Economic Stress at Work: Its Impact over Absenteeism and Innovation

Martin Sanchez-Gomez, Gabriele Giorgi, Georgia Libera Finstad, Federico Alessio, Antonio Ariza-Montes, Giulio Arcangeli and Nicola Mucci
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Martin Sanchez-Gomez: Department of Evolutionary, Educational, Social Psychology and Methodology, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Gabriele Giorgi: Department of Human Sciences, European University of Rome, Via degli Aldobrandeschi, 190, 00163 Rome, Italy
Georgia Libera Finstad: Business@Health Laboratory, European University of Rome, Via degli Aldobrandeschi, 190, 00163 Rome, Italy
Federico Alessio: Business@Health Laboratory, European University of Rome, Via degli Aldobrandeschi, 190, 00163 Rome, Italy
Antonio Ariza-Montes: Management Department, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 14004 Cordoba, Spain
Giulio Arcangeli: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Piero Palagi 1, 50139 Florence, Italy
Nicola Mucci: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Largo Piero Palagi 1, 50139 Florence, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Economic stress has been recognized as a major threat to the well-being and performance of workers, especially during times of global economic crisis. An interesting and relatively unexplored research topic concerns the associations between economic stress and employee job outcomes such as innovative behaviors, indispensable for business survival. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between economic stress, absenteeism and innovation. We considered both a direct and a mediation hypothesis and hypothesized that economic stress can have a negative influence on innovation directly and indirectly through increased absenteeism. A cross-sectional study was performed during 2018 and 2019 in an Italian food factory. A sample of 578 employees completed the Stress Questionnaire, the Janssen’s nine-item scale and a single-item regarding absenteeism. All relationships are supported by empirical data. As expected, the results indicated that economic stress is negatively related to innovation and positively related to absenteeism, which, in turn, plays a mediating role in the relationship between economic stress and innovative behavior. Herewith, those employees with higher levels of economic stress show higher levels of absenteeism contributing at the same time to a decrease in innovative behaviors. These findings show the importance of economic stress in understanding individual work outcomes and highlight the need to promote adequate intervention programs.

Keywords: economic stress; work related stress; absenteeism; innovation; innovative behavior; mental health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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