International Journal of Management Research and Social Science (IJMRSS) ISSN 2394-6407(Print)

Volume 7, Issue 2, April – June 2020 ISSN 2394-6415(Online)

Presenteeism: The Productivity Paradox

Dr. Vijit Chaturvedi*1, Prof. Sanjeev Bansal2
1
Professor, Amity Business School, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
2
Dean, Faculty of Management Studies, Amity Business School, Amity University, Noida,, Uttar Pradesh

Abstract — As organization are trying to achieve more by less it is evident that the pressure is increasing on the physical and
mental health of employees in varied form. Presenteeism refers to reporting at workplace even when ill or even if unwell.
This approach is slowly increasing due to the rising reassure of remaining competitive and excelling others in the unending
race of competition. This is a more serious issue of concern as the data and conditions of absenteeism can be recorded,
measured and diagnosed but presenteeism is comparatively difficult to assess and work upon. In fact presenteeism seems to
be affecting the health of the employees much core than absenteeism thus requires a workplace attention in order to preserve
the future vitality and organization credibility as a preferred place to work.

The present paper emphasizes on various aspects of this concern with respect to the available factors leading to
presenteeism, causes and suitable measures to reduce the dysfunctional outcome of this. It also highlights different measures
available to measure presenteeism highlighting its striking features from absenteeism. The discussion will aid in bringing
forth the relevance of such pertinent issue ensuring long term employee health, organization culture and climate practices
intact and ensuring healthy employer employee relation along with employee productivity and efficiency.

Keywords — Self-esteem; Resilience; College Students

1. Introduction 2. Review of Literature

Presenteeism relates to severe situation wherein an Sendenet.al(2016) in their study it was found that
employee is not well but still keeps coming to organization Female physicians reported sickness presenteeism more
and this has caused directly and indirectly affects both often than male physicians. Itis also found in different
organisation, employees physical, mental and studies that based on gender the reason of presenteeism
psychological health and also affects the long term also gets affected. In a study conducted by Chatterji and
retention and possibly leading to absenteeism also. Thus, Tilley (2002) also found that different statistical methods
the subject is of prime importance not only a concern for can be applied and based on various researches and internal
organization leadership or organization commitment surveysreason affecting presenteeism can be identified.
studies but largely with an employee perspective to
understand how it affects gradually the health and well - Vézina et al (2011),in their study found that it is not
being apart form also affecting organization loyalty and only the formal methods by which it can be controlled but
commitment. also by different informal methods which may include
looking after their personal needs and other satisfaction
This topic is of great interest as today organization is causing factors. In a study conducted by Aronsson and
spending a lot on employee productivity, performance and Gustafsson (2005) it was found that organization needs to
maintenance of talent, but if issues like presenteeism clarify different reactions when it comes to people
prevail it may create difficulty for the whole organization. management , each such action should be based on
Thus it can be said as one way of sickness but still employee interest well being and outcome ensuring their
employees are present. Health and well- being are amongst personal and professional excellence.
the key agenda for country’s growth and perspective that is
one reason why apart from absenteeism in which Gosselin and Lauzier (2010), however, argue that
employees do not report and presenteeism in which while efforts to quantify the incidence and costs of
employees report to workplace even when they are ill. presenteeism are still risky, evaluations to date justify
Thus, organization are nowadays focusing more on continued in.The outcome of presenteeism may lead to
introducing absence policies and return to work interviews consistent loss, lack of productivity and brand name as well.
visit to home and focusing on absence score and trigger A study by Gilbreath and Karimi (2012) investigates ‘job-
points which slowly gradually leads to health related issues stress-related presenteeism’ (aform of psychological strain
for individuals. This can be defined as under pressure to be caused by job stress) and specifically the impact of
at work. supervisor behaviour and role modelling. They found that

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DOI: 10.30726/ijmrss/v7.i2.2020.72010
International Journal of Management Research and Social Science (IJMRSS) ISSN 2394-6407(Print)
Volume 7, Issue 2, April – June 2020 ISSN 2394-6415(Online)

job stress and presenteeism were positively correlated and capability. There can also other reasons related to outside
that negative supervisor behaviours had the strongest the organization, because of external pressure, industry
associations with employee job-stress-related presenteeism. reason, and country related reasons.

Lu et al (2013) found that supervisor support acted as a How are Absenteeism and Presenteeism related?
bufferbetween presenteeism and exhaustion. The Health
Enhancement ResearchOrganization found that employees There is a deep relationship between them as
who reported it was difficult to eat healthily atwork were absenteeism matters because it may cause difficulty in
93 per cent more likely to have high presenteeism. Those various aspects and similarly presenteeism is more harmful
who reportedthat their employer had little interest in as it causes double affect in terms of productivity and
supporting employee efforts to becomingmore physically performance. There are various researches available about
active were 123 per cent more likely to have high absenteeism but the most important ones include aspects
presenteeism. like Periodically occurring issues, it involves active
participation of employees in decision making and in
Problem Statement - Is Presenteeism a more suggesting so that ways to avoid causes of presenteeism.
comprehensive productivity paradox than absenteeism? Strong reasons, if timely action is not taken then few
causes which may appear casual can cause deep effect and
3. Research Questions loss.

Extreme reason
 What is the impact and outcome of presenteeism on
organization?
These whether related to employee reason of health or
 What are the causes of presenteeism on organization professional causes may lead to total loss of talent.
and individual perspective?
 What are the different measures to report presenteeism  The difference between mental and physical illness
and interventions adopted by organization to reduce its
impact? The distinction between mental and physical illness is
also important because employees believe that it is
Research Design – Descriptive type of research. perceived very differently in the workplace, which could
lead to different reporting behaviour. It had been reported
4. Objectives of Study that majority people agree that they are not able to report
their problem to boss, least people felt that organization
 To understand the conceptual role of Presenteeism in takes steps to intervene and resolve problem, it is true that
the Literature. that managers are equipped with the tools they need to be
 To understand the organization and individual reason able to confidently and effectively support their staff,
leading to presenteeism whether they are experiencing stress or any other related
 To study different methods to measure Presenteeism issues.
and interventions to regulate presenteeism
 Based on the nature of work
6.1 Objective 1
Based on the nature of work it is thought that
Managers should consider and discuss with the employee
 To understand the conceptual role of Presenteeism in the mutual impact of work and illness and what
the Literature. circumstances might warrant situation. A checklist because
of above three should be prepared and reviewed
The first objective is explained based on the periodically so that based on these dimensions a consistent
conceptual literature. From this it is found that there are review of same can be assessed.
two key streams of interest in the literature to date (Johns,
2010): Based on reason related to occupational health and
6.2 Objective 2
safety factor related to culture and other business
conditions may affect the level of presenteeism. As stated
in the study conducted by Aronsson identified different  To understand the organization and individual reason
reasons of why presenteeim prevails which can be due to leading to presenteeism
various factors affecting mental, physical or spiritual health
of people but still people keep coming to organization, this There are several factors that lead to presenteeism
may affect organization performance and employee on right from organizational level, team level or professional

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DOI: 10.30726/ijmrss/v7.i2.2020.72010
International Journal of Management Research and Social Science (IJMRSS) ISSN 2394-6407(Print)
Volume 7, Issue 2, April – June 2020 ISSN 2394-6415(Online)

level. Some common reason which the theory reiterates  Verbal abuse or discrimination
includes, at Professional Level  Handling chemicals
 Need of others (Affiliation and acceptance needs) - The  Awkward postures
biggest reason of presenteeism can be because of lack  Shift work.
of affiliation or acceptance may be on the part of
family, known ones or other acquaintance whether at Personal factors - At the same time as experiencing
personal front or at workplace leading to reporting at organisational pressures, individuals have their own
work place thus causing work place conflcit conditions motivations for attending work while ill. Some of these
as well. relate to circumstances at home that might be unconducive
 High Concerns for peers: Employees want to spare to restor not wanting to suffer alone so that people prefer to
their time with whenever it comes to higher, additional be with colleagues.
workload when there is no replacement and will
therefore come to work when ill. Vulnerable Groups – There are certain groups as
 Behavior of Manager and supervisors: It has also been identified in the literature which demonstrate the
found in several studies that importance of managers vulnerable group that are prone to presenteeism with many
and supervisors as role-models. An exemplary behavior reasons,
on the role of managers needs to exemplify by their  Insomniacs: This group has a higher absence rate but
behavior, responsiveness and performance. pose a risk at work as they have a higher accident rate
 Influence of work culture and work ethics and resulting while driving and a three-fold greater risk of having two
Organization Commitment-Dew et al (2005) describe or three serious road accidents. They also reported poor
three very different work cultures which nevertheless all self-esteem, less efficiency and less job satisfaction at
foster presenteeism identified a perception that taking work when, compared with performing sleepers (Léger
time for development. This work ethic appeared to be et al, 2006).
passed down as perceived wisdom from older and  High-skilled white collar workers: Presenteeism was
longer serving employees. These all together lead to higher in high-skilled white collar workers
organization commitment in way of affective, (approximately 50 %), compared to other occupational
normative and continuance. classes (35 to 38 %), a pattern that observed for mean
 Organization Policies, Culture and Economic Climate – days of presenteeism (Eurofound, 2012).
Most of the time irrespective of employee wellness and  Being childless: Employees who had recently married
recognition program etc. it is important that or those with one child (young child) were less likely to
organization policies should be employee centric exhibit presenteeism, where as childless employees
promoting health, wellness and recognition of were more likely to come for work when they were sick.
employees and ensuring that organization is growth  Older workers: the image for older workers isn't
promoting. entirely clear. a number of the conditions like
 Work time arrangements and sickness benefits- depression, migraine and allergies which are related to
Different researchers have found the fact changes in the presenteeism decrease with age. Others like
amount of sickness benefit and how it is paid can have a hypertension, heart condition and back pain increase, et
significant impact on our performance. al. remain flat.
 People with unhealthy lifestyle choices: A white book
One other noteworthy observation is that during the by the Health Enhancement Research Organisation
financial crisis, several countries reduced benefits, and this (HERO, 2013) identifies increased risks for smokers,
is seen as a key factor driving the declining absenteeism employees with an unhealthy diet and employees who
rate (and therefore potential rise in presenteeism) in the didn’t exercise considerably.
various countries. It was seen in different studies that  People with poor psychological wellbeing:
various reasons affect presenteeism like- Presenteeism is significantly related to self-rated
 Expectation from Job anxiety and psychological wellbeing.
 Unclarity in Job or work conditions  Specific health problems: Various studies identify the
 High level of Job stress risks associated with specific medical conditions. The
 Less rewards presence of risk factors, chronic disease, especially
 Low future or benefits to take care of dependents as chronic depression, radically increases the odds of
well having high presenteeism.

6.3 Factors related to Work Conditions 6.4 Objective 3

 Exposure to work intensity  To study different methods to measure Presenteeism

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DOI: 10.30726/ijmrss/v7.i2.2020.72010
International Journal of Management Research and Social Science (IJMRSS) ISSN 2394-6407(Print)
Volume 7, Issue 2, April – June 2020 ISSN 2394-6415(Online)

and interventions to regulate absenteeism  Comparing Productivity, performance and efficiency -

It helps in benchmarking ones perceived performance
Cost of Presenteeism -people might like better to be thus measuring the identification of possible deviation
with their colleagues than suffer solitude and tedium in performance. This will be easily measured with the
reception, particularly if they're feeling depressed. On the supervisor’s performance or assessment criteria.
opposite hand, as presentees struggle on at a decreasing  Assessment instrument supported feedback - With the
pace, until sometimes finally submitting to an aggravated assistance of self developed reliable and valid
illness, people who take an entire rest might return to figure inventories it are often identified what proportion and
quickly at full strength and within the meantime also thanks to what causes is that the performance at work
remove any potential risk to colleagues from infection. thanks to health or illness issues getting affected.
 Estimating the presenteeism from the absenteeism data
The important components to be considered for - Though it's easy to capture data of absenteeism but the
presenteesim includes, info of presenteeism is difficult to assess, however
 time not on task Huver et al (2012) have tested a quantitative tool
 quality of labor (eg mistakes, peak performance, injury designed to live presenteeism based on employee
rates) absence data.
 quantity of labor and private factors (eg social, mental,
physical, emotional) Using a zero-inflated negative binomial model (ZIMB)
 .Supervisor support: Lu et al (2013) found that and longitudinal data covering 30 years with demographic
supervisor support acted as a buffer between variables, job-related variables and absence data for every
presenteeism and exhaustion. employee from 3,600 employees during a French hospital,
they claim to have captured the phenomenon of
presenteeism.
7. Challenges in Measuring Presenteeism
The other available tools to live presenteeism includes,
 Self-reported data: Most measures rely solely on the  Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS-6): Health Status and
respondents’ own perception ofhealth and their Employee Productivity
evaluation of the legitimacy of taking leave during a  World Health Organization Health and Work
given instance thus making it more biased. Performance Questionnaire (HPQ)
 Retrospective frequency measures - These believe recall
like looking back over the previous year or shorter The scale by Gilbreath and Frew (2008) (inGilbreath
periods of your time thus limiting the challenges behind. and Karimi, 2012) focuses on work-related stress with six
 Variety of measurement instruments – there are many items
sorts of instruments available to live presenteeism but
reflect a really limited perspective of reasons of same
9. Finding of the Study
thus not making it customized.
 Measurement differences across countries - When
national pharmacoeconomic guidelines are compared,  Better training and knowledge for people like managers
different recommendations are identified on the way to who work outside the psychological state sphere.
identify, measure and value lost productivity, resulting  It is vital that management should ensure giving
in difficulties when comparing lostproductivity suitable training/ orientation/ exposure to re orient our
estimates across countries. people to avoid any quite talent loss.
 Identify those employees returning to figure who are in
danger of depression as a key method to figure on your
8. Available Aspects and Criterion to Live
talented employees.
Presenteeism  It is vital for managers at different levels to make sure
that they will work closely with each and make suitable
 Estimation of Unproductive time while at work - Work interventions to practice techniques to complement
Productivity Short Inventory asks employees to culture and make employees more competent.
estimate what percentage unproductive hours they spent  To ensure a culture of openness transparency and
at work during the recall period. Although this approach support centric environment to make sure they're not
would cause the easiestmonetisation, Mattke et al (2007) suffering unnecessary stress.
found no examples to show that the employees can  Managers should understand the way to apply absence
exactly transform their perceived impairments into a policies effectively and the cultural messages they're
temporal measure. intended to offer in order that it's clear that it's a well

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International Journal of Management Research and Social Science (IJMRSS) ISSN 2394-6407(Print)
Volume 7, Issue 2, April – June 2020 ISSN 2394-6415(Online)

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