Cross-level feedback between individual absence behavior and absence culture in the construction industry

在这个项目中，研究小组将研究一个有意义的社会单位的成员如何对缺席的可接受、可容忍和合法程度（即缺席文化）形成非正式和共同的理解，以及这如何影响工人的缺席行为。试图理解和解决工作场所缺勤行为问题的研究传统上集中在缺勤的个人原因上。然而，这些识别和消除个人原因的尝试只得到了有限的经验支持。相反，“缺席”来自个人的社会或文化环境（缺席文化）的观点变得越来越流行。我们的目标是研究这种关系在工人从一个工地转移到另一个工地的情况下是如何出现的。此外，我们将研究根植于主要工作组的缺席文化如何影响在这些情况下与缺席相关的个人决策。本研究的具体目标是：1)识别个体缺勤行为与缺勤文化之间的反馈过程，重点研究社会情境如何影响个体行为以及文化如何在建筑工地形成；2)运用计算机模拟技术研究旷工等复杂的多因素工作行为；3)将与缺勤相关的政策对缺勤水平和施工绩效的影响纳入建模范围的边界，以便在执行前对不同的政策进行模拟和测试。就更广泛的影响而言，该研究将为缺勤控制政策提供实用的见解，这些政策可以培养积极的工作文化并提高员工的出勤率。在美国建筑行业，员工旷工是一个代价高昂的问题，因此希望调查结果能对竞争力产生影响。积极的工作文化还可以显著提高建筑工作的生产率、质量和安全性。这项研究的结果也可以应用于其他工作结果的研究，比如绩效、公民意识、迟到和离职。

In this project, the research team will study how members of a meaningful social unit in construction develop an informal and shared understanding of the extent to which absence is acceptable, tolerable, and legitimate (i.e., absence culture), and consequently, how this affects workers' absence behavior. Studies attempting to understand and solve the issues of absence behavior in the workplace traditionally have focused on individual causes of absence. However, these attempts to identify and remove individual causes have received only modest empirical support. Instead, the view that absence emerges from an individual's social or cultural environment (the absence culture) has become increasingly popular. We aim to study how such relationships can be seen in situations like construction where workers move from jobsite to jobsite. In addition, we will study how absence culture rooted in primary workgroups affect individual decisions related to absence in these situations. The specific objectives of this research are: 1) to identify the feedback processes between individual absence behavior and absence culture, focusing on how the social context affects individual behavior and how a culture forms on construction jobsites; 2) to apply computer simulation techniques to study complex and multi-determined job behaviors like absenteeism; and 3) to incorporate the impact absenteeism-related policies have on both absenteeism levels and construction performance into the boundary of the modeling scope, so that diverse policies can be simulated and tested prior to execution. In terms of broader impacts, the study will provide practical insights into absence-control policies thatcan foster positive work cultures and promote employee attendance. Employee absenteeism is a costly problem in the U.S. construction industry, so it is hoped the results can matter to competitiveness. Positive work cultures can also lead to the achievement of a significant increase in the productivity, quality, and safety of construction work. The findings of this research can also be applied to the study of other work outcomes, such as performance, citizenship, lateness, and turnover.