The aim of the current study was to demonstrate the relationship between violence against women (VAW) in intimate partner relationships and academic presenteeism of students enrolled in business and engineering programs, at Peruvian universities. This study adopted an exploratory cross-sectional survey design through a survey of 2640 university students from the business and engineering schools of 34 Peruvian universities. It was found that 96.5% of the respondents reported academic presenteeism and 32.0% are survivors of VAW. Partial least squares regression found that VAW generates 8.47 days lost due to academic presenteeism, which at the same time generates 15.12 critical incidents with professors and colleagues, during the academic year. Finally, it was demonstrated that VAW is a determining factor that explains 7.2% of university students’ academic presenteeism. This study is among the very few that empirically seek to explore the actual time that students use in a day at university. Thus, it measured actual academic productive hours of university students in Peru.

El objetivo de la presente investigación fue determinar el efecto del ausentismo y presentismo sobre el rendimiento académico en los estudiantes de pregrado de las Escuelas de Negocios e Ingenierías en las Universidades Peruanas. El estudio se sustenta en una encuesta de autoreporte a 8,203 estudiantes de las escuelas de negocios e ingenierías de las universidades peruanas. Se emplearon escalas para analizar el ausentismo, presentismo y rendimiento académico que mostraron adecuadas propiedades psicométricas. Los resultados evidenciaron que el presentismo tiene un mayor impacto sobre el rendimiento académico disminuido de los estudiantes (β = 0.628) en comparación al ausentismo (β = 0.101). El ausentismo tiene un mayor efecto sobre los cursos y ciclos desaprobados (β = 0.163) y el presentismo sobre la evolución del rendimiento académico (β = -0.145). Finalmente, mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales se demuestra la estructura causal de la disminución del rendimiento académico a partir del ausentismo y presentismo.

This research demonstrates the impact of equitable management as a protective factor against workplace sexual harassment (WSH) and its consequences on labor productivity. It also shows that there are invisible costs for colleagues who witness WSH, through counterproductive behaviors, such as sabotage or production deviance, with an indirect decrease in labor productivity. We used a structured questionnaire that was answered by 827 women from 37 small, medium, and large private companies in the Lima Metropolitan Area, Peru. We designed a conceptual model and tested it using structural covariance equations. The results indicate that 33.5 % of women have been sexually harassed over the last 12 months, an average of 6.6 times, while 18.9 % of women have supported co-workers who were victims of WSH. Being sexually harassed at work decreases labor productivity by 43.1 % and increases the intention to desert the company by 15.2 %. Witnessing WSH increases the intention to drop out by 11.3 % and increases counterproductive behaviors by 39.6 %. We found that equitable management is a preventative factor for WSH. Equitable management not only decreases the probability of the occurrence of WSH by 2.2 times but also—if it exists—reduces its pernicious impact on productivity through various indirect effects. Equitable management can reduce the labor productivity costs caused by WSH by 4.6 times.

This study determines that morbidity presents a mediating impact between intimate partner violence against women and labor productivity in terms of absenteeism and presenteeism. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used on a nationwide representative sample of 357 female owners of micro-firms in Peru. The resulting data reveals that morbidity is a mediating variable between intimate partner violence against women and absenteeism (β = 0.213; p < .001), as well as between intimate partner violence against women and presenteeism (β = 0.336; p < .001). This finding allows us to understand how such intimate partner violence against women negatively affects the workplace productivity in the context of a micro-enterprise, a key element in many economies across the world.

This study aims to provide evidence that managers’ commitment towards preventing gender violence against women is affected by implicit resistance from the patriarchal culture. A structured questionnaire was given to 673 managers of 243 small, medium, and large private companies in Metropolitan Lima, Peru. We design and test a conceptual model using covariance-based structural equation modeling. Even though 90.3% of managers report being committed to and in favor of preventing gender violence in companies, 48.6% have intense implicit resistance against it. In general, 3 out of 4 managers do not believe in violence against women because they consider it “biased”, and think that policies should only talk about family or partner violence. In addition, 2 out of 4 believe that equality policies have “hidden interests” that generate mistrust. The structural equations show that implicit resistance, directly and indirectly, decreases managers’ commitment and actions towards preventing gender violence in organizations. Gender biases, irrational beliefs about sexual violence, and a lack of appreciation of gender equality strongly predict these resistances. Business involvement in the prevention of gender violence is a more complex process than expected, requiring a reinforced strategy aimed at overcoming managers’ implicit resistance.