Punishment: Is also a theory which helps in reducing the probability of the behaviour which is
not desired from the employs. It is of an applicable for those employees who are found breaking
the rules and regulations of the organisation.
Extinction: This refers to absence of reinforcement in an organisation. It helps in lowering the
probability of an organisation for the undesired behaviour and in this removal of rewards for the
employs is done.
There are a number of advantages related to this theory which include the rewards for the
positive behaviour of an employee which will increase the positive behaviour. Punishment for
the repeated offenders in an organisation will also decrease negative behaviour of the employees.
It will also improve the workplace environment in the organisation effectively.
Various disadvantages of reinforcement theory include it ignores the inner feeling of the
workers and their individual problems. It is necessary that organisations are looking towards
personal problem of employees which can be the reason behind their particular behaviour. It is
also kind of forced motivation which are not usually required in an organisation and might
negatively affect both the employees as well as the organisation.
It is necessary for an organisation to explain how different organisations employees can
be motivated. The following theory is necessary for a manager to access the rules of employs and
provide them with positive as well as negative rewards to change their behaviour. The major
focus is on different behaviour on employee and how they perform their job. It is necessary to
bring in changes in the organisational behaviour required (Vancouver, Wang and Li, 2020).

Victor vrooms expectancy theory:
The expectancy theory helps in separating different inputs of the performance as well as
output. It is often assumed that the employs will want the outputs to match the inputs they are
putting towards the organisation. The variables which are included in this theory are mentioned
below:
Expectancy: Expectancy is an idea through which the amount of effort which is put to words the
performance of employees can be increased. If the employees are working harder towards their
goals the performance will automatically increase. It is necessary for the organisation to make
sure that the employees are provided with proper resources as well as time in order to fulfil their
duties. The skills of the employees required to complete the job is also necessary here. The
support and supervision by the manager should be provided to the employs in order to fulfil their
expectations from the organisation.
Instrumentality: Instrumentality refers to the idea where the outcomes from the performance of
an employee can be made better. There is necessary for the organisation to maintain a proper
relationship between results and the performance of the employees. Through This organisation
can gain trust of employers and the employees can work better towards their goals and
objectives.
Valence: Valence can be said to be the value which is perceived from the results to the employs.
It is necessary that the results which are gained by the employs are considered important by
them. There for it is important for the organisation to maintain a balance between inputs and
outputs of the employs (May, Finch and Rapley, 2020).
There are different importance of this theories such as it can effectively help to bring a
connection between inputs and outputs in an organisation. It also explains to the manager various
ways and different criteria as they can use in order to fulfil and provide proper reward to the
employs for the performance and efforts they are putting in for the organisation. It is helpful in
developing a highly productive and motivated workforce for the organisation.
This theory is important to bring balance in the organisation however there are a number
of negative impacts of this theory as the lack of value which is attached to this theory. It is often
seen that the employs are only working towards self interest in their own desire which proves
that the value of organisation towards the employers is less. Due to this the expectancy theory is

thought of to be weaker for a long-term pattern of behaviour change in the organisation and
employees.
With the help of this organisation can effectively motivate their employees towards the
goals and objectives. It is often seen that when an employee is putting efforts towards the work,
they also want the similar output on the organisation. This theory will help in increasing
productivity of employees in the organisation and also employees can achieve their personal
target.
Adams equity theory:
Following theory explains that it is necessary for an organisation to maintain relationship
between reward and performance of the employs. It is necessary that employees are paid well in
the organisation. If the relation between payment and work put towards goals are not equal the
employees can get demotivated. The employees in an organisation or making certain efforts and
they also expect various rewards from the organisation. Below mentioned are three exchange
relationship which arises in the organisation between the inputs and outputs which are given and
received by the employees:
Overpaid inequity: Overpaid in equity refers to paying extra to the individuals more than their
input. In this way the other employs may get jealous of the employees who are getting overpaid
and may get demotivated.
Underpaid inequity: Underpaid iniquity is a circumstance in which the employees are paid less
than they are putting in their efforts. In this way the employs do not generate productivity in the
organisation.
Equity: Equity is when an employee in the organisation is of the thought that the efforts they are
putting in our generating output for them. It is suggested in Adams equity theory that employees
in the organisation should be paid according to equity. It is necessary that employees are neither
underpaid nor overpaid (Schunk and DiBenedetto, 2020).
Various advantages of this theory include that individual will only be concerned with
their own achievements and with the help of equity in an organisation the people can be easily
motivated by the employers. It will also contribute to words various theory of practises for
motivation in the organisation.
However, the demerits of this theory are that the measure of perception of people
regarding input and output for an organisation is difficult. It is also seen that this theory does not

clearly shows what are the actions which are to be taken in order to re-establish equity in the
organisation. The standard measurement of effort that is input of the employers and the reward
cannot be properly done and it may differ from person to person.
With the help of this theory organisation can effectively improve the performance of
employees in the organisation and also productivity. It is necessary to bring in positive and
supporting behaviour from the employs in the workplace. It is necessary to make sure that there
are no conflicts and even says between the employs and the productivity of the organisation can
be increased by increasing the productivity of employees. In this way all the stories help the
organisational culture and behaviour positively.

References
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Karatepe, O.M., Rezapouraghdam, H. and Hassannia, R., 2020. Job insecurity, work engagement
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