A POLICY-CAPTURING APPROACH TO INDIVIDUALS DECISIONS TO BE ABSENT

This study provided a within-subjects assessment of the factors associ ated with an individual's decision to be absent and examined whether t here were differences between individuals in their decisions. A sample of maintenance and clerical employees at a large Midwest university r esponded to hypothetical scenarios describing factors that might contr ibute to their decisions to be absent on a particular day. Illness exp lained more variance than any other factor in individual's absence dec isions. Several other within-subject and between-subject influences we re identified. Results from a cluster analysis suggested that the impo rtance of these factors differed between subgroups of individuals, len ding support to Johns and Nicholson's (1982) argument that the meaning of absence is not the same for all individuals. (C) 1994 Academic Pre ss, Inc.