Five-factor model of personality and employee absence.

The present study investigates the degree to which dimensions of the 5-factor model of personality (often termed the Big Five) are related to absence. On the basis of previous descriptions of the Big Five traits and drawing from prior research, the authors hypothesized that neuroticism and extroversion would positively predict absence and conscientiousness would negatively predict absence. Also, they hypothesized that absence history (absence proneness), measured by the absence that occurred the year prior to the study, would partly mediate the relationship between the personality characteristics and subsequent absenteeism. Data were collected from a sample of 89 university employees. Results suggest that extraversion and conscientiousness predicted absenteeism and that part, but not all, of the relationship between these traits and absence was mediated through absence history. A recent trend in organizationa l research is dispositional explanations for the attitudes individuals display at work and their subsequent effects on employee behavior. This body of research has led to renewed debate over the relative effects of dispositional versus situational variables on work attitudes, roles, and behaviors. Therefore, whereas some argue that dispositional constructs are relevant to understanding human behavior (House, Shane, & Herold, 1996), others suggest that situational variables are more useful predictors of people's attitudes and behaviors in organizationa l settings and that the search for dispositional effects likely will prove unproductive