This study examined the impact of an organizational control policy based on the concept of "legal compliance" with established organizational norms on two behavioral measures-absenteeism and performance-and two attitudinal measures of satisfaction. The control policy was experimentally manipulated in each of two experimental groups. In one group, a compulsory attendance policy followed by a noncompulsory policy was employed, while in the other group the sequence of administering the policies was reversed. Attendance, performance, and satisfaction measures were used as criteria in analyses of variance. The results indicated that a control policy based on legal compliance significant!}' improved attendance and performance and did not alter satisfaction levels.

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An attendance control policy based on the Katz and Kahn (1966) motivational pattern of legal compliance was implemented in one department of a large manufacturing organization with two comparable departments serving as controls. A pre-post measure of absenteeism served as the criterion in a 2 X 3 factorial analysis of variance. The factors were the attendance control policy and 3 levels of absence groups (high, average, and low). It was hypothesized that a control policy based on legal compliance would lead to a meaningful reduction in absenteeism among high absence workers who were considered to be chronic absentees by the organization. The results supported the effectiveness of the attendance control policy among chronically absent workers, although the policy did not lead to improvements in attendance among regular attenders. The implications of the study are discussed in the context of organizational efforts to control chronic absenteeism.

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