Going to work ill: A meta-analysis of the correlates of presenteeism and a dual-path model.
verifiedrich profile · Journal of Occupational Health Psychology · 2016
Miraglia, Mariella; Johns, Gary
How this was studied
A meta-analytic synthesis — it pools many primary studies rather than running a single design, so there is no single-study diagram.
What this article reports
The findings we extracted from this work, normalized into Principia’s relationship form (X → Y). Each feeds the synthesized models below.
presenteeism → task performance
presenteeism → job satisfaction
Models this article informs
The meta-analytic priors this article contributes evidence to — its place in the broader synthesis.
presenteeism correlates burnout
presenteeism correlates job satisfaction
presenteeism correlates task performance
In the authors’ words
The article’s own abstract.
Interest in presenteeism, attending work while ill, has flourished in light of its consequences for individual well-being and organizational productivity. Our goal was to identify its most significant causes and correlates by quantitatively summarizing the extant research. Additionally, we built an empirical model of some key correlates and compared the etiology of presenteeism versus absenteeism. We used meta-analysis (in total, K = 109 samples, N = 175,965) to investigate the correlates of presenteeism and meta-analytic structural equation modeling to test the empirical model. Salient correlates of working while ill included general ill health, constraints on absenteeism (e.g., strict absence policies, job insecurity), elevated job demands and felt stress, lack of job and personal resources (e.g., low support and low optimism), negative relational experiences (e.g., perceived discrimination), and positive attitudes (satisfaction, engagement, and commitment). Moreover, our dual process model clarified how job demands and job and personal resources elicit presenteeism via both health impairment and motivational paths, and they explained more variation in presenteeism than absenteeism. The study sheds light on the controversial act of presenteeism, uncovering both positive and negative underlying mechanisms. The greater variance explained in presenteeism as opposed to absenteeism underlines the opportunities for researchers to meaningfully investigate the behavior and for organizations to manage it. (PsycINFO Database Record
What the literature says about it
Attributed, open-access quotes from other works that cite this article, plus the citation-graph verdict tally. Corroborations and disputes, in one place — the honest-broker view.
supports “The following work-related psychosocial features have been associated with higher sickness presenteeism: high demands, heavy workloads, time pressure, shift work, long working hours, robust attendance management policies [6], and burnout [12], as well as lack of support in a group level and negative relationships with colleagues [10].”
supports “Ill-health presenteeism often causes employees to make more errors, have more accidents [4], and leads to lower levels of work performance and productivity because of health-related issues [3].”
supports “…of presenteeism (Johns, 1,010), we found that being a bystander of cyberbullying may be a predecessor of presenteeism as a job demand, because job demands may elicit presenteeism (Miraglia and Johns, 2016), whereas burnout may be a consequent within the context of confinements due to SARS-CoV2.”
supports “This study supported previous findings that investigated the effect of burnout in employees as it related to the prevalence of presenteeism [51,52].”
supports “and work resources lead to presenteeism; this is due to the existence of health problems and motivation, with positive attitudes being synonymous with commitment, satisfaction, and engagement [4].”
supports “For instance, Miraglia and Johns (2016) found that job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work engagement were positively associated with presenteeism.”
supports “Research interest in presenteeism has grown globally given its influence on employee well-being and organizational productivity.(1,2) For employees, presenteeism can exacerbate an existing health condition and have a negative impact on the quality of daily work and work performance.”
supports “While cross-sectional studies have found that presenteeism is negatively associated with the concurrent employees’ health, work attitude, job performance, and innovation (Lu et al., 2013b; Conner and Silvia, 2015; Miraglia and Johns, 2016), we have little insight into the lasting effects of presenteeism on individuals (Demerouti et al.”
Ancillary research
Neighbouring works in the citation graph around this article.
- 10.21608/ejom.2022.237285
- 10.3390/ijerph191710525
- 10.1007/s43546-022-00203-8
- 10.3390/ijerph17082969
- 10.3233/wor-220115
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.745252
- 10.3390/ijerph19105912
- 10.1017/9781107183780.003
- 10.3390/ijerph192214966
- 10.1017/sjp.2025.10007
- 10.1097/jom.0000000000002719
- 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.643437
Assembled from Principia’s registry — bibliographic record, extracted effect sizes, the models they inform, and open-access citing literature.