Regional variation in work absence cultures in the United States

Abstract

This paper offers a cultural perspective to the work absenteeism literature, by conceptualizing work absence at the U.S. state level of analysis, and by assessing absenteeism as a manifestation of regional cultures. First, I establish that absenteeism is a spatially dependent phenomenon, and demonstrate that the retest reliability of absenteeism increases at higher levels of aggregation (from individual-level to city-level to state-level), to provide evidence for absence as a state-level construct. Second, I hypothesize main effects of regional cultures on state-level work absenteeism (i.e., in the U.S. West). Third, I assess whether observed regional differences in state-level absence cultures in the West are attributable to (mediated by) regional differences in state-level social disorganization/anomie, while controlling for state-level variance in work industry (e.g., manufacturing), personality (Extraversion, Neuroticism), unemployment rates, and physical disabilities. Analyzing data spanning over 4 years and over 3 million people per year, this paper explains how absenteeism varies across states in the U.S.