| This study examined the relationship between certain work environmental risk factors and employee alcohol problems. The study utilized the conceptual framework of Ames' and Janes' (1992) workplace environmental dimensions of normative regulation of drinking, quality and organization of work, factors external to the workplace, and workplace drinking subcultures to explore previous findings regarding the relationships of these dimensions to employee alcohol problems. The study extends previous research by surveying and interviewing union-represented male and female Administrative Support Unit (ASU) and Blue Collar (BC) employees from a large, American Midwest public urban university. Out of the 440 ASU and BC employees invited to participate in the study, 299 returned a completed survey for an overall survey response rate of 68.0%. In addition, seven employees also were interviewed. The main study findings included that of current drinkers, male and female BC workers (12.5% and 29.5%, respectively) were more likely than their ASU counterparts (6.8% and 12.5%, respectively) to be problem drinkers. In addition, BC workers were found to have less education and less family income than ASU workers. These findings confirm previous research regarding an inverse relationship between the socioeconomic status of occupations and employee alcohol problems (e.g., Ojesjo, and Parker & Farmer as cited in Parker & Harford, 1992, p. 103). Study results also found that as informal social controls decreased in a work environment, the frequency of employee drinking on-the-job increased. This finding was not unexpected because relevant literature indicates that workers respond more to proximal social behavioral expectations or lack of these expectations than to distant formal company policies regarding drinking on-the-job (Ames & Janes, 1992, p. 113). Finally, employee problem drinkers were found to work in environments significantly higher in physical hazards when compared to employee social drinkers, and this relationship remained even after employee background factors were statistically controlled for. It should be noted, however, that employee background factors were more strongly associated with employee problem drinking than physically hazardous work environments. This latter finding is consistent with previous research that employee background factors can fully account for the relationship between job physical risk and employee problem drinking (Lehman & Bennett, 2002, pp. 275 & 282). Study implications include the lower the socioeconomic status of employees, as measured by employee education, income, and their occupation, the greater the risk for employee alcohol problems. The lack of informal social controls as risk factors in the work environment can be connected to workplace alcohol prevention. That is, if the organization wants to control drinking on-the-job, study results indicate the importance of regulating work environment in terms of informal social control. Finally, employees classified as problem drinkers in this study were more likely to work in physically hazardous work environments; however, the role of work environment in explaining this finding seems to be less important than the background factors that employees bring with them into the workplace. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
