Ethical climate and voluntary absence: The mediation effect of organizational commitment

Work absence is a major problem of human resource management in most organizations. The question we ask here is: to what extent is absence behavior related to the organizational ethical environment? The study is focused on the relationship between voluntary absence of high-school teachers and aspects of organizational ethical climate (caring and formal). The study model, based on the psychological contract theory, postulated that teachers' voluntary absence is related to their perception of the school's ethical climate and mediated by teachers' organizational commitment. The study sample consisted of 1,016 teachers in 35 high schools of technology education in Israel. Data were collected by self-report questionnaires and tested against archival data. Results of a multi-level analysis showed that the affective dimension of commitment fully mediated the relationship between formal (but not caring) ethical climate and the frequency of absences. Study results apply to managerial policies aimed at containing teacher absence.