Modeling employee absenteeism: testing alternative measures and mediated effects based on job satisfaction

Using a sample of hospital employees this study addressed whether job satis faction mediates the relationship between absenteeism predictors and absent eeism and how well absenteeism predictors explained different measures of a bsenteeism. The results suggest that job satisfaction is not a mediator and that the independent variables explain more variance in records-based time lost than in self-reported time lost or self-reported absence frequency. I mplications are discussed in terms of using job satisfaction as a mediator as well as the viability of alternative measures of absenteeism. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.