ILPC 2026

Increasing research attention has been focussed on the impact that supply chain dynamics have on human resource management (HRM) practices (Grimshaw et al., 2015; Wright and Kaine, 2015). Currently, there is wide consensus that the business decisions of one organisation can shape managerial practices at other organisations across the supply chain (Flecker et al., 2013; Marchington et al., 2005). For instance, research investigating retail supply chains, which are highly competitive and cost-driven, have demonstrated that suppliers become vulnerable to pressures by retailers to comply with specific supply chain requirements. As a result, managerial mechanisms are adjusted to keep unintended costs down and a smooth supply chain flow (Raworth and Kidder, 2009; Newsome et al., 2013; Wright and Lund, 2006). Yet, recent accounts suggest that the amount of pressure leading firms apply on suppliers may be related to the latter’s positioning in the production network. In other words, the supplier’s ‘positionality’ [i.e. the supplier’s relative importance to the overall function of the supply chain] may result in those suppliers being more or less pressured to comply with specific requirements (Rannie et al., 2013; Hesse, 2010: 88).

It has been demonstrated that absence and workplace attendance is a key determinant for keeping costs down in organisations, particularly as staffing levels become leaner (Taylor et al., 2010). Consequently, workers’ attendance in the context of highly pressured and cost-driven supply chains becomes a crucial behaviour that needs to be managed. Following Taylor et al.’s (2010) suggestion that the study of absence cannot be explored as a phenomenon detached from wider market and cost pressures and their call to include a broader sectoral range, the present study explores absence management in the context of production networks. In doing so, the paper aims at expanding the analysis beyond intra-firm relations to a wider network of cost pressures across the supply chain. The study examines how different positionalities within the same supply chain affect absence management. It focuses on two research questions:

1.       How is absence managed by organisations within supply chain and production networks?

2.       What roles do ‘positionality’ and power dynamics play in the management of absence?

Qualitative data was gathered in four workplaces which are involved in the same production network – SpiritsCo bottling hall, SpiritsCo distillery, MaltCo, and TranspCo. Each workplace contributes with different production processes and services for the production of Scotch whisky. This production network, within the Scottish Spirits Industry, provides a sectoral example of how companies manage their workforce in response to constant capital and product market pressures stemming from the ever-more consolidated and powerful supermarkets.

The analysis demonstrates changes in absence management, a managerial mechanism that aims to keep costs and disruption to a minimum (Newsome et al., 2013; Taylor et al., 2010), in relation to inter-firm power dynamics within a specific production network. The data reveal different managerial approaches across and within organizations, depending on the level of disruption that absence generates for the production process and supply chain. Yet this varies according to the relative importance [or positionality] of the supplier in relation to the supply chain and the (in)direct pressures from retailers. For workplaces which occupied a closer position to the retailer (SpiritsCo bottling hall), management resorted to coercive methods aiming to eliminate absence through a comprehensive and sophisticated absence management system. In contrast, for those at a relatively more distant position from the retailer (i.e SpiritsCo distillery), where supply chain pressures are less intense, the absence management system was based on cooperation, negotiation and flexibility. The paper contributes to the understanding of how the supplier’s positionality within the production network shapes absence management practices.