Impact of Occupational Stress on Employee Absenteeism: Moderating Effect of Employee Engagement

Abstract

Occupational Stress is a major factor that affects the career of any employee. Previous researchers have attempted to examine the relationship between job stress and employee absenteeism, but there are some unsolved questions remaining to answer. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to identify the impact of occupational stress on absenteeism and study the moderating effect of job engagement. This study is based on a quantitative research approach, and it was a cross-sectional study. To test our research model, we collected data from 106 team members from an apparel industry company in Sri Lanka. Hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation coefficient, linear regression analysis and hayes' process macro. Findings of this study revealed that occupational stress has an impact on employee engagement and employee absenteeism. Moreover, the results of moderator analysis showed that occupational stress influences employee absenteeism through employee engagement. Thus, we recommend management of this company to take a serious effort to reduce employee stress as it makes a significant impact on employee engagement and absenteeism. Theoretical implications are discussed.