Teacher Absenteeism Research Paper

Teacher Absenteeism

Teacher absenteeism is the habit of teachers absenting themselves from their scheduled work irrespective of whether reasons are assigned or not to such absences. According to Sagie (1998), absences are regarded as voluntary or involuntary based on the reasons provided by employees or supervisors. He insisted that voluntary absences are influenced by organizational commitment, job satisfaction and the intention to quit (Sagie, 1998). Cucchiella, Gastaldi & Ranieri (2014) describe absenteeism as an intentional or habitual absence of employees from work. This study concludes that strategic human resource management focuses on human resource programmes with long term objectives with absenteeism being on exception.

Furthermore,

This is because the professional competence possessed as a teachers in terms of their professional knowledge, skills, beliefs and motivation determines how successful a teacher becomes in their workplace (Lauermann & Konig, 2016; Peterson & Peterson, 2006) hence, the need to focus on the competence of teachers to addressing teacher absenteeism. Also, it is vital to note that in Ghana, teacher absenteeism usually occurs on Thursday and Fridays and during the last two weeks before school breaks and this has become the norm for decades with schools experiencing an absences of one teacher per week. Interestingly, Abadzi (2007) states that teacher absenteeism is high in rural schools and this same study found that teacher absenteeism has resulted in losses of eleven to forty-three days during the school year. A similar study by Mulkeen (2007) also states that absenteeism is a major teacher misbehavior that affects teaching and learning. Herrman & Rockoff (2012) provide evidence that teacher absenteeism is a key concern in developing countries and they attribute this phenomeno to a weak oversight from employers. They further suggested that missed workdays have negative economic impact on productivity in teaching. Summarily, this reveals that teacher absenteeism is a serious problem confronting the education system globally.

2.3.1 Types of Absenteeism

Literature recognizes different conceptualization with regards

For instance, in the opinion of Laaksonen, Pitkaniemi, Ralikonen & Lahelma (2010), heavy physical work load, low job control in women and job dissatisfaction in men influences absenteeism. Also, World Bank Report (2011) found health issues like malaria and pregnancy, lack of accommodation for teachers, poor infrastructure, poor teacher training, lack of teacher motivation, lack of supervision, long distances to workplace, supplementary income activities and cultural and religious responsibilities to be the main causes of employee absenteeism in Ghana. This report was further confirmed by ESPR (2013). This portrays that health issues, inadequate infrastructure, motivation and cultural beliefs of personnel affects their level of absences. In line with this argument, Howard & Potter (2012) found that obesity as a health issue contributes largely to worker illness than other health