Factors Affecting Employee Absenteeism of Apparel Industry of Sri Lanka: Reference to Kurunegala District

Abstract

The apparel industry is one of the most significant sectors and the second-largest Gross Domestic Production sector in Sri Lanka. At present appeal, the sector became a more competitive and challenging sector in the global context. The apparel sector employees are working with high stress due to achieving targets within deadline. Absenteeism is a serious workplace problem and an expensive occurrence for both employers and employees seemingly unpredictable in nature. A satisfactory level of attendance by employees at work is necessary to allow the achievement of objectives and targets. Most of the researchers had concluded that absence is a complex variable and is influenced by both personal and organizational causes. Although there are few researches has been conducted on employee absenteeism in the appeal sector organizations in Sri Lanka. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the factors affecting employee absenteeism in the apparel industry of Kurunegala district in Sri Lanka. Job satisfaction, stress, working environment, sickness, and leadership styles were identified as the independent variables and Employee Absenteeism was identified as the dependent variable. The data were collected from 130 machine operators through a self-administered questionnaire from garment factories located at Kurunegala district using the simple random sampling technique. Respondents were asked their agreement level according to the 5- point Likert scale and all the responses were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21. For analysis, the linear regression model, correlation analysis, and descriptive statistics analysis were used. The findings revealed that stress, sickness, and leadership styles have a significant relationship with employee absenteeism. And also job satisfaction and working environment have a negative relationship with employee absenteeism in the apparel industry. According to the result of the study, the researcher recommends creating a clear attendance policy, reduce workplace stress and provide a good reward system for when maintaining attendance up to the level.