ASSIGNMENT

ON
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTIVATION AND
ABSENTEEISM

SUBJECT – ORGANISATIONAL BEHAIOUR

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

DR. RUPINDERBIR KAUR SHEFFALI SHARMA
MBA – B
1ST SEMESTER

UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL, CHANDIGARH

INTRODUCTION
Organizational behaviour (often abbreviated as OB) is a field of study that investigates the
impact individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organisations, for the
purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness.
Organizational behaviour is a field of study, meaning that it is a distinct area of expertise with
a common body of knowledge. It studies three determinants of behaviour in organizations:
individuals, groups, and structure. In addition, OB applies the knowledge gained about
individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behaviour in order to make organizations
work more effectively.
The purpose of OB research is to establish the predictability of human behaviour in given
circumstances. Robbins therefore divides his model into dependent and independent variables.

MOTIVATION
The term “motivation” is derived from the Latin term movere, which means “to move” (Baron,
Henley, McGibbon & McCarthy, 2002). Campbell and Pritchard (1976, p.78) define
motivation as “a label for the determinants of the choice to initiate effort on a certain task, the
choice to expend a certain amount of effort, and the choice to persist in expending effort over
a period of time.” Schultz and Schultz (1998) regard motivation as simply the personal and
workplace characteristics that explain why people behave the way that they do on the job. Work
characteristics in this regard refer to specific characteristics of a person’s job, such as its task
variety, whereas personal characteristics include those determined by a person’s personality,
such as an intrinsic need for achievement. Emphasis on either intrinsic motivation (by, for
example, Gouws, 1995) or goal or reward-driven behaviour (by, for example, Beach, 1980) has
also been noted. Du Toit (1990) distinguishes between individual characteristics, such as
people’s interests, values and needs, work characteristics, such as task variety and
responsibility, and organisational characteristics, such as the policies, procedures and customs
of an organisation. Depending on the particular approach adopted, motivation theories are
generally classified into three categories, namely needs-based, cognitive and drive-and
reinforcement theories (Baron et al., 2002).
THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

1. Maslow – hierarchy of needs

This is the earliest and most widely known theory of motivation, developed by Abraham
Maslow (1943) in the 1940s and 1950s.
This theory condenses needs into five basic categories. Maslow ordered these needs in his
hierarchy, beginning with the basic psychological needs and continuing through safety,
belonging and love, esteem and self-actualization. In his theory, the lowest unsatisfied need
becomes the dominant, or the most powerful and significant need. The most dominant need
activates an individual to act to fulfil it. Satisfied needs do not motivate. Individual pursues to
seek a higher need when lower needs are fulfilled.
1. Physiological needs: e.g. food, water, shelter, sleep.
 2. Safety and security: e.g. secure source of income, a place to live, health and well-being.

3. Social Needs: e.g. integration into social groups, feel part of a community or a group;
affectionate relationships.

4. Self Esteem: e.g. respect for a person as a useful, honourable human being.

5. Self-actualization: e.g. individual’s desire to grow and develop to his or her fullest
potential.
As each level is adequately satisfied, we are then motivated to satisfy the next level in the
hierarchy, always new and higher needs are coming.

2. Herzberg – Two factor theory

It is also called motivation-hygiene theory.

This theory says that there are some factors (motivating factors) that cause job satisfaction, and
motivation and some other also separated factors (hygiene factors) cause dissatisfaction. That
means that these feelings are not opposite of each other, as it has always previously been
believed.
Opposite of satisfaction is not dissatisfaction, but rather, no satisfaction. According to Herzberg
(1987) the job satisfiers deal with the factors involved in doing the job, whereas the job
dissatisfiers deal with the factors which define the job context.

Herzberg’s five factors of job satisfaction (motivating factors):

• achievement
• recognition
• work itself
• responsibility
• advancement

Herzberg’s five factors of job dissatisfaction (hygiene factors):

• company policy and administration
• supervision
• salary
• interpersonal relationships
• working conditions

ABSENTEEISM
Absenteeism has been defined as the non-attendance of employees for scheduled work
(Chadwick-Jones et al., 1982). Unscheduled absences can be divided into voluntary and
involuntary absences. The former are associated with an employee's motivation to attend while
the latter are associated with the inability to attend through perhaps illness or injury (Brooke
and Price, 1989). From a managerial perspective, the voluntary form of absence might be
considered more important as it is this form of non-attendance, which is determined by factors
that often lie within management's control.
PERSPECTIVES OF ABSENTEEISM
The economic perspective attempts to explain absenteeism from a labor-leisure choice
perspective (Barmby, Orme and Treble, 1991; Drago and Wooden, 1992). Specifically, it is
suggested that employees will be absent when the benefits of not working outweigh the costs
of not working. Employees are assumed utility-maximizing individuals whose decisions on the
desired levels of income, leisure and risk will affect the amount of absence taken. Economists
consider that pay, fringe benefits and policy issues are integral to explaining work attendance.
The psychological perspective draws on the expectancy theory of employee motivation as
developed by Vroom (1964) to explain absence behavior. Employees are assumed to make
decisions to maximize valued outcomes (Steers and Rhodes, 1978). Particular emphasis is
placed on the affective or emotional responses of employees to organizational and job
conditions, and the cognitive evaluation of an employee's decision not to attend. It is assumed
that employees enter organizations with preconceived orientations, cognitions and
expectations, which, if not met, will induce absenteeism.
The third approach to the study of absenteeism - that taken by sociologists - incorporates
concepts from both the economic and psychological models, but adds a structural dimension
relating to the work setting and environment (Brooke, 1986; Brooke and Price, 1989). Social
influence theories hold that members of a work unit develop shared attitudes about their jobs
and organization because they have opportunities for information exchange, share similar
structural characteristics, and generally experience the same events. Situational and social
influences tend to create relatively homogeneous attitudes within work units, including shared
levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
Employee absenteeism is an expensive management problem that concerns employers. The
absences of employees at workplace generate huge losses of productivity and its cost to
organizations millions of dollars each year (Dalton & Mesch, 1991; Mason & Griffin, 2003).
The one of the most common theories is the notion that absenteeism is caused by employees
avoiding a painful or dissatisfying work situation which due to lack of motivation.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MOTIVATION AND ABSENTEEISM

Motivation and absenteeism have a positive relationship. The workplace motivation is an
important factor for employees to perform better and give their best to the organization. In
today’s competitive environment organizations thrive and survive on their human resources to
motivate their employee’s best possible manner. The work place motivation is key factor for
the better performance, productivity and growth of any organization. Employees are very often
absent from workplace due to lack of motivation in their job. Job satisfaction has been noted
as one of the factors influencing an employee’s motivation to attend. The main reason which
is leading to them being absent from their work is low motivation. Low motivation means that
the employee is not happy about his job and is not provided with adequate and effective
motivation to do his job. As a result, he prefers to stay absent from work.