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The purpose of this paper is to seek a deeper understanding of presenteeism by utilising the perspective of job crafting to explore how a selected group of physicians make sense of their decision to attend work while ill and of their experience of doing so. Job crafting implies that employees not only respond to their job description, but also proactively change tasks, relationships and perceptions in order to experience work in meaningful ways.

A narrative methodological framework involving interviews was adopted to explore the ways in which a selected group of 20 Norwegian hospital physicians engaged in job crafting during presenteeism. The resulting data were analysed using theory-led thematic analysis utilizing the theoretical perspective of job crafting.

It was evident that physicians were indecisive and insecure when evaluating their own illness, and that, via task, relational and cognitive crafting, they trivialised, endured and showcased their illness, and engaged in presenteeism in various ways. Furthermore, physicians to some extent found themselves caught in dysfunctional circles by contributing to the creation of a work environment where presenteeism was maintained and seen as expected.

Future research should address a wider range of contexts, and use longitudinal methods to explore the multifaceted, context-specific and evolving nature of presenteeism and job crafting in more depth. Interventions aimed at countering the negative implications of presenteeism should address the issue from both a social and a systemic point of view.

The findings extend the current understanding of presenteeism by demonstrating the multifaceted and evolving nature of the ways in which personal illness and presenteeism are perceived and enacted over time.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating effect of employee turnover intentions (ETI) on the relationship between perceived human resource management (PHRM) and presenteeism. The notion of presenteeism is described as coming to work when unwell and unable to work with full capacity.

Using social exchange theory and structured equation modelling, hypotheses were tested using responses from 200 full-time Australian employees.

The results show that employees’ PHRM significantly influenced presenteeism and ETI. As predicted, PHRM negatively influenced presenteeism and ETI positively influenced presenteeism. The direct influence of PHRM on presenteeism was fully mediated by ETI.

This paper suggests that organisations expecting to address presenteeism by promoting PHRM may experience an adverse result when employees conceal turnover intentions.

Form the perspective of social exchange, this study focuses on ETI as a mediating variable and sheds light on employees’ hidden attitudes about their jobs to explain how PHRM can influence presenteeism in Australia. Consequently, the findings should help both organisations and employees to identify ways that PHRM can reduce presenteeism.

This paper examines the unique meditational role of ETI in the relationship between PHRM and presenteeism, which is an area of inquiry that has not been fully examined in the literature of HRM. In addition, it examines presenteeism among Australian employees in relation to PHRM.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents and consequences of the phenomenon of presenteeism in the educational sector. Particularly, the authors tested the relationship between excessive work responsibilities, presenteeism, work-to-family conflict and workers’ emotional exhaustion.

A self-report questionnaire was administered to 264 teachers in secondary schools.

A subsequent mediation of presenteeism and work-to-family conflict between work responsibilities and emotional exhaustion was found.

The findings of this study will provide help today’s organisations for better understanding and managing the new phenomenon of presenteeism in order to promote workers’ well-being and performance.

The aim of this study was two-fold: first, to examine the noxious effects of presenteeism on employees' work well-being in a cross-cultural context involving Chinese and British employees; second, to explore the role of supervisory support as a pan-cultural stress buffer in the presenteeism process.

Using structured questionnaires, the authors compared data collected from samples of 245 Chinese and 128 British employees working in various organizations and industries.

Cross-cultural comparison revealed that the act of presenteeism was more prevalent among Chinese and they reported higher levels of strains than their British counterparts. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that presenteeism had noxious effects on exhaustion for both Chinese and British employees. Moreover, supervisory support buffered the negative impact of presenteeism on exhaustion for both Chinese and British employees. Specifically, the negative relation between presenteeism and exhaustion was stronger for those with more supervisory support.

Presenteeism may be used as a career-protecting or career-promoting tactic. However, the negative effects of this behavior on employees' work well-being across the culture divide should alert us to re-think its pros and cons as a career behavior. Employees in certain cultures (e.g. the hardworking Chinese) may exhibit more presenteeism behaviour, thus are in greater risk of ill-health.

This is the first cross-cultural study demonstrating the universality of the act of presenteeism and its damaging effects on employees' well-being. The authors' findings of the buffering role of supervisory support across cultural contexts highlight the necessity to incorporate resources in mitigating the harmful impact of presenteeism.

The opposite of absenteeism, presenteeism, is the phenomenon of employees staying at work when they should be off sick. Presenteeism is an important problem for organizations, because employees who turn up for work, when sick, cause a reduction in productivity levels. The central aim of the present study is to examine the longitudinal relationships between job demands, burnout (exhaustion and depersonalization), and presenteeism. We hypothesized that job demands and exhaustion (but not depersonalization) would lead to presenteeism, and that presenteeism would lead to both exhaustion and depersonalization over time.

The hypotheses were tested in a sample of 258 staff nurses who filled out questionnaires at three measurement points with 1.5 years in‐between the waves.

Results were generally in line with predictions. Job demands caused more presenteeism, while depersonalization was an outcome of presenteeism over time. Exhaustion and presenteeism were found to be reciprocal, suggesting that when employees experience exhaustion, they mobilize compensation strategies, which ultimately increases their exhaustion.

These findings suggest that presenteeism can be seen as a risk‐taking organizational behavior and shows substantial longitudinal relationships with job demands and burnout.

The study suggests that presenteeism should be prevented at the workplace.

The expected contribution of the manuscript is not only to put presenteeism on the research agenda but also to make both organizations and scientists attend to its detrimental effects on employees' wellbeing and (consequently) on the organization.

Utilising the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the purpose of this paper is to examine how aspects of the psychosocial work environment (namely, job demands and resources) are associated with presenteeism, and in particular, whether they are indirectly related via burnout and work engagement.

A cross-sectional survey of 980 working Australians measured the relationships between job demands (i.e. workplace bullying, time pressure and work-family conflict), resources (i.e. leadership and social support), burnout, work engagement and presenteeism. Path analysis was used to test the proposed hypotheses whilst controlling for participant demographics (i.e. sex, age, work level, duration and education).

Higher job demands (workplace bullying, time pressure, and work-family conflict) and lower job resources (leadership only) were found to be indirectly related to presenteeism via increased burnout. While increased job resources (leadership and social support) were indirectly related to presenteeism via improved work engagement.

The findings are consistent with the JD-R model, and suggest that presenteeism may arise from the strain and burnout associated with overcoming excessive job demands as well as the reduced work engagement and higher burnout provoked by a lack of resources in the workplace. Intervention programmes could therefore focus on teaching employees how to better manage job demands as well as promoting the resources available at work as an innovative way to address the issue of rising presenteeism.

This study is important as it is one of the first to examine the theoretical underpinnings of the relationship between presenteeism and its antecedents.

Some underlying mechanisms regarding presenteeism still remain unclear, namely, the construct of “presenteeism climate” and the importance of “leadership” Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) for presenteeism. In order to shed some light into this phenomenon, the purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a new scale of presenteeism climate.

In Study 1, the authors identified a pool of items from the literature and, in Study 2 (n=147) the authors tested 26 items that were pilot studied with exploratory factor analysis. In Study 3 (n=293) the authors tested a three-factor model – extra-time valuation, supervision distrust and co-workers competitiveness – with confirmatory factor analysis.

Results showed that LMX has a negative correlation with presenteeism climate. Study 3 also showed that this structure remained invariant with additional samples from employees working in hospitals from Ecuador (n=90) and China (n=237). Finally, the authors included suggestions for future studies to overcome the limitations of this research.

This study has implications for managers and academics, as it emphasizes the importance of favorable behaviors between leaders and employees in order to decrease presenteeism and its adverse consequences.

The main contribution consists of identifying dimensions of presenteeism climate and developing measures. Additionally, the authors contribute to the literature on leadership by studying the influence of LMX on presenteeism climate.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationships between high-performance work systems (HPWSs) and four employee outcomes – job satisfaction, employee engagement, presenteeism and well-being – in Indian call centres.

A path model is developed to investigate the direct and mediation effects between the assessed variables. The study utilised a survey of 250 call centre employees working in five business process management firms based in India.

The findings indicate that HPWSs have a positive relationship with job satisfaction, engagement and well-being. Job satisfaction also had a positive relationship with engagement and presenteeism, and engagement was positively related to presenteeism and well-being. However, there was no significant direct effect of HPWS on presenteeism. Mediation analysis showed that HPWS has an indirect effect on well-being via engagement and also via job satisfaction and engagement combined.

HPWS significantly increases job satisfaction and employee engagement and indirectly influences employee well-being via these outcomes. However, job satisfaction and employee engagement was also found to increase presenteeism, which, in turn, can reduce employee well-being. These findings contribute to the HPWS theory and the literature on employee well-being, and have implications for HR personnel and call centre management.

Given the well-established challenges with employee retention in Indian call centre environments, one solution may be the adoption of a more strategic approach to HRM using HPWS. Such an approach may enhance employees’ perceptions that HPWS practices would have a positive influence on job satisfaction, employee engagement and employee well-being.

Many studies have shown that an unfavourable psychosocial environment increases the risk of mental and physical illness, as well as absenteeism, or sickness absence. However, more costly than absenteeism is presenteeism, where a person is present at work even though disabled by a mental or physical illness. We sought to identify factors explaining why workers would come to work even when their health is impaired. In a cross‐sectional design data were collected from 3825 employees of a Canadian organisation. The results show a high occurrence of presenteeism: workers went to work in spite of illness 50% of the time. Presenteeism propensity (the percentage of days worked while ill over total number of sick days) was higher for workers who were ill more often. Heavier workloads, higher skill discretion, harmonious relationships with colleagues, role conflict and precarious job status increased presenteeism, but decision authority did not. Workers reporting high psychological distress and more severe psychosomatic complaints were also more likely to report higher rates of presenteeism. These results suggest that stress research should not only include absenteeism as an outcome indicator, but also consider presenteeism.

This study aims to investigate the two-way interaction effects of empowerment and hardiness on the presenteeism of hotel employees.

Data were collected from 358 hotel employees in Sabah, East Malaysia, via a questionnaire survey and analyzed using multiplicative regression analysis.

The results confirm the presence of a two-way interaction effect between empowerment and hardiness on the presenteeism of hotel employees at a significance level of 0.01. Further analysis indicates that the higher the level of hardiness, the greater is its negative effect on the relationship between empowerment and the presenteeism of hotel employees.

The survey was cross-sectional and causal relationships among the variables cannot be inferred. The results were gathered from selected hotels and should not be generalized to all hotel employees in Sabah, East Malaysia.

The findings challenge the assumption of a positive association between empowerment and presenteeism and demonstrate that different levels of hardiness can influence this relationship. When empowering employees, management staff should also consider the provision of resilience-related training programs for less hardy employees. This would enable such employees to handle their presenteeism behavior arising from the increased level of empowerment.

This study provides the first empirical evidence of a two-way interaction effect of predictors on the presenteeism of hotel employees and could serve to influence mainstream journals in the presenteeism literature. Researchers could apply the analytical approach to examine future studies relating to higher-order effects of predictors on the presenteeism of hotel employees.