Effects of Contextual Signals on Presenteeism and Exhaustion

Attending work while ill, called presenteeism, has important implications for organizations due to its relationship with reduced productivity. Workers who engage in this behavior also have negative health outcomes and may have increased absenteeism in the future. Organizations may benefit from better understanding what conditions influence presenteeism. To further our understanding of presenteeism, I propose a model based on conservation of resources theory and social learning theory in which feedback awareness is positively related to emotional exhaustion both directly and indirectly through presenteeism. I argued that those who pay more attention to signals in their environment regarding performance expectations are more likely to attend work while ill, which will result in greater resource loss and subsequently more emotional exhaustion. I also argued conscientiousness moderates these relationships, such that high conscientiousness individuals will engage in more presenteeism and experience more emotional exhaustion when they perform feedback awareness behaviors, due to their need for achievement. Results suggested that feedback monitoring is positively related to emotional exhaustion directly and indirectly through presenteeism. Results also suggested conscientious is important to the direct relationship between feedback monitoring and emotional exhaustion, however in the opposite direction of what was proposed, suggesting conscientiousness may be a buffer against resource loss related to feedback awareness. The findings emphasize the importance of cues that organizations send to their workers in regard to presenteeism, and that feedback awareness may have some drawbacks for individuals in the form of emotional depletion.