Absenteeism is a significant issue since it can adversely affect the whole business. Some research articles demonstrate that there is a link between this issue and organizational culture, meaning that the latter can either contribute to the problem or help employees avoid this behavior. The summary and analysis of the article “Organizational Diversity Programs Across Cultures: Effects on Absenteeism, Turnover, Performance, and Innovation” by Peretz et al. (2015) reveals that organizational diversity programs can lead to absenteeism.
To begin with, one should summarize the article under consideration. The study focuses on many aspects of organizational culture, but the current paper considers the connection between culturally-specific diversity programs and absenteeism.
Thus, the relevant hypothesis stipulated that corporate diversity programs led to higher absenteeism when national cultural practices welcomed diversity. To test this claim, the authors analyzed the already collected data from more than 5,000 organizations from 22 countries, and the behavior of interest was measured according to how many days an employee was absent per year. The researchers found sufficient evidence to confirm their hypothesis because they identified that the overlap of national cultural practices and organizational diversity programs contributed to higher volumes of absenteeism.
Analysis of these findings can offer implications for the management field. In particular, one should understand that improving organizational culture does not always result in positive outcomes. The rationale is that implementing diversity that is a positive phenomenon on its own can result in absenteeism. Peretz et al. (2015) mentioned that their results were consistent with previous research findings because many scholars had found adverse effects of high levels of diversity. The article offers valuable insights since managers can understand that efforts to improve organizational culture and reduce absenteeism can lead to the opposite results if the intervention is inadequate.
Reference
Peretz, H., Levi, A., & Fried, Y. (2015). Organizational diversity programs across cultures: Effects on absenteeism, turnover, performance, and innovation. The International Journal of Human Resources Management, 26(6), 875-903. Web.