Michel Tremblay’s paper wins top honours
March 13, 2025
Honorary Professor Michel Tremblay from the Department of Human Resources Management has received the Best Paper Award for 2024 in Public Personnel Management (PPM).
The Best Paper Award is presented annually by a committee composed of members from this journal’s editorial board.
Helping behaviour and absenteeism at work
The paper is entitled “The Interplay Between Helping Behavior and Absenteeism in Teams: A Longitudinal Examination of Their Reciprocal Relationship in a Public Organization.” This study followed over 5,000 employees in 168 teams within a large Canadian public organization over a six-year period. Its purpose was to understand how helping behaviours between colleagues (known as OCB-I) and absenteeism (not coming to work) influence each other.
Results indicate that greater mutual assistance among employees leads to a decrease in absenteeism. The study reveals that a one-point increase on a scale of 5 represents undiscounted savings of nearly $3.6 million in voluntary absenteeism. However, if absenteeism increases, helping behaviours subsequently decrease. In short, the more people help each other, the less they absent themselves, and vice versa.
About Michel Tremblay
In addition to his duties as honorary professor, Michel Tremblay holds the Chair in Mobilization of Individuals, Groups and Organizations.
He has a PhD in Management Science from the Institut d’Administration des Entreprises in Aix-Marseille. He specializes in strategic human resources (HR) management, the mobilization of employees in service and retail businesses.
Professor Tremblay is the author of over 60 publications and has had his research work published in two continents (Canada, the United States, France, England, Switzerland and Belgium).
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Chair in Mobilization of Individuals, Groups and Organizations