Social Cohesiveness and Absenteeism: The Relationship Between Characteristics of Employees and Short-Term Absenteeism Within an Organization

This study tries to explain the relationship between characteristics of the employees (e.g., gender and working hours) and short-term absenteeism by examining the social cohesive-ness of a team. Hypotheses are formulated concerning gender and working hours of employ-ees, social cohesiveness, and short-term absenteeism. To test these hypotheses, network data on 56 employees in 8 comparable teams within an organization were collected. The results show that similarity in gender and percentage of full-time employees within a team were pos-itively related to the social cohesiveness of a team and that social cohesiveness is negatively related to short-term absenteeism