Abstract
Presenteeism not only poses an economic cost to organizations but also generates reduced work efficiency and quality. The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between occupational stress, public service motivation (PSM), health, and presenteeism. A total of 981 nurses from 109 public hospitals in Jilin Province in China were enrolled in our study. Model 5 in the PROCESS micro was employed in order to verify the mediating effect of PSM and the moderating effect of nurses’ health on the relationship between occupational stress and presenteeism, and simple slope analysis was used to further determine the moderating effect. Both challenge stress and hindrance stress had a positive impact on presenteeism among nurses. PSM is a mediating variable between occupational stress and presenteeism. Health moderates the path between challenge stress and presenteeism, with the association being significant for nurses with low levels of health. Future policy making should focus on preventing presenteeism by reducing excessive stress, enhancing PSM, and improving nurse health and wellness.
Highlights
Presenteeism is the loss of organizational productivity among workers who show up to work but are not fully productive due to health problems [1], or else the behavior of employees who go to work even though they are not feeling well and should take sick leave [2,3], which is the definition adopted by most organizational scholars [4]
Two county-level public hospitals, a public general hospital, and a public traditional Chinese medicine hospital were chosen from each county in Jilin Province, and 25% urban public hospitals were chosen from each city in Jilin Province in our study
After controlling for gender, age, marital status, education level, working years, and working hours per day, both challenge stress and hindrance stress are predictive of presenteeism among nurses
Summary
Presenteeism is the loss of organizational productivity among workers who show up to work but are not fully productive due to health problems [1], or else the behavior of employees who go to work even though they are not feeling well and should take sick leave [2,3], which is the definition adopted by most organizational scholars [4]. Presenteeism is a more serious cause of productivity loss [5]. Presenteeism poses a relatively substantial economic threat to organizations, and can generate reduced work efficiency and downgraded productivity in the workforce. In the USA, the indirect cost of presenteeism has reached $36 billion nationally, with a mean productivity loss of 13.2% [7]. Chief nurses in China estimated an average decline in work efficiency of 21.01% due to presenteeism among their subordinates [8]. A study showed that, in addition to the productivity loss due to presenteeism, it results in an 18% increase in the number of patient falls and medical errors [9]
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