Employee commitment: the key to absence management in local government?
Leadership & Organization Development Journal
ISSN: 0143-7739
Article publication date: 1 December 2002
Abstract
Employee absence has been widely acknowledged in recent years to be a growing problem for organisations, including local government organisations. This paper investigates linkages between organisational commitment, absence management policies and absenteeism in local government from three perspectives – those of human resource practitioners, line managers and employees – through a series of semi‐structured interviews and focus group discussions. The conclusion is reached that much employee absence in this sector can be attributed to the adoption of a “compliance”, or transactional approach, to employee commitment by both management and employees, and the absence of shared values between the employees and the organisation (internalised commitment). The implications which this holds for the management of employee absence are also examined.
Keywords
Citation
Bennett, H. (2002), "Employee commitment: the key to absence management in local government?", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 23 No. 8, pp. 430-441. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730210449320
Publisher
:MCB UP Ltd
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited