Exploring Absenteeism Control Policies with Awareness of the Effect of Group Norms on Absence Behavior, Using Agent-Based Modeling

An organization's culture has an indirect but significant effect on the performance of its workers. The development of a positive organization culture in construction projects is especially important, because most operations in construction projects rely heavily on a workforce. Further, new members in construction projects constitute a new project organization, and so can develop either a positive or negative culture. Group norms in organizations are a clear manifestation of the culture. Within this background, the objective of this paper is to demonstrate the effect of group norms on the absence behavior within projects and to explore absenteeism control policies using agent-based simulation research methodology. To fulfill this objective, we investigate the dynamic mechanisms of the formation and exertion of group norms among workers, model them as a computer simulation model, and identify control factors underlying these mechanisms using the simulation results. We discuss: when and how absence norms take effect, the importance of education in a worker's unbiased understanding of others' absence behavior, and the effect that a worker's attachment to a project has on his/her absence behavior.