Work Team Attitudes, Drinking Norms, and Workplace Drinking

Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between work team attitudes, drinking norms, and workplace drinking in a large assembly line factory in the Midwest. Respondents were asked whether significant persons at work (friends, team members, and supervisors) would approve or disapprove if they engaged in three types of work-related drinking (before work, at work, and at work to intoxication). Respondents were also asked whether they agreed or disagreed with several positive and negative statements about work teams–a new form of assembly line production introduced in the 1980s. Several items probing relations between union employees and supervisors were also included. Separate regression analyses were used to predict workplace drinking norms and workplace drinking. Using exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical regression, positive attitudes toward work teams significantly predicted less permissive drinking norms even when overall drinking and various background variables were controlled. In a second regression analysis, drinking norms significantly predicted workplace drinking. Additionally, it was revealed in the analysis that hourly African-Americans as a group were significantly more likely to have positive team attitudes and less permissive drinking norms than whites. The role of team-based work system in the primary prevention of workplace alcohol misuse is discussed.