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在建设中发展一个非正式的和共同的理解，在多大程度上缺席是可以接受的，可以容忍的，合法的（即，缺席文化），以及因此，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，这些试图查明和消除个别原因的努力只得到了有限的经验支持。相反，认为缺席来自个人的社会或文化环境（缺席文化）的观点越来越流行。我们的目标是研究这种关系如何在建筑工人从一个工地搬到另一个工地的情况下被看到。此外，我们将研究如何缺席文化植根于主要工作组影响个人的决定，在这些情况下缺席。本研究的具体目标是：1）确定个体缺勤行为与缺勤文化之间的反馈过程，重点关注社会环境如何影响个体行为以及建筑工地文化如何形成：2）应用计算机模拟技术研究缺勤等复杂的、多决定性的工作行为;将缺勤相关政策对缺勤水平和施工绩效的影响纳入建模范围的边界，以便在执行之前可以模拟和测试不同的政策。就更广泛的影响而言，这项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，促进员工出勤率。在美国建筑业，员工缺勤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。积极的工作文化也可以导致建筑工作的生产力，质量和安全的显着提高。本研究的发现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.