Effects of Workers’ Social Learning: Focusing on Absence Behavior

AbstractWorkers’ consistent attendance is an indispensable condition for successful construction projects, but many construction projects still suffer from the productivity loss originating from workers’ absenteeism. To deal with this problem, construction managers have mainly used formal controls (e.g., penalties) targeting those individuals who present excessive absenteeism. However, recent research papers on absenteeism have testified to the paramount role of social factors, such as social norm, on workers’ absence behavior. Despite the increasing attention being paid to the social factors of workers’ absence behavior, discussion on how a social norm in favor of worker attendance control can be developed is sparse. If how such social norms emerge and how they play a role in controlling workers’ behavior are clear, construction managers can invest time in promoting favorable absence norms rather than focusing on regulations targeting individuals. Therefore, this paper studies the system-level effect of ...

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