Management of Short-Handedness in Business: Reasons and Solution Offers for the Problems It Cause

Abstract

In the cases where the employees cannot physically be at work for whatever reasons or be at work site but do not or cannot make a contribution to the work productivity again for whatever reasons, a state of ?short-handedness? emerges, and it is a serious human resources problem that needs to be attended to and found a solution for by the businesses. The physical or bodily estrangement of an employee from work causes problems not only in productivity, but also in relations of the business with other employees. Employees, with the impact of several different reasons, can sometimes exhibit behaviors, which do not comply with the business? goals or can make it harder to reach those goals. These behaviors can be listed as not coming to work without a valid explanation (voluntary absenteeism), employee being at work at times when s/he cannot actually be productive because of physical or psychological problems (presenteeism), employee acting sick even though s/he is not (malingering), and the state in which the employee at work site cannot completely concentrate at work because s/he is already looking for another job (hidden unemployment), etc. These behaviors leading to physical or actually short-handedness can be caused by both personal reasons and organizational reasons. Businesses should focus on controlling and minimizing these negative employee behaviors due to its negative effects and costs. The primary goal of this study is to examine the reasons of short-handedness and the productivity problems it causes through past studies, then to determine the precautions businesses need to consider during the management of short-handedness, in order to diminish the negative results of these behaviors, to eliminate these behaviors completely or to prevent them. This study?s ?management of absence behaviors? part is expected to be leading study for future studies.