The Relation of Group Morale to the Incidence and Duration of Medical Incapacity in Industry

The relation between group influences and the duration of medical incapacity was investigated in the 24 departments of a mail order firm, using medical absenteeism as the measure of medical incapacity. Departmental rates in four items were studied: a. The number of days of “long” medical absence (four or more days). b. The number of days of “short” medical absence (three days or less). c. The number of reports to the medical department. d. The number of unexcused latenesses. The 24 departments were found to have markedly different rates in these items. Analyses of variance showed these differences to be significant to varying degrees: least for “long” medical absence (F=1.96), greater for “short” medical absence (F=5.14) and for report to the medical department (F=5.55), and most marked for unexcused lateness (F=11.56). With the exception of “long” medical absence each department maintained a rate in each item that was “very significantly” constant, and that varied less in each department from quarter to quarter than the rate of one department varied from that of another. No correlation was found between absence for long illnesses and lateness (r=0.07). However, in each quarter, those departments in which employees were frequently absent for short illnesses were also those in which employees were frequently late (r=0.62). Since the frequent occurrence of lateness is a concomitant of poor morale, it appears that those departments in which employees are frequently absent for short illnesses are those in which the morale is poor. Medical incapacity is thus related to group morale. The data indicate that different work groups have dissimilar morale, that an individual's work morale is markedly influenced by the group in which he works, and that group morale is intimately related to the occurrence and duration of short medical incapacities

Absenteeism · Duration (music) · Quarter (Canadian coin) · Demography · Medicine · Occupational Health and Safety Research · Psychology · Social Psychology