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The aim of the study was to understand the social and organisational factors in the workplace that shape managers' actions and attitudes towards workers with repeated short-term sickness absence.

This was a qualitative interview study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 managers at 15 different workplaces. The analysis had an abductive approach, using thematic analysis which focused on the latent content of managers attitudes towards employees with repeated short-term sickness absence.

Results indicate that the managers' views of people on short-term sick leave shift and move through several phases, which was analysed as they were acts in a play, where their given roles are prescribing which actions to take given the available resources for acting these parts. These acts depict an increasingly controlling attitude, where the sick leave is ultimately seen as an individual problem best managed by repressive tactics.

Role theory offers the possibility to analyse managers' attitudes and behaviours by considering the workplace and the manager-employee relationship as regulated by norms and organisational factors.

Suggests that this study may be recognized as a contribution to the lack of economic evaluations of investments in health promotion programmes. Also contributes to the evaluation of the Swedish work life experiment in the beginning of the 1990s, and the establishment of the Swedish Work Life Fund (SWLF). States that perceptions of the profitability of investments in work life‐oriented rehabilitation, including changes in work organization, changes in work methods and competence development, were investigated in 108 randomly selected organizations. The findings indicate that the investments, which were partly financed by grants from the SWLF, contributed to a reduction in sick‐leave and an increase in productivity. The median value of the pay‐back period was estimated to be 3.0 years. Public organizations, a considerable number of employees, a high percentage of women employees, a significant reduction in sick‐leave and an ongoing organizational change, are some of the characteristics of investments with a short pay‐back period. Concludes that the findings further indicate that grants from the SWLF were an important factor in the initial implementation of investments.

The study intends to examine employee relations with a changing workforce resulting from the business-like transformation in the charity sector. The authors investigated sector-specific employment practices that can alleviate job stress (as a given and which has been made worse by the transformation). Developed from the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation framework, the findings can inform human resource management practices in its new efficiency-seeking business model.

The authors collected both quantitative (through a staff survey and administrative records of sick leave in the previous 12 months) and qualitative data (through interviews and focus groups) from one branch of an internationally well-established and UK-based religious charity between 2017 and 2018.

The quantitative results support a strong mediating effect of job satisfaction between job stress and staff sick leave. The negative correlation shown between job stress and job satisfaction is subject to paid staff perception of meaningful work and their level of involvement in decision-making, with the latter having a stronger moderating effect. The qualitative data provides further contextualized evidence on the findings.

It is important for charities to uphold and reflect their charitable mission towards beneficiaries and paid staff during the shift to an efficiency-seeking business model. Charities should involve their new professional workforce in strategic decision-making to better shape a context-based operational model.

The study examined employee relations in the non-profit charity sector with a changing workforce during the transition to a more business-oriented model. In particular, the authors revealed sector-specific factors that can moderate the association between job stress and absenteeism, and thereby contribute to the understanding of human resource management practices in the sector.

Family‐supportive employment benefits have become increasingly popular in recent years as an employer response to the increasing labor force participation of women, and the consequent need to balance work and family life. Economic theory predicts that these types of fringe benefits could at least partially pay for themselves through a combination of increased productivity and lower wages. A survey of 120 employers in an upstate New York county provides data on benefits packages and outcome measures that are used to test this hypothesis. We find that employers who offer flexible sick leave and child care assistance experience measurable reductions in turnover. Employers who offer benefits like flexible scheduling policies and child care also appear to offset part of the cost of these benefits by paying lower entry‐level wages than do their competitors.

To characterize changes in work hours across a career in law enforcement.

N = 113 police officers enrolled in the BCOPS cohort were studied. The police officers started their careers in law enforcement between 1994 and 2001 at a mid-sized, unionized police department in northwestern New York and continued to work at this police department for at least 15 years. Day-by-day work history records were obtained from the payroll department. Work hours, leave hours and other pay types were summarized for each calendar year across their first 15 years of employment. Linear mixed-effects models with a random intercept over subject were used to determine if there were significant changes in pay types over time.

A total of 1,617 individual-years of data were analyzed. As the police officers gained seniority at the department, they worked fewer hours and fewer night shifts. Total paid hours did not significantly change due to seniority-based increases in vacation time. Night shift work was increasingly in the form of overtime as officers gained seniority. Overtime was more prevalent at the beginning of a career and after a promotion from police officer to detective.

Shiftwork and long work hours have negative effects on sleep and increase the likelihood of on-duty fatigue and performance impairment. The results suggest that there are different points within a career in law enforcement where issues surrounding shiftwork and long work hours may be more prevalent. This has important implications for predicting fatigue, developing effective countermeasures and measuring fatigue-related costs.

The purpose of this paper is to take cognisance of the work–life balance (WLB) challenges facing working women in Oman, make a review of the family-friendly policies (FFPs), related provisions in labour laws of various nations, and identify and suggest some FFP-based solutions for attracting women to private sector jobs.

Initially, desk research was used to review the labour laws of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and some pioneering countries known for their workplace policies using the major electronic databases and official websites. An exploratory approach was used to understand the lived experience of participants using 46 in-depth interviews. The data were analysed and the findings were explained and contextualised in terms of the Arab culture, wider social processes and consequences related to WLB.

The interviews revealed that the majority of women in the private sector are not fully aware of the labour laws and FFPs, and are not satisfied with the existing policies, as they do not provide the right WLB. Women in the private sector demand flexible working hours, privacy at work, reduced work hours and certain other benefits akin to the government sector. Omani Labour Law needs a review of FFPs in line with the best global practices and Oman’s diversification initiatives. The provision, awareness and implementation of FFPs in the workplace are necessary to attract Omani women to private sector jobs.

This research focusses on Oman in particular and GCC countries in general in its coverage of Omani women workers. The outcomes would be important for the specific segment but would have limited potential to generalise.

The study of WLB and FFPs is of interest for both academia and industry globally. In its strategic vision 2040, Oman aims to encourage, support and develop the private sector to drive the national economy. To retain and boost the socio-economic development in the post-oil economy, the success of the private sector will depend on the participation of the Omani workforce. The role of working Omani women will be pivotal, for they form a substantial part of the skilled human resources inventory.

Women working in Oman are influenced by labour laws, organisational culture, traditional attitudes and societal values and influences. The voices of women working in the private sector indicate a great need to create awareness of existing policies, ensure their compliance and devise additional workplace policies to enable women to contribute to the labour market.

There is a dearth of studies examining work policies and employment of women in the context of Oman in particular and the GCC Countries in general. Even in the extant literature, the sectoral imbalance between the government and private sector has not been explored from the perspective of WLB and FFPs. This study presents a unique approach and findings in this regard.

To investigate the effects of payor–provider integration on the operational performance of health service provision. The research explores whether integration governs agency problems and tilts the incentives of diverse actors toward more systematic outcomes.

A two stage multimethod case study of occupational health services. A qualitative stage aimed to understand the reasons, mechanisms, and outcomes of payor–provider integration. A quantitative stage evaluated the performance of the integrated hospital against fee-for-service partner hospitals with a sample of 2,726 patients.

Payor–provider integration mitigates agency problems on multiple levels of the service system by complementing formal governance mechanisms with informal mechanisms. Compared to partner hospitals, the integrated hospital yielded 9% lower the total costs of occupational injuries achieved primarily by emphasizing conservative care and faster recovery.

Focuses on occupational health services in Finland. Provides initial evidence of the effects of payor–provider integration on the operational performance.

Vertical integration may provide systematic outcomes but requires mindful implementation of multiple mechanisms. Rigorous change management initiative is advised.

For patients, the research shows payor–provider integration of health services can be implemented in a manner that it reduces care costs while not compromising care quality and customer satisfaction.

This study provides a rare longitudinal analysis of payor–provider integration in health-care operations management. The study adds to the knowledge of operational performance improvement of health services.

This article is based on the recently published report, Managing Sickness Absence in the Police Service: A Review of Current Practices, which was commissioned by the Home Office and the Health and Safety Executive. It aims to use this to inform approaches to reducing the number of days lost to ill health in the police forces in England and Wales.

The research involved focus groups and interviews with over 300 police staff and officers in a representative sample of seven police forces. The report is based on an in‐depth analysis of absence management in the case study forces and presents the views of all levels of staff.

The findings identify the clear themes and issues that are vital for the effective management of absence in the police forces, but these insights are also clearly relevant to all organisations.

The key messages from the research are that absence management requires a mix of approaches to support the vast majority who are genuinely sick and to deter the small minority whose absence is not health‐related. A good clear absence policy is essential but not sufficient. It must be supported by reliable data that are presented in an understandable format. Wider issues also need to be considered, such as the actual causes of absence so that appropriate solutions are provided. The key player in all this is the line manager who must be confident in their role, well trained and capable of using their discretion in managing their staff who are absent.

The paper identifies the clear themes and issues that are vital for the effective management of absence in the police forces which can also be applied to other organisations.

The purpose of this research paper is to provide practitioners and researchers with guidance and ideas for benchmarking employee benefits in companies providing professional services. The research addressed employee benefits in multi‐owner accounting firms.

Data from a survey of a large number of multi‐owner accounting firms (CPA firms) were analyzed to examine professional employee benefits and to look at the relationship between firm size and benefits offered.

An analysis of survey results suggested that larger firms offer better benefits than smaller firms. Larger firms tend also to be more profitable. Various employee benefit metrics were examined.

The survey was limited to accounting firms in the United States, so the findings may have limited value for researchers and practitioners in other countries.

The better benefits offered by larger accounting firms may allow them to attract better personnel, possibly accounting for their greater profitability. If this is indeed true, then a good benefit package may well be a key success factor for accounting firms, and possibly for other professional services. Firms seeking to improve their competitive position may, therefore, find it advantageous to benchmark their professional employee benefits against the benefit packages of larger more profitable competitors.

This paper examines professional employee benefits in multi‐owner accounting firms and identifies metrics that could be useful to practitioners in benchmarking those benefits. The metrics identified and other findings may provide practitioners with ideas for benchmarking benefits in other professional service organizations.

The purpose of this article is to assess the ability of formal equal employment opportunity (EEO) programmes and workplace agreement making to facilitate work and family balance for women workers in Australia.

This article uses documentary analysis and semi‐structured interviews in six Australian organisations that are required to develop formal EEO programmes.

Formal EEO programmes and agreement making are limited in their ability to promote work and family‐friendly arrangements at the workplace. Informal arrangements and managerial discretion are important in realising work and care balance.

The paper is Australian based, and the case studies were confined to six organisations, which restricts the findings.

Leave and work arrangements need to be required within agreements and EEO programmes. Most programmes gravitate towards minimum requirements, hence, it is important to ensure that these minimum requirements provide for work and care reconciliation. Programmes beyond the workplace, such as funded childcare, are important in this context.

The article highlights that formal mechanisms cannot achieve work and care reconciliation for women workers if they are built upon very limited minimum requirements, are voluntary and are dependent upon a bargaining process at the workplace.