The relationship between absence from work and job satisfaction: Greece and UK comparisons

The paper starts with a literature survey concerning absenteeism and job satisfaction. Most of the literature on absenteeism suggests that absence from work is a complex issue influenced by multiple causes, both of personal and of organizational nature. Job satisfaction has also been identified as one of the factors affecting an employee’s motivation to work attendance. There is no universal agreement concerning the relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction. Some research has found no correlation between these two variables whereas other studies indicate a weak relationship between these two variables. It has also been suggested that absence and job satisfaction might be more strongly related under some conditions, for instance in case of blue collar workers. After a survey of the relevant literature, this study attempts to establish a causal relationship between absenteeism and job satisfaction using a new set of Greek and European data. The paper concentrates on Greek data given that absenteeism has not been the subject of systematic investigation in Greece. The empirical results suggest that there is a weak negative relationship between injury absenteeism and job satisfaction. Furthermore, comparisons are made with similar findings from UK.