Journal ofManagement 1998, Vol. 24,No.3, 305-350 Time for Absenteeism: A 20-Year Review of Origins, Offshoots, and Outcomes David A. Harrison University of Texas at Arlington Joseph J. Martocchio University of Illinois We use a time-based system to help organize, summarize, and analyze research on employee absenteeism published in the last 20 years (1977-1996). Although what is known about some mid-term (4-12 month) origins of absence-taking has been greatly clarified and expanded, less is known about long-term (> 12 months) and short-term (I day - 3 months) origins, or about how causes in different time frames relate to each other. Poor performance and "neglectful" behaviors serve as reliable offshoots of absenteeism. The long- and short-term etiology of the latter behaviors is unclear, but their shared variance in the mid-term reflects negative job attitudes. Outcomes of absenteeism have received much less research attention. Although mid-term conse- quences such as reduced performance, turnover, and organizational expense are well-established, little is known about short- and long-term effects of absence-taking on individuals and their social environments. We conclude with suggestions for more explicit consideration of time frames, causal lags, and aggregation periods in the next decades of absenteeism research. Twenty years have passed since a comprehensive narrative review of the employee absenteeism literature appeared in a management-related journal (Muchinsky, 1977). Much has happened in the interim. Over a dozen books have been written about it (e.g., Goodman & Atkin, 1984; Rhodes & Steers, 1990), and at least ten different theories have been elucidated (e.g., Brooke, 1986). A number of meta-analyses have summarized bivariate relationships of absenteeism with other variables, including four on its relationship with job satisfaction alone (e.g., Hackett & Guion, 1985). Several critiques and reorientations of the literature have been posed (e.g., Hulin, 1991; Johns & Nicholson, 1982). Directall correspondence to: Dr. DavidA. HarrisonDepartmentof Management,Collegeof BusinessAdminis- tration, UTA Box 19467,Arlington,TX 76019-0467; e-mail<harrison@uta.edu>. Copyright © 1998 by JAI Press Inc. 0149-2063 305