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

在这个项目中，研究小组将研究建筑中有意义的社会单位的成员如何形成一种非正式的和共同的理解，即缺勤在多大程度上是可以接受、容忍和合法的(即缺勤文化)，以及这如何影响工人的缺勤行为。传统上，试图理解和解决职场缺勤行为问题的研究主要集中在个体缺勤原因上。然而，这些试图确定和消除个别原因的努力只得到了适度的经验支持。相反，认为缺席源于个人的社会或文化环境(缺席文化)的观点已经变得越来越流行。我们的目标是研究在工人从一个工地搬到另一个工地的建筑等情况下，这种关系是如何出现的。此外，我们将研究根植于主要工作组的缺勤文化如何影响与这些情况下的缺勤相关的个人决策。本研究的具体目标是：1)识别个人缺勤行为和缺勤文化之间的反馈过程，重点研究社会环境如何影响个人行为以及建筑工地上一种文化是如何形成的；2)应用计算机模拟技术来研究旷工等复杂和多决定的工作行为；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，以便在执行之前可以模拟和测试不同的政策。在更广泛的影响方面，这项研究将为能够培养积极的工作文化和促进员工出勤率的缺勤控制政策提供实用的见解。员工缺勤在美国建筑业是一个代价高昂的问题，因此希望这一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程的生产率、质量和安全。这项研究的结果也可以应用于其他工作成果的研究，如绩效、公民身份、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.