Abstract

Absenteeism is one of the most serious concerns of a company. Manufacturing

company as well as service sector company is facing the problem of growing
absenteeism. It is a serious problem in a manufacturing or labour –intensive
company as compared to a service sector company. This paper discusses the
absenteeism of the employees of Hare Ram cotton Mill of Pandhurna, district
Chhindwara. The major factors derived on the basis of suggestions by the
employees that affect absenteeism are- Welfare Facilities, Salary, Leave Policies,
Supervisors’ behavior, Present working conditions and Transportation facility.
Key Words: absenteeism, perception, employee welfare, leave policies, supervisor’s
behaviour
Introduction:

Absenteeism is the failure of employees to report for work when they are
scheduled to work. Employees who are away from work on recognized holidays,
vacations, approved leaves of absence, or approved leaves of absence would not be
included. Absenteeism is becoming a serious practice in labor oriented industries
especially in those large industries where laborers are working in mass. It is a matter
of prime concern for the supervisors and managers. They have to find the ways to
overcome absenteeism.

Absenteeism is a serious workplace problem and an expensive occurrence for

both employers and employees seemingly unpredictable in nature. A satisfactory
level of attendance by employees at work is necessary to allow the achievement of
objectives and targets by a department. Employee Absenteeism is the absence of an
employee from work. It is a major problem faced by almost all employers of today.
Employees are absent from work and thus the work suffers. Absenteeism of
employees from work leads to back logs, piling of work and thus work delay.

“Absents constitutes a single day of missed work”(Martocchio & Jimeno 2003). “An
individual’s lack of physical presence at a given location and time when there is a
social expectation for him or her to be there”. (Martocchio & Harrison, 1993)

What exactly is “Employee Absenteeism”?

Employee Absenteeism can be defined as stress that leads to work

exhaustion. Sadly, it is the most gifted and committed employees that tend to burn
out first. Because of their high standards and tendency towards perfectionism, these
employees end up burning the candle at both ends.

It refers to workers absence from their regular task when he is normally

schedule to work. According to Webster’s dictionary, “Absenteeism is the practice or
habit of being an absentee and an absentee is one who habitually stays away from
work.”

According to Labour Bureau of Shimla: - Absenteeism is the total man shifts

lost because of absence as percentage of total number of man shifts scheduled to
work.

In other words, it signifies the absence of an employee from work when he is

scheduled to be at work. Any employee may stay away from work if he has taken
leave to which he is entitled or on ground of sickness or some accident or without
any previous sanction of leave

Trends in Absenteeism

Surveys indicate the following generalities in absenteeism:

The higher the rate of pay and the greater the length of service of the employee, the
fewer the absences

 As an organization grows, there is a tendency towards higher rates of

absenteeism 

 Women are absent more frequently than men 

 Single employees are absent more frequently than married employees 

 Younger employees are absent more frequently than older employees 

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 Older employees are absent for longer periods of time than younger
employees 

 Unionized organizations have higher absenteeism rates than non-unionized
organizations 

Causes of Absenteeism

The causes of absenteeism are many and include:

 serious accidents and illness 


 low morale 

 poor working conditions 

 boredom on the job 

 lack of job satisfaction 

 inadequate leadership and poor supervision 

 Personal problems (financial, marital, substance abuse, childcare eldercare etc.) 

 poor physical fitness 

 inadequate nutrition 

 transportation problems 

 the availability of income protection plans 

 stress 

 excessive workload 

 employee discontent 

Review of Literature:

Hone, (1968) emphasized on lack of commitment and felt that “absenteeism is

related to new values and norms which are developing among the work force as a
result of technological developments. Work and leisure are now cherished by the
worker, and these he wants to enjoy along with monetary benefits he gets for his
services. Economic consideration, therefore, decides whether one would like to be
absent from work.”

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Muchinsky, (1997) conducted study in the same field on the basis of literature
review on employee absenteeism and concluded employees’ withdrawal behavior
apart from turnover. Studies examining the psychometric properties of absence
measures are reviewed, along with the relationship between absenteeism and
personal, attitudinal and organizational variables chronic absentees into four
categories such as; entrepreneurs, status seekers, family oriented and sick and old.

Martocchio & Jimeno (2003) stated that” We propose a model of the

personality types that have a higher likelihood of using absenteeism to their benefit
(i.e.to recharge and change negative affect) and therefore have the absence be
functional (i.e., positive affect and higher productivity upon returning to the job) rather
than dysfunctional (i.e., negative affect and person is still unproductive or has less
productivity than before the absence event). We conclude by emphasizing the
theoretical contributions that this model makes and by suggesting ways in which the
model could be tested.”

Ruchi Sinha(2010) in her study reveals that there only 4% employees remain
away from their work and that too due to personal reasons. There is very high level
of job satisfaction among the employees.

Nisam (2010) stated that stress among employees, health problems,

loneliness at workplace, non-cooperation of colleagues causes absenteeism at
workplace.

K.A.Hari Kumar (2012) stated that the rate of absenteeism in Madura Coats is
very high.

Jacobson (1989) has investigated a direct relationship between monetary

incentives and work floor attendance.

Wolter H.J. Hassink & Pierre Koning (2009) find statistically significant
differences in absence patterns across groups of workers with different eligibility
statuses depending on their attendance records and whether they had previously
won. One finding is that absenteeism rose among workers who, having won already,
were ineligible for further participation. Nevertheless, and although the reduction in
firm-wide absence associated with the lottery drifted from 2.4 percentage points to
1.1 percentage points after seven months, the authors conclude that the lottery was
of net benefit to the firm.

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Rationale:

Cotton industry, like other public sector, has become one of the highly
competitive sectors in India. There are various domestic and international factors that
affect the textile/cotton industry in India. HR is the most vital resource of an
organization. It is the central figure in the profit and growth of an organization. If the
rate of absenteeism is high in the cotton industry which is labor oriented one, the loss
in terms of productivity, working hours, profit, growth etc. can be understood easily.
Absenteeism must be managed in such industries in such a manner that employees
can give their best output to maintain the organization’s productivity and profit. Thus,
the researchers got inspired to work on the above said topic to know the causes of
absenteeism and to propose measures to overcome them.

Objectives:

1. To study variation in the perception of absenteeism of male and female

employees.

2. To study variation in the perception of absenteeism of lower level employees

and middle level employees.

3. To study variation in the perception of absenteeism of uneducated and

educated employees.

4. To study variation in the perception of absenteeism of less experienced and

more experienced employees.

5. To study variation in the perception of absenteeism of young and aged

employees.

6. To study variation in the perception of absenteeism of low income and high

income employees.

7. To study variation in the perception of absenteeism of unmarried and married

employees.

Hypotheses:
1. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism of male and
female employees.

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2. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism of lower

level employees and middle level employees.

3. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism of

uneducated and educated employees.

4. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism of less

experienced and more experienced employees.

5. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism of young

and aged employees.

6. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism of low

income and high income employees.

7. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism of married

and unmarried employees.

Scope for Future Studies:

1. Area of present study can be increased from district level to state level,
national level, as well as international level.
2. Sample size can be increased.
3. Other demographic details can be added in the future research.
4. Various other statistical tests can be used for comprehensive analysis &
findings.
5. Research can be used by the top level of the govts. & other agencies for their
purpose.

6. Comparative study of Employee absenteeism in various types of industry can

be done.

Limitations of the Study:

However data is collected with full level of our efforts, yet there remain some
flaws in our study. While doing research, many problems are there to be faced by the
researcher. The prime difficulties which are been faced in collection of data in this
study are discussed below:

 Short time period: The time period for carrying out the research was short as
a result of which many facts have been left unexplored. 

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 Lack of resources: Lack of time and other resources as it was not possible to
conduct survey at large level. 

 Lack of resources: Lack of time and other resources as it was not possible to
conduct survey at large level. 

 Small number of respondents 100 employees responded. Larger number of
respondents could have made results more significant. 

 Unwillingness of respondents: During collection of the data many employees
were unwilling to fill the questionnaire due to lack of time. Respondents were
having a feeling of wastage of time for them. 

Research Methodology:
Sample

Data is collected from 100 employees of Hare Ram Cotton Mill of Pandhurna,
district Chhindwara

Sampling Type

The simple random sampling method is used to collect data.

Study

The study is exploratory in nature.

Tools

Primary data is collected from the respondents by using a self-developed

questionnaire. Likert scale has been used with the responses strongly agree, agree,
cannot say, disagree and strongly disagree. SPSS 11.0 version is used to analyze
the primary data

Books, internet web sites, journals etc are used as a source of secondary
data.

Data Analysis:

T-test is used to test hypothesis at 5 % level of significance. Data

collected from the respondents has been analyzed using different demographic
details of respondents such as gender, age, experience, marital status, education,
monthly income, level.

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Results & Discussion:

Group Statistics

Std. Error
GENDER N Mean Std. Dev iation Mean
Observations male 60 2.9898 .26719 .03449
female 40 2.9644 .32316 .05110

Table 1.0
Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test f or
Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interv al of the
Mean Std. Error Diff erence
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Difference Difference Lower Upper
Observations Equal variances
.003 .956 .428 98 .670 .0254 .05935 -.09239 .14317
assumed
Equal variances
.412 72.671 .682 .0254 .06165 -.09749 .14827
not assumed

Table 1.0 exhibits that as the p value (at 5% level of significance) came out to
be 0.670 and this value is greater than ‘α’ level of 0.05 Hence the null hypothesis
that there is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism by male
employees and female employees can be accepted.

Group Statistics

Std. Error
POST N Mean Std. Dev iation Mean
Observ ations low lev el 97 2.9795 .29047 .02949
middle lev el 3 2.9870 .31673 .18287

Table 2.0
Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test f or
Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interv al of the
Mean Std. Error Diff erence
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Diff erence Diff erence Lower Upper
Observations Equal variances
.041 .840 -.044 98 .965 -.0076 .17060 -.34614 .33097
assumed
Equal variances
-.041 2.105 .971 -.0076 .18523 -.76753 .75236
not assumed

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Table 2.0 exhibits that as the p value (at 5% level of significance) is 0.965 and
this value is greater than ‘α’ level of 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis that there is
no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism by lower level
employees and higher level employees can be accepted.

Group Statistics

Std. Error
Education N Mean Std. Dev iation Mean
Observ ations uneducated 37 3.0685 .27006 .04440
educated 62 2.9277 .29229 .03712

Table 3.0

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test f or
Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interv al of the
Mean Std. Error Diff erence
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Diff erence Diff erence Lower Upper
Observations Equal variances
.074 .787 2.385 97 .019 .1408 .05905 .02361 .25800
assumed
Equal variances
2.433 80.661 .017 .1408 .05787 .02565 .25596
not assumed

Table 3.0 exhibits that as the p value (at 5% level of significance) is 0.019 and
this value is less than ‘α’ level of 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis that there is no
significant difference in perception of absenteeism by uneducated employees and
educated employees cannot be accepted. The comparison of mean values of
uneducated employees and educated employees indicates that uneducated
employees perceive higher absenteeism in the industry than that of their
counterparts.

Group Statistics

Std. Error
Experience N Mean Std. Dev iation Mean
Observ ations less experienced 36 2.8889 .19940 .03323
more experienced 64 3.0307 .31985 .03998

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Table 4.0
Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test f or
Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interv al of the
Mean Std. Error Diff erence
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Diff erence Diff erence Lower Upper
Observations Equal variances
2.878 .093 -2.408 98 .018 -.1419 .05891 -.25877 -.02495
assumed
Equal variances
-2.729 96.882 .008 -.1419 .05199 -.24505 -.03867
not assumed

Table 4.0 exhibits that as the p value (at 5% level of significance) is 0.018 and the
value is less than ‘α’ level of 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis that there is no
significant difference in perception of absenteeism by employees with more
experience with the organization and those with less experience with the
organisation can not be accepted. The comparison of mean values of less
experienced employees and more experienced employees indicates that more
experienced employees perceive higher absenteeism in the industry than that of their
counterparts.

Group Statistics

Std. Error
AGE N Mean Std. Dev iation Mean
Observ ationsy oung 46 2.9720 .27101 .03996
adult 54 2.9862 .30685 .04176

Table 5.0
Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test f or
Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interv al of the
Mean Std. Error Diff erence
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Diff erence Diff erence Lower Upper
Observations Equal variances
.477 .491 -.243 98 .809 -.0142 .05838 -.13002 .10167
assumed
Equal variances
-.245 97.860 .807 -.0142 .05780 -.12887 .10052
not assumed

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Table 5.0 exhibits that as the p value (at 5% level of significance) is 0.809 and
this value is greater than ‘α’ level of 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis that there is no
significant difference in the perception of absenteeism by the young employees and
aged employees can be accepted.

Group Statistics

Std. Deviation Std. Error

SALARY N mean Mean
Observationslow paid 95 2.9826 .29161 .02992
high paid 5 2.9244 .26985 .

Table 6.0

Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test f or
Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interv al of the
Mean Std. Error Diff erence
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Diff erence Diff erence Lower Upper
Observations Equal variances
.050 .823 .436 98 .664 .0581 .13341 -.20660 .32288
assumed
Equal variances
.468 4.506 .662 .0581 .12433 -.27230 .38858
not assumed

Table 6 exhibits that as the p value (at 5% level of significance) is 0.664 and this
value is greater than ‘α’ level of 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis that there is no
significant difference in the perception of by lower income employees and higher
income employees can be accepted. The comparison of mean values of lower
income employees and higher income employees indicates that lower income
employees perceive that there is higher absenteeism in the industry than that of their
counterparts.

Group Statistics

Std. Error
Marital Status N Mean Std. Dev iation Mean
Observ ations married 61 2.9954 .23605 .03022
unmarried 39 2.9550 .35977 .05761

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Table 7.0
Independent Samples Test

Levene's Test f or
Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means
95% Confidence
Interv al of the
Mean Std. Error Diff erence
F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed) Diff erence Diff erence Lower Upper
Observations Equal variances
2.837 .095 .679 98 .499 .0404 .05953 -.07773 .15854
assumed
Equal variances
.621 58.967 .537 .0404 .06506 -.08977 .17059
not assumed

Table 7.0 exhibits that as the p value (at 5% level of significance) came out to
be 0.499 and this value is greater than ‘α’ level of 0.05. Hence the null hypothesis
that there is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism by married
employees and unmarried employees can be accepted. Married employees perceive
higher absenteeism in the industry than that of their counterparts.

Findings & Conclusions:

There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism by male
employees and female employees. There is no significant difference in the
perception of absenteeism by lower level employees and higher level employees.
There is no significant difference in perception of absenteeism by uneducated
employees and educated employees.

The comparison of mean values of uneducated employees and educated

employees indicates that uneducated employees perceive higher absenteeism in the
industry than that of their counterparts. There is no significant difference in
perception of absenteeism by employees with more experience with the organization
and those with less experience with the organization.

The comparison of mean values of less experienced employees and more

experienced employees indicates that more experienced employees perceive higher
absenteeism in the industry than that of their counterparts. There is no significant
difference in the perception of absenteeism by the young employees and aged
employees. There is no significant difference in the perception of absenteeism by
lower income employees and higher income employees.

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The comparison of mean values of lower income employees and higher

income employees indicates that lower income employees perceive that there is
higher absenteeism in the industry than that of their counterparts. There is no
significant difference in the perception of absenteeism by married employees and
unmarried employees. Married employees perceive higher absenteeism in the
industry than that of their counterparts.

The major factors derived on the basis of suggestions by the employees that
affect absenteeism are- welfare facilities, Salary, Leave policies, Supervisors’
behavior, Present working conditions and Transportation facility.

Suggestions:
The respondents were asked to give suggestions to reduce absenteeism. On
the basis of their response, following major suggestions can be helpful in reducing
absenteeism in the cotton mill.

 Employee welfare facilities should be improved. 


 Salary should be increased. 

 Leave policies should be revised. 

 Supervisors’ behavior should be modified. 

 Present working conditions should be improved. 

 Transportation facility should be provided. 

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References:
Martocchio & Jimeno (2003) Employee absenteeism as an affective event.

Nisam (2010), “Ways to Reduce Employee Absenteeism with special reference to

UNITED ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES LTD. KOLLAM” pp53-54.

Hone, A., (1968) “High absenteeism and high commitment”, economic and Political
Weekly, 3(21), pp 31-32.

Jacobson, Stephen. 1989. “The Effects of Pay Incentive son Teacher Absenteeism.”
Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 280–86.

JAI Press (Greenwich, Conn.) 13(2) pp 227 - 241.

K.A Hari kumar (2012) “A Study on Absenteeism among the employees of Madura
Coats Pvt. Ltd., Madurai”, p. 69

Muchinsky, P. M., (1977) “Source for employee absenteeism” Vocational Behavior,

10(1), pp 221-230.

Ruchi sinha(2010) “Absenteeism of Employees at Indchemie Health Specialities

Pvt. Ltd. Mumbai, ” Academy of Management Studies, Dehradun.

Wolter H.J. Hassink And Pierre Koning (2009), “DO FINANCIAL BONUSES
REDUCE EMPLOYEEABSENTEEISM? EVIDENCE FROM A LOTTERY”,
Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 62, No. 3 (April 2009), Cornell
University.pp. 327-342.

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