Performance evaluations of leadership quality and public sector leaders’ absenteeism

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the effect of performance evaluation of leadership quality on leader sickness absence. While previous research has focused on how evaluation of leadership impacts employee sickness absence, we analyse how superiors’ and subordinates’ evaluations of leadership quality, as well as leaders’ self-evaluations, influence public leaders’ own absence. A longitudinal study of 335 Danish municipal leaders, 94 superiors, and 4,449 subordinates is conducted. Findings indicate that superiors’ evaluation of leadership quality compared to the leaders’ self-evaluation is important for public sector leaders’ absenteeism. Furthermore, findings show that leaders who are over-estimators have a higher absence frequency compared to under-estimators.

KEYWORDS:

• Sickness absence
• leadership quality
• self–other agreement
• municipality
• Denmark
• negative binomial regression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In the initial sample. Some respondents were later dropped due to missing answers on some of the questions.

2. The last question was addressed using two different items in the survey; the first asked about conflict solving in a constructive ways, and the second focused on attending to conflicts as soon as they emerge.

3. However, we tested whether our results would be similar when using polynomial regression. From these models, we see a picture that resembles the results that support over-estimators with higher levels of absence.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann-Kristina Løkke

Ann-Kristina Løkke PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management, Aarhus University. Her current research interests includes Human Resource Management in the public sector, and in particular different determinants of sickness absence. She has published in a numerous journals such as The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Employee Relations, International Journal of Workplace Health Management, and International Journal of Public Administration. Furthermore, she is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Employee Relations.

Sarah M. L. Krøtel

Sarah M. L. Krøtel PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Management, Aarhus University. The research interests of Sarah´s are mainly focused on public administration and public management, such as: effects of diversity on organizational outcomes, the impact of employee composition on performance in public-private hybrid organizations, the link between self-other ratings and absenteeism and contracting of public services. She has published in a numerous of public journals such as International Public Management journal, Public Administration, and Local Government Studies.