Restoring balance? Status inconsistency, absenteeism, and HRM practices

Michal Biron, Renee De Reuver

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Although it is commonly assumed that perceptions of equity at work have a significant impact on employee absenteeism, our understanding of the equity-absence relationship is limited in that (1) little is known about equity concepts other than procedural and distributive justice; and (2) for the most part, research has overlooked variables likely to mediate and moderate the impact of equity on absenteeism. Drawing from the effort-reward imbalance model (ERI; Siegrist, 1996), our study advances past research by investigating the association between status inconsistency (a situation in which there is a mismatch between, for example, a person's education and his/her income) and absenteeism, and the variables likely to account for this association. Results from a sample of 416 customer-care employees show that stress mediates the relationship between status inconsistency and absenteeism, and that HRM practices attenuate this relationship. Moderated mediation analyses further reveal that HRM practices moderate the indirect effect of status inconsistency on absenteeism via stress.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)683-696
Number of pages14
JournalEuropean Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Volume22
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2013

Keywords

  • Absenteeism
  • Effort-reward imbalance
  • HRM practices
  • Status inconsistency
  • Stress

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Applied Psychology
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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