Managing Presenteeism and Sickness Absence in UK Higher Education: A Mixed‑Methods Study

About the Project

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are central to UK social and economic sustainability, contributing >£130bn annually and employing >440,000 people. As knowledge-intensive organisations, they drive innovation, regional development and growth. Supporting staff wellbeing and productivity through sustainable working practices is crucial for institutional resilience and wider economic stability. However, the sector faces ongoing uncertainty, alongside rising concerns about presenteeism, sickness absence, intensified workloads, and post-pandemic working arrangements. Management practices such as workload allocation, hybrid working policies and sickness absence procedures strongly influence these outcomes yet remain under-examined in HE. Increasingly, sector bodies, unions and policymakers call for evidence-based approaches to support wellbeing while maintaining performance under organisational strain.

This PhD will examine how management policies and practices shape patterns of presenteeism and sickness absence among HEI staff. Using the Health Performance Framework (Karanika Murray & Biron, 2022), it will distinguish between therapeutic, functional, dysfunctional and overachieving presenteeism, analysing how organisational systems steer staff towards healthier or harmful ways of working. Drawing on the presenteeism decision-making model (Whysall et al., 2025, 2023), it will investigate how workload planning, hybrid work arrangements and sickness management processes influence decisions about attendance, recovery, and engagement, and how these choices affect wellbeing, performance and sustainable work.

Research Objectives & Questions:

Objective 1: Examine how key management practices affect presenteeism and absenteeism.

• How do workload planning, hybrid work policies, and sickness procedures influence attendance behaviours?

Objective 2: Apply the Health Performance Framework to understand nuanced forms of presenteeism.

• To what extent do managerial practices encourage beneficial (therapeutic, functional) versus harmful (dysfunctional, overachieving) forms?

Objective 3: Identify interventions that support healthier, more sustainable working.

• How can HEIs reduce harmful presenteeism and promote recovery and sustainable productivity?

Contribution: The project will extend conceptual and practical understanding by applying a multidimensional framework in a sector marked by autonomy, performance pressures and strong occupational identity. It will provide mixed-methods evidence on how management systems shape health-related work behaviours and develop actionable recommendations to improve organisational resilience, productivity, and sustainable working practices, aligning with the Safety & Sustainability research theme.

A mixed-methods design will be used. Qualitative: Interviews and focus groups with academic and professional services staff and managers to understand lived experiences of workload, flexibility, presenteeism, and sickness processes. Quantitative: A sector-wide survey measuring management practices, presenteeism types, wellbeing and performance indicators. Triangulation will identify organisational patterns and actionable insights.

Supervisors

• Professor Zara Whysall
• Dr Fotios Mitsakis
• Dr David Candon