Pushed and pulled to attend work sick? The role of leader-member exchange in the relationship between absence management and presenteeism

Managing workplace sickness is a core responsibility within Human Resource Management (HRM). While HRM policies aimed at reducing absenteeism are typically well-intentioned, they can inadvertently contribute to presenteeism, referring to the act of attending work despite being ill. Although presenteeism has been extensively studied, gaps persist in understanding the motivational and relational dynamics that underpin such behavior. To address this, this study leverages signaling theory to examine the interplay between absence management, employee motivation, and decision-making when unwell, with a particular focus on the role of employee-supervisor relationships. We propose that strict absence policies, coupled with high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX), can intensify attendance pressures and increase employees’ inclination towards presenteeism, ultimately reinforcing it. Our analysis tested a moderated-mediation model using lagged survey data from 495 participants. The results broadly support our hypotheses, linking control-based HRM practices to unintended consequences and revealing a potential dark side of LMX.