Investigating Employee Absenteeism at Dad's Pies, New Zealand

This research report analyzes the factors contributing to employee absenteeism at Dad’s Pies, a New Zealand-based restaurant. It investigates the impact of factors like wage, gender, and age on employee attendance, using a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis. The study also addresses ethical considerations such as transparency and confidentiality. The research aims to identify the causes of absenteeism and propose solutions to mitigate these issues, thereby improving revenue and the organization's image. The report reviews existing literature, outlines the research problem, details the methodology, and discusses the significance of the research, ultimately providing insights into managing employee absenteeism effectively.

Running head: EMPLOYEE ABSENTEEISM
Employee Absenteeism
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to analyze the different factors affecting the employees
that leads to the promotion of employee absenteeism. For this purpose, an organization in New
Zealand known as Dad’s Pies was selected. The employees of this organization were surveyed
with the purpose of understanding what the reasons for their recurring absenteeism from the
organization were. In order to carry out the research, a mixture of qualitative and quantitative
analysis was carried out where the secondary sources were reviewed and analyzed in an
extensive manner. The various reasons for the absenteeism of employees such as their age, their
cultural outlook and the differences of such with the predominating culture of the individual, the
gender of the person and the different problems they face in a formal organization, were all
analyzed. While carrying out the research, the various ethical issues were taken in to
consideration such as transparency and confidentiality.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review Section...............................................................................................................4
Research Problem Section...............................................................................................................7
Organizational Background.........................................................................................................7
Research Problem........................................................................................................................7
Research Purpose.........................................................................................................................7
Research Questions......................................................................................................................7
Limitations of the Study..............................................................................................................8
Methodology Section.......................................................................................................................8
Methodology................................................................................................................................8
Research Design..........................................................................................................................9
Structure of Research Design..................................................................................................9
Primary Data..........................................................................................................................10
Secondary Data......................................................................................................................10
Sampling................................................................................................................................10
Development of Interview Schedule.....................................................................................11
Procedure...............................................................................................................................11
Validity..................................................................................................................................11
Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................11

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Ethics.............................................................................................................................................12
Significance of the Research.........................................................................................................13
Timeline.........................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................15
Appendices....................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
An organization can only function in an efficient manner when all of its constituent parts
function properly (Magee et al., 2017). One of the most important constituent unit of an
organization is that of the employees. It is only with the help of the employees that the
production level of the organization increases. The objective of the management level of any
private company is to increase the revenue earnings of that organization (Schaumberg & Flynn,
2017). This is only possible when the right consumers are attracted and that the services and the
products are provided to them in abundance.
Dad’s Pies is one such private organization that operates out of New Zealand. It is a very
popular restaurant that is known for the pies it provides ("Dad's Pies", 2019). Pies is one of the
most loved food of the people in Australia and in New Zealand, hence, the products of this
company are in high demand among the people living there. The quality of the food products,
especially the pies are unrivalled by any other nearby restaurant.
This research paper focuses on the issue of the absenteeism of the employees that can be
seen taking place at a considerable level within the organization known as Dad’s Pies. The main
objective of this study is to analyze the various factors that impact or influence the employees to
be absent from work, such as that of wage, gender and age factors (Nunes et al., 2017). The
motivation behind this study is to analyze these problems and to find a method by which all these
problems can be resolved by the administration of the organization.
The data will be collected with the help of semi structured interviews. In the data analysis
part, this primary data will be analyzed with the help of qualitative analysis. The paper will also
include a section on the various ethics which will be followed in order to ensure an efficient

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execution of the research.
Literature Review Section
Factors leading to absenteeism of employees
Employees are human beings. When leaves are less, employees tend to be absent at
workplace (Mudaly & Nkosi, 2015). However, there are cases when absence of some cases
where the employee have been absent for many respective days and the absence occur on a
regular basis. Thus, the absenteeism is noticed by the company. Furthermore thesis statement of
the following research proposal provides an insight behind the reasons and causes of this events
(Kocakulah et al., 2016). The literature sources provided in the section are secondary, that is,
they are articles and research proposals that have results from their researches.
The first literature source discusses about the effects that collective voice of absenteeism
exerts on the exit voice framework that makes the conceptual problem limited to at least two
(Rabarisone et al., 2017). Absenteeism cannot be easily classified as any form that either exit or
voice. Furthermore, the exit voice frame work has no effect in providing any adequate manner of
explanation on the conditions. The second literature source discusses about the bad effect of
organization on the health of the employees. It discusses about having a bad work environment
could effect in increase in absence of employees (Raub, 2017).
The most important factor that leads to employee’s absenteeism in the working place is the
Negative work environment. Magee (2017), stated that in most of the cases this is found out that
the companies often tries to save money by squeezing the employees pay, their benefits and
respect. Robinson (2017), suggested, that the negative work environment occurs in the
organization when the employee relations are becoming worse in the working place. The author

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stated that suppose anybody has argued with the co-workers will required to take more days off
for managing stress and recuperate (Malik et al., 2015). Thus this study presents the proper
evaluation of the negative environment in the working place imposes the employees to remain
absent in their working days.
The factor that ensures employee absenteeism in the working place is the Waning Job
commitment. Schaumberg (2017), suggested that the employees has various career options that
is many looks for the job in the high reputed organizations, thus they remain absent and remain
inattentive towards their present job. Flynn (2017), argued that the positive environment in the
organization will also be unable to retain the interest of the employees towards the job. Thus this
study proposed that whatever may be the reason the employee along with the winning
commitment might began to show the less professionalism at their work by involving the
tardiness and the absenteeism.
The personal hardships are one of the factor that leads to employee absenteeism in the
organization. Nunes (2017), suggested that the workers faces hardships are related to employee
absenteeism as the personal hardship may include the family troubles, financial woes, health
problems and other. The author also commented that the problems in the employee’s personal
life often manifest at work in the forms of absenteeism. Pampel (2017), argued that if the
company wants to retain the employees then the company are required to show flexibility and
patience. Thus this study shows that the personal hardships are leading the employees to remain
absent in their working days.
The major factor that leads the employees to remain absent in their working days is that the
poor leadership in the organization. Mudaly (2015), commented that the employees are more
prone to remain unsatisfied with their work because of the poor leadership in the organization.

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Nkosi (2015), argued that the leaders are required to motivate their employees towards their job
and are required to provide them the task as per their specialization field. Thus the study analyses
the leadership strategies that the organization are required to utilize for attracting the employees
towards their work (Cloutier et al., 2015).
Effect on absenteeism on the organization
The major financial effects of absenteeism on the organization is that it lowers the business
production. Kelley (2016), stated that the organization suffers a lot for the poor quality of goods
and services that will lead to the poor production in business. The absenteeism creates a daily
huge level losses in any type of business. Mitchell (2016), argued that the company are required
to replace the employees those remain absent in most of the working days. Thus the article help
the readers to analyze the loss of production in the organization.
The business faces great loses by the impact of the Absentee Leadership in the business.
Rabarison (2017), commented that the organization faces great losses as there is no one to guide
the employees and the performances of the co-workers gets hampered by the business. The other
leaders are also required to look after the other team and follow their performances. Bish (2017),
suggested that the leaders who are unable to provide directions, feedbacks and maintain
employee encouragement they ended up in leading to negative working environment for the
employees. Thus this article help the leaders to get the clear analysis regarding the impact of the
employees working as a leader or the manager of any organization (Lindsey Hall et al., 2016).
Thus, both the article showed the impact of the poor attendance regarding on the working
place and how it affects the entire production process by affecting the performances of the co-
workers as well. The unplanned work absence also leads to great financial losses in the

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organization and this lowers the ability of the organization to compete in the business process
(Perko et al., 2016).
The literature gap identified in the previous section that the first article showed the proper
evaluation of the negative environment in the working place imposes the employees to remain
absent in the working days but the information provided in that article lack evidences. This
study will draw light on the impact of negative working environment along with proper
evidences which will prove that the information provided are authentic. In the second article the
literature gap identified is that the article state too much about the effects of the employees with
the winning job commitment on employee absenteeism but are required to draw lights on the
reasons behind this. This study will include the reasons for the effect of employee’s winning Job
commitment on employee absenteeism. In the third and fourth article there has been lack of
practical examples for showing the impact of personal hardship and poor leadership on employee
absenteeism. This study will be based on the practical examples for showing such effects on
employee absenteeism.
Research Problem Section
Organizational Background
Dad’s Pies is a private organization that operates out of New Zealand. It is a very popular
restaurant that is known for the pies it provides. The restaurant started at a small organization in
the year 1981 when they started selling small pies near the Red Beach. From there, it became so
famous that the restaurant started to grow in size and now it is one of the most popular pie selling
restaurant of the country. Dad’s Pies exports its products to the countries in Oceania, especially
to Australia where its products are in large demand.

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Research Problem
The research paper looks in to the issue of employee absenteeism that is proved with the
help of the records of the employees in the organization. It is a problem because it leads to loss
of revenue of the organization since the presence of employees mean that the production level
increases (Yuan & Wang, 2018). It is thus a loss of intellectual capital and a loss of time and
money on the part of the management.
Research Purpose
The purpose of the research is to investigate the various factors that contribute to the
problem of employee absenteeism and to analyze the impact of such factors on the revenue and
image of the organization.
Research Questions
The research seeks to answer the following research questions -
RQ1. How can we analyze the different factors due to which employees are absent from their
work?
RQ2. How can we analyze the influence of these factors affecting the employees not to be
present in their work place?
RQ3. How does the aspect of employee absenteeism affect the revenue and image of the
organization?
Limitations of the Study
This research is important to conduct because the issue of employee absenteeism severely
impacts the stakeholders (Mone & London, 2018). The stakeholders are the people who are

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invested heavily in the effective functioning of the organization as the profit of the organization
means a profit on the part of the stakeholders themselves. Moreover, this research can also
provide valuable information to the other kinds of organization which employees a high level of
employees (Slack, Corlett & Morris, 2015). They can analyze the various factors that negatively
impact the presence of an employee and take the effective measures in order to reduce the scope
of such factors.
While under taking this research, several limitations were faced such as the limitation of
time and money. Not enough money was granted and as a result, the sample population surveyed
was too low. Efficient quantitative analysis could not be done as a consequence of limited time
frame.
Methodology Section
Methodology
The research study will continue the research work by collecting primary data that is the
data those are collected during the interviews or by the surveys methods. The interpretivism
can be defined as one form of the qualitative methodology and this relies upon both the
trained researcher and the human subjects for measuring some phenomena and involving
both the observations and interviews (Kumar, 2019). The interpretivist approach is based on
the naturalistic data collection process like interviews and observations. The interpretivist
approach involves the researchers to interpret about the study elements and it integrates the
human interest into the study. The development of this interpretivist philosophy is based
upon the critique of the positivism in the social sciences and this philosophy emphasizes the
qualitative analysis.

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The qualitative method of research is selected for this study because in this research the
researcher are able to examine the participants through interviews and observations that why
the events occur, what happens and what those event meant to the participants studied. This
research focuses on the events that transpire and on the outcomes of such event from the
participant’s perspectives.
This study will be following the interpretivism approach and it is appropriate for the
research study because the research issue is explained by the researcher based on the already
established research and literature.
There are different forms of the qualitative analysis like thematic approach,
phenomenological, narrative, ethnography and other. This study will follow the thematic
approach as this research study will gather information like by the open ended interviews
where the respondents will be able to make their interpretations more clear (Taylor,Bogdan
& DeVault, 2015).
The primary data will be collected for this research process by the collection of the data
from the primary sources that is by organizing the semi structured interviews. The study will
chose very small number of employees of the organization and they will be chosen by the
random sampling process. In the semi-structured interviews the researcher will protect the
identity of the respondents by ensuring confidentiality in the learning process (Cridland et al.,
2015).
Research Design
Structure of Research Design
The research will follow a thematic approach in order to assess the case study of