Informal Networks and Absenteeism Within an Organization

This article discusses the relationship between the informal ties of the employees within an organization and their absentee rates.~To explain this relationship, the assumption is made that within a department, a more or less stable norm concerning illegal absenteeism exits, and that the strength of this norm is related to the tightness of the informal relationships between the employees: the more consensus on the absentee norm, irrespective of the degree of tolerance, the more cohesive this department. Furthermore, according to the fairness theory of Adams (1965), a relationship between the tightness of the informal relations, the norm concerning illegal absenteeism and the absentee rate is expected: the more cohesive, the higher the effect of the group norm on the short-term absentee rate. Network data of 62 employees of eight comparable teams within a housing corporation were collected by means of a questionnaire, and combined with data on the absentee rates of the employees. The data supported the hypotheses concerning the relationship between the group norm, the tightness of the informal relations and the short-term absentee rates of the employees within a department.