Abstract
Among the main causes of absenteeism are health problems, emotional problems, and inadequate work-family policies (WFP). This paper analyses the impact of the existence and accessibility of WFP on work absenteeism, by considering the mediating role of the well-being, which includes emotional as well as physical or health problems, that is generated by these policies. We differentiate between the existence of the WFP and its accessibility, as the mere existence of the WFP in an organisation is not enough. Additionally, workers must be able to access these policies easily and without retaliation of any kind. The model includes the hierarchy and the gender as moderating variables. To test the proposed hypotheses, a structural equation model based on the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) approach is applied to a sample of employees in the service sector in Spain. On the one hand, the findings show that the existence of WFP has no direct effect on absenteeism; however, accessibility to these policies does have a direct effect on absenteeism. On the other hand, both the existence and accessibility of WFP have positive direct effects on emotional well-being. In addition, emotional well-being is positively related to physical well-being which, in turn, promotes a reduction in absenteeism. Finally, significant differences in the relationship between the existence of WFP and emotional well-being confirm the special difficulty of female managers in reconciling family life and work life.
Highlights
Absenteeism from work is a phenomenon that is currently of great interest to researchers and concern to managers [1]
Our findings show that the existence of work-family policies (WFP) has no direct effect on absenteeism but, on the other hand, the accessibility of WFP does have a direct effect on absenteeism
We carried out two evaluations of the global model: (1) the first evaluation took into account all of the indicators of the model before evaluating the measurement model, and (2) the second evaluation was subsequent to the study of the measurement model and the elimination of indicators that do not meet the necessary requirements
Summary
Absenteeism from work is a phenomenon that is currently of great interest to researchers and concern to managers [1]. The interference of work with respect to the family (versus interference of the family with respect to work) generates a decrease in the level of satisfaction of individuals in the organisation [28,29]. This type of conflict encourages employee absenteeism and resignation from their post within the company [26,27]. Bansari [33] argues that a fear of losing their employment and a lack of potential opportunities will force workers to continue in their current jobs, but places them in unsatisfactory conditions that result in an increase in absenteeism levels in the workplace. Resolving the conflict and increasing job satisfaction would contribute to reducing or avoiding the likelihood that employees will be absent or even resign from their jobs [34]
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