Causes and types of Abseenteeism in the workplace

2.1.1 Absenteeism

In general absenteeism is defined as the failure to show for work or any other habitual duty. It can be noted that everybody from time to time misses a day at work, however, when an employee misses too many days at work it becomes a problem. This would disrupt work schedules adding workloads on other employees since they have to perform additional duties or it may happen that the work is simply not done. Therefore, absenteeism obstructs the good functioning of production and efficient running of an organisation. Lokke A.K, Eskildsen. J and Jesen. T. W (2007) similarly reported that the traditional definition of absence is about not being physically present at the place and time the employee is expected to be.

Davey. M.M, Cummings. G, Newburn-cook. C. V, and Lo. E. A (2009) performed a study among nurses in the medical sector defined absenteeism as the failure to appear to work when planned, and according to them absence is measured by frequency or amount of work days missed. Another definition by Nicholson (1977, p. 237) said that "Absence, in the language of economics, is an unpredictable variation in the firm's labour supply and in labour-intensive and technologically primitive settings which can produce costly concomitant variations in output".

Furthermore, Harvey and Nicholson (1993, p. 841) study recognized that absenteeism was the major cause of lost productivity in business and industry. In a similar vein, Buschak. M, Craven. C and Ledman. R (1996) stated that absenteeism is a difficulty that every organisation or business faces creating costs and productivity problems. That is, absenteeism leads to additional work load on the majority of employees who have shown up for work. This type of situation tends to create dissatisfaction, frustration, stress and fatigue among employees.

2.1.2

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