When Weak Groups are Strong: How Low Cohesion Groups Allow Individuals to Act According to Their Personal Absence Tolerance Norms

The study described in this article took place in a commercial production organization and a non-profit social welfare organization
(N = 377 and N = 582, respectively). The study investigates how group cohesiveness and absence tolerance separately and in tandem are related
to company registered absenteeism rates. As predicted, results support the hypotheses that absence tolerance is positively
related with absenteeism and interacts with low group cohesion to result in absenteeism. Contrasting earlier studies that
found highly cohesive groups to interact with absence tolerance, results of this study are the first to show that low group
cohesiveness interacts significantly with absence tolerance. That is, low cohesive groups counterintuitively are related to
the lowest levels of voluntary sickness absence together with intolerant views toward absence. This interaction effect is
found independently in two different organizations.