Fox, Park and Lang (2007) famously
wrote about secondary task reaction times (STRTs) in the context of psychology and
communications - a sector I'm very familiar with. In the intervening period, further studies have been conducted
on the workplace learning environment as a contextualised example of STRT research (Sewell,
Santhosh, and O’Sullivan, 2020). Now, according
to Kinman and Grant (2021),
there is an estimated cost of approximately £4,000 per UK employee lost due to
time spent at work whilst being clinically unwell (Patel, et. al., 2023).
This is also known as what we refer to as presenteeism. This blog post hypothesizes that a highly
significant correlated relationship exists between low STRTs and a type of presenteeism
known as therapeutic presence. In my blog, I build on this theme of research by
suggesting that it may be possible to alleviate the 'sunk' cost of low productivity in
work which is lost due to the inefficiencies of working while being unproductive. I assume we have access to quality data, which isn't always the case. The blog considers the use of Bayesian
inference to predict therapeutic presence (or what many refer to as ‘dysfunctional
presenteeism’).
What
is ‘Dysfunctional’ Presenteeism?
Dysfunctional
presenteeism can be defined as a type of presenteeism which can occur when an
employee remains actively at work despite being clinically unwell (Bryan,
Bryce, and Roberts, 2022;
Henderson, and Smith, 2022). What
we know about presenteeism is very little, particularly in instances of remote work (Schmitz, Bauer, and Niehaus, 2023). Dysfunctional presenteeism can vary in motive and context, but a recent
survey estimated that UK employees spend roughly 2 weeks per annum actively
working whilst being clinically unwell, which is quite a significant amount of time. Notably, what I have learned today is that presenteeism is frequently framed
through the lens of ‘surface acting’ (Correia Leal, et. al., 2023;
Patel, et. al., 2023:842).
STRTs
and Cognitive Load Theory
How does STRT fit in to this? Well, my thinking is that low secondary responses are a clear indicator of the risk of presenteeism at work. Now, although the predominant focus of much of the
literature on cognitive load emerges as research that is based on secondary task responses
(Lang, et. al., 2006, Sewell,
Santhosh, and O’Sullivan, 2020:1133),
the significance of STRTs to cognitive load is insurmountable. As with Lang et.
al., 2006:370),
we know that when participants perform primary and secondary tasks within what
we refer to as the STRT ‘paradigm’, the primary and secondary tasks are clearly
defined[1].
Applying
Bayes’ Theorem on Inference
Woolridge (2013) and as
demonstrated recently in a paper by Saramago and Claxton (2020). Currently working on this in an essay.
Predictive
Analytics in the Workplace
Now, Analytics is not necessarily ethical, especially when applied based on Ford’s principles. It is seemingly often pitted against the
self-governance of employees by their peers[2], Analytics through surveillance is thus
touted as the means of managerial control least appropriate for the digital age. In one instance, the UK's Low Carbon Contracts Company and the
Electricity Settlement Company, a publicly owned renewable energy intermediary
owned by the Secretary of State for Business, demonstrate through its management
organizational chart, a distinctively unique feature (See Appendix Figure
1). Data Analytics is housed separately from People and
Strategy. What does this tell us?
Conclusion
With
quality data on both the threshold of secondary tasks and length of productive
work for individual workers, this blog suggests that statistical inference techniques such as
those based on Bayesian estimation, can predict the reduced work productivity
of an individual employee (who may or may not be working remotely) instances of
increased levels of stress, cognitive overload and eventual presenteeism?
[1] In this context, primary tasks involve the
simultaneous observation and recollection of a media source such as television
or film, whilst the secondary task involves a recordable activity. The idea
is (the hypothesis, so to speak) that response times for the second task
reduce as the primary task increases in difficulty (Lang, et.al., 2006).
[2] Including approaches such as self-evaluation of work
performance.
References
1. Byran,
M. L., Bryce, A. M. and Roberts, J. (2022) “Dysfunctional presenteeism: Effects
of physical and mental health on work performance”, The Manchester School,
90(4), pp. 409-438 – Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/manc.12402
(Accessed on 23 November 2023)
2. Correia
Leal, C., Ferreria, A. I. and Carvalho, H. (2023) “Hide your sickness and put
on a happy face: The effects of supervision distrust, surface acting, and
sickness surface acting on hotel employees’ emotional exhaustion”, Journal of
Organisational Behaviour, 44(1), pp. 871-887 – Available at https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2676
(Accessed on 27 February 2023)
3. Fox, J.
R., Park, B., and Lang, A. (2007) “When Available Resources Become Negative
Resources: The Effects of Cognitive Overload on Memory Sensitivity and
Criterion Bias”, Communication Research, 34(3), pp. 277-296. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650207300429 (Accessed
on 23 February 2024)
4. Henderson, A.A. and Smith, C.E. (2022) “When does presenteeism harm
productivity the most? Employee motives as a key moderator of
the presenteeism–productivity relationship,” Journal of Managerial Psychology,
37(6), pp. 513–526. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-08-2020-0446 (Accessed on 26 February 2024)
5. Kinman,
G. and Clements, A. J. (2023) “Presenteeism: the case or action”, Occupational
Medicine, 73(4), pp. 181-182 – Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqad033
(Accessed on 26 February 2024)
6. Kinman,
G. and Grant, C. (2021) “Presenteeism during the COVID-19 pandemic: Risk
factors and solutions for employers”, Society of Occupational Medicine,
Available at: https://www.som.org.uk/Presenteeism_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic_May_2021.pdf
(Accessed on 26 February 2024)
7. Lang,
A., Bradley, S. D., Park, B., Shin, M. and Chung, Y. (2006) “Parsing the
Resource Pie: Using STRTs to Measure Attention to Mediated Messages”, Media
Psychology, 8, pp. 369-394 – Available at: https://doi-org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/10.1207/s1532785xmep0804_3
(Accessed on 26 February 2024)
8. Patel,
C., Biron, M., Sir Cooper, C. and Budhwar, P. S. (2023) “Sick and Working:
Current challenges and emerging directions for future presenteeism research”, Journal
of Organizational Behaviour, 44(1), pp. 839-852 – Available at https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2727
(Accessed on 27 February)
9. Saramago,
P., Claxton, K., Welton, N. J. and Soares, M. (2020) “Bayesian econometric
modelling of observational data for cost‐effectiveness
analysis: establishing the value of negative pressure wound therapy in the
healing of open surgical wounds,” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society.
Series A, Statistics in society, 183(4), pp. 1575–1593. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/rssa.12596
(Accessed on 27 February)
10. Schmitz, H., Bauer, J. F. and Niehaus, M.
(2023). Working Anytime and Anywhere - Even When Feeling Ill? A Cross-sectional
Study on Presenteeism in Remote Work. Safety and Health at Work, 14(4),
375–383 – Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2023.11.001 (Accessed on 26 February 2024)
11.
Sewell, J.L., Santhosh, L. and O’Sullivan,
P.S. (2020) “How do attending physicians describe cognitive overload among
their workplace learners?” Medical education, 54(12), pp. 1129-.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14289 (Accessed
on 26 February 2024)
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This post was written by Alfred Anate Mayaki, a student on the MSc in HRM, and was inspired by the author's previous learnings and experiences.
