Chronic absences can also be cause of immaturity. Immaturity is when a person lacks the self-discipline to go to work. Finally, poor motivated absentee is one who sees job simply as a paycheck. They don't participate in any functions and does the minimum required work to keep them from getting fired (Rasmussen, 2000). It has been estimated that absenteeism costs the country in the excess of 10 billion dollars per year in lost output and other costs (Mills, & Friesen, 2001). To solve this, manager must look at possible ways to keep these kinds of employees motivated and focused. .
In Absenteeism, Goodman and Atkin (2000) lists some positive and negative consequences of chronic absences. The positive consequences of absenteeism are (for the individual viewpoint), reduction of job-related stress, meeting of non-work role obligations and benefit of compensatory non-work activities. Although it is often good for an individual to be absent from work, it also has negative consequences. Employee will not earn as much, increased accidents and altered job perception. Chronic absenteeism also has positive and negative effects to an organization-management. Some of the positive rewards of chronic absenteeism are greater job knowledge base in work force and greater labor-force flexibility. The negative effects of chronic absences in an organization are, decreased productivity, increased costs, more grievances, and increased accidents. Hiring, training, and paying additional workers and maintaining records for, administering, and enforcing an absenteeism program all represent costs to management of an organization. The list of positive and negative consequences of absenteeism would depend upon individuals characteristics, the structure of job, and the organization of work (Goodman & Atkin, 2000).
Motivation plays a major role in an employee's willingness to work. Understanding motivation needs and how they can be obtained is an essential part of a healthcare manager"s development and organizational success.
