This article reports a study of the effects of higher-level managers'policies on unit members' behavior, which sought to determine whether the process of communicating and clarifying policies goveming absence from the job could reduce unauthorized absences beyond the effects of the policies'content. In afield experiment with battalions of the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton, Califomia, higher-level managers were instructed to clarify and communicate their absence policies repeatedly for a six-month period Some units were assigned to the control condition, the remainder to the treatment condition. Questionnaires were administered before and after the intervention took place. The results from the pretest and post-test measures indicate that clarifying and communicating the policies reduced the rates of unauthorized absence, but only when the policy clarification led to increased hierarchical consistency in the policies among managers and increased knowledge of the policies by unit members.
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