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A theory of reasoned action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) and behavioral costing approach (Cascio, 1987; Marvis & Lawler, 1977) were used to estimate the variable financial cost(i.e., cost incurred by organization that vary positively with production rates of goods and services such as wage cost for an hourly work force) of absence decisions made by employees. Measures of the theoretical components of the theory

of reasoned action were developed and administered to blue collar and clerical employees of a financial services organization in order to develop an assessment of absence as the outcome of choice. There months after the questionneer were completed by 176 blue collar employees and 264 clerical employees, paid and unpaid absence information was estimated. The study showed that the theory of reasoned action was useful for predicting paid absense; the estimated finacial cost of absense for 3-month period for this sample was over $25,000. Implications are discussed.

  There is abundant avidence that indicated that the financial cost of
absenteeism
incurred by organization is significant (e.g., Rhodes & Steers, 1990).
estimates

of the cost of absenteeism to organizations are bases on data aggregated across individuals, occupations, and industries (e.g., Klein, 1986; Meisenheimmer, 1990); yet, absence is an individual-level phenomenon that is often associated with an individual's choice Hackette & Guion, 1985). Thus, estimating the finicial cost of absenteeism based on aggregate data provides no information about the finicial cost of an individual's absence decision.

The purpose of this article is to examine the varible financial cost of the