Role of Absenteeism in Organizational Performance

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is absent from the work as it was scheduled. (W & D.M., 1988) Absenteeism’s monitoring is one of the duties of Human Resource Management but often it is overlooked. If absenteeism is not properly managed then it has certain implication in employee and management relationship. Having a good employee and management relationship is must for better organizational performance. (Allen, 2007) It is necessary for the management to have a keen eye on absenteeism issue if there is increased absenteeism, the management has to establish and sort out the reasons behind increased absenteeism. Cost of scheduled work-off is inevitable loss to the overall organizational performance but the cost of unscheduled work-off could be controlled by using techniques such as; flexible timing, disability management, and other wellness programs. (Allen, 2007)

Absenteeism is a key factor in overall organizational performance; therefore, it is necessary to find out what are the reasons behind bad management of absenteeism so that it could be resolved. Robbins (2003) found that organizational system and organizational culture are one of the main reasons behind bad management of absenteeism. If the culture of organization is a permissive nature then in this case the employees will utilize the sick leave even though they are not sick because they know that if they don’t use the sick leaves then these will be wasted. But if management is able to manage the unnecessary leaves then the employees will think a lot before they could manipulate sick leaves. (Robbins, 2003)

It was stated by Jones (2006) that there are three components of an activity or program which decide the organizational performance. The three components are performance efficiency, economy, and effectiveness. While the other researcher Draft (2000) states that organizational performance is dependent on how much effectively and quickly an organization achieves its goals and objectives. However, financial performance of an organization is different and it is a part of overall organizational performance. Financial performance or financial figures help us analyzing the effect of absenteeism on overall organizational performance. (Kirchhoff, 1977)There is different opinion of researchers about the role of absenteeism in organizational performance. Most of them believe that as the human resource management is able to control absenteeism, the organizational performance is improved. (Barney, 1997)

Research Methodology

To conduct this research and chose a methodology, there are different options which could be chosen. One of these options is qualitative research methodology. Qualitative research methodology has certain pros and cons as everything in this universe does have. We can complete our research relatively easily and with less consumption of time and money by following qualitative research methodology. But the one of cons of qualitative research methodology is that qualitative research methodology lacks in generalizability. We cannot apply the results of a qualitative research to whole population as the sample size is very limited. The sample size in qualitative research is limited as we tend to scrutinize the factors in detail which requires quantitative research methodology. (Punch, 2009)

The advantages of quantitative research methodology are that its results can be generalized across the whole industry to identical firm or across population with identical characteristics. The other advantage of quantitative research methodology is that complicated statistical measures can be applied but qualitative research methodology requires relatively huge amount of time and financial resources. One thing is worth to mention here is that the most of the research works which are carried out in Social Sciences field, follow qualitative research methodology. As basically our research work is related to Social Science and we have limited time and financial resources therefore we will follow the qualitative research methodology. But there is analysis part in this research where there is requirement of percentage analysis, therefore, quantitative research methodology will be applied in the relevant section, otherwise, qualitative research methodology will be followed. (Punch, 2009)

Population

All the companies operating in Maldives which are facing issue of absenteeism are the target population of the research.

Sample

50 managers and employees from different companies of Maldives which are facing the issue of absenteeism will be the sample of this research.

Data Collection

There are many resources options through which required data and information could be collected like; books, journals, newspapers, websites, surveys, questionnaires, interviews, diaries… Data collection options are broadly categorized in two categories. One category is called primary data and the other one is called Secondary data. Secondary data is relatively easy to gather and less expensive but for this particular research we can’t solely rely on the secondary data as there are two issues in it. First issue is that there is limited secondary data available on the topic in context of Maldives. Second issue which is more important is that secondary data is not a ‘firsthand’ data; it can be manipulated by a second person for personal interest and according to the requirement. Due to the two issues mentioned, this research will be depending more on primary data. (Punch, 2009)

For primary sources we have options like; survey, questionnaire, interview… There are different advantages and disadvantages of each method, discussing advantages and disadvantages of each and every method are beyond the scope of this paper. For this research, primary data will be collected through a survey. A questionnaire will be developed which will be consisted on questions related to the subject of this paper and distributed among 50 managers and employees of such companies which are operating in Maldives and have expatriates in their human resources. Most of the questions of the questionnaire will have five options; Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. The respondents will have to choose one option from the given five options. Relevant secondary data will also be collected; secondary data will be collected through the available books, journals, newspapers, websites… (Punch, 2009)

Data Analysis

In has been described in the previous section that data will be gathered through both resources; the primary data resources and the secondary data resources. The data which will be collected through survey questionnaire will