Employee Substance Abuse Research Articles

Hand in the Pot Cookie Jar: Does Employee Substance Abuse Predict Fraud?

We examine the relation between worker substance abuse and workplace fraud in a sample of medical doctors. Relative to their peers, we observe that doctors engaging in substance abuse are between 50 and 100 times more likely to commit fraud in a given year. This result is consistent with research suggesting that substance abuse both creates financial pressures and impairs the functioning of cognitive self-regulatory mechanisms. Our results are robust in within-subject tests and between-subject tests, as well as in tests using instrumental variables that exploit exogeneous variation in the state-level availability of opioids, a commonly abused substance.

The Approach Taken to Substance Abuse by Occupational Physicians: A Qualitative Study on Influencing Factors.

Aiming to enhance occupational physicians' (OPs) practice when dealing with employee substance abuse, this study analyzes the experiences of OPs to gain insight into the factors influencing their behavior. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. OPs act differently depending on the type of drug. Their approach was mainly determined by contextual factors and by their attitudes and skills. Many OPs want to invest in health promotion. Barriers such as lack of time and focus on periodic examinations often hamper both adequate prevention and the management of workers with substance abuse. The approach to substance abuse by OPs could be supported by initiatives both at the individual and the collective level. A facilitating work context seems to be particularly important in their commitment to alcohol- and drug-related issues at work.

Foodservice employee substance abuse: is anyone getting the message?

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate foodservice industry employees’ experiences and perceptions related to substance abuse prevention measures in the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative approach was used for this foundational study, and data collection occurred by conducting in-depth interviews with 30 foodservice employees. Findings – Participants reported that, in their perceptions, substance abuse prevention measures were virtually non-existent at their places of employment. The few participants that were aware of such policies indicated that they had never seen the policy actually enforced. Practical implications – The results of this exploratory study suggest that foodservice employees may not be receiving adequate messages about workplace substance abuse prevention policies nor are they developing an adequate awareness of such policies. Further, where such policies are in place, they may not being adequately enforced, implying negligent business practices. Failure to display a presence and communication of workplace substance abuse policies and prevention efforts for this potentially high-risk population is both organizationally and socially irresponsible. Suggestions for the implementation of such harm reduction strategies are also provided, as is a call for further research conducted in a quantifiable method to offer more generalizable results. Originality/value – No previous study has investigated employee awareness of substance abuse policies and prevention measures or harm reduction strategies in the foodservice workplace. This study provides a step toward understanding foodservice employee substance abuse and prevention that was previously lacking in the literature.

Achievements Of Zero-Tolerance Drug Testing

Drug use in the workplace can seriously affect safety and productivity. Employee drug testing is one means to reduce employee substance abuse; however, policies that allow drug users, whether casual or habitual, second chances after positive drug tests do not do enough to combat this problem. The City of Houston implemented zero-tolerance drug testing almost 10 years ago. This policy was carefully designed to meet legal standards and has been consistently enforced. Since the effects of the program were last reported, the city has continued to have a positive drug-testing rate that is well below the national average. Additionally, the city has maintained other positive trends, such as lower injury rates and workers’ compensation claims.

Predicting On-the-Job Substance Abuse with a Written Integrity Test

This paper explores definitions and predictors of employee substance abuse, using 173 employed undergraduates who completed a prominent written integrity test and a self-report of work behaviors, including on-the-job (OTJ) alcohol and drug abuse. Approximately 21% of participants reported recent OTJ abuse and were significantly more likely than nonabusers to exhibit other counterproductive work behaviors. Validity coefficients for the integrity test's Employability Index (r = −.25) and Drug Avoidance Scale (r = −.39) suggest that such measures can reduce OTJ abuse, but the procedure's effectiveness may be limited by the high rate of false negatives. We discuss suggestions for improving psychological testing to reduce OTJ abuse.

Team awareness for workplace substance abuse prevention: the empirical and conceptual development of a training program.

This paper describes the empirical and theoretical development of a workplace training program to help reduce/prevent employee alcohol and drug abuse and enhance aspects of the work group environment that support ongoing prevention. The paper (1) examines the changing social context of the workplace (e.g., teamwork, privacy issues) as relevant for prevention, (2) reviews studies that assess risks and protective factors in employee substance abuse (work environment, group processes, and employee attitudes), (3) provides a conceptual model that focuses on work group processes (enabling, neutralization of deviance) as the locus of prevention efforts, (4) describes an enhanced team-oriented training that was derived from previous research and the conceptual model, and (5) describes potential applications of the program. It is suggested that the research and conceptual model may help prevention scientists to assess the organizational context of any workplace prevention strategy. The need for this team-oriented approach may be greater among employees who experience psychosocial risks such as workplace drinking climates, social alienation, and policies that emphasize deterrence (drug testing) over educative prevention. Limitations of the model are also discussed.

Organizational Characteristics and Employer Responses to Employee Substance Abuse

Working within an integrative framework of human resource management (HRM) in context (Jackson & Schuler, 1995), and theorizing from an integrated institutional and resource dependence perspective (Oliver, 1991), this study investigated whether factors in the internal and external organizational environments are associated with the presence of a counseling/rehabilitative response by employers to identified employee substance abuse. Data were collected at two points in time from a sample of 342 private sector worksites in the state of Georgia. The results of ordered logistic regression analysis suggest that variables from both the internal and external organizational environments are related to a rehabilitative response by management to employee substance abuse.

Organizational characteristics and employer responses to employee substance abuse

Working within an integrative framework of human resource management (HRM) in context (Jackson & Schuler, 1995), and theorizing from an integrated institutional and resource dependence perspective (Oliver, 1991), this study investigated whether factors in the internal and external organizational environments are associated with the presence of a counseling/rehabilitative response by employers to identified employee substance abuse. Data were collected at two points in time from a sample of 342 private sector worksites in the state of Georgia. The results of ordered logistic regression analysis suggest that variables from both the internal and external organization environments are related to a rehabilitative response by management to employee substance abuse.

Drug Testing and the Right to Privacy: Arguing the Ethics of Workplace Drug Testing

As drug testing has become increasingly used to maximize corporate profits by minimizing the economic impact of employee substance abuse, numerous arguments have been advanced which draw the ethical justification for such testing into question, including the position that testing amounts to a violation of employee privacy by attempting to regulate an employee's behavior in her own home, outside the employer's legitimate sphere of control. This article first proposes that an employee's right to privacy is violated when personal information is collected or used by the employer in a way which is irrelevant to the terms of employment. This article then argues that drug testing is relevant and therefore ethically justified within the terms of the employment agreement, and therefore does not amount to a violation of an employee's right to privacy. Arguments to the contrary, including the aforementioned appeal to the employer's limited sphere of control, do not account for reasonable constraints on employee privacy which are intrinsic to the demands of the workplace and implicit in the terms of the employment contract.

Referrals to Employee Assistance Programs (EMS)

Based on Bayer and Gerstein's (1988a) Bystander- Equity Model of Supervisory Helping Behavior, this study examined the relationship between characteristics of EAPs, managers, workers, and the EAP referral process. In general, it was hypothesized that managerial status, the type of employee substance abuse, and the location of an EAP would affect hypothetical supervisors' referrals. Graduate level business students (n = 222) were asked to imagine themselves as supervisors (upper, middle, and front-line) of persons employed by a fictitious manufacturing firm. Each received one of three sets of employee scenarios (cocaine abuser, alcohol abuser, or job-impairment only). Additionally, half of the particiants were told that their EAP was company-based, while the other half were told that their EAP was community-based. Respondents were asked to indicate their likelihood (0%-100%) of referring a particular worker to their EAP. As expected, ANOVA results revealed two main effects for type of substance abuse and m...

Improving Employee Substance Abuse Programs

Improving Employee Substance Abuse Programs

Type of Setting, Employee Substance Abuse, and Hypothetical Supervisors' Eap Referrals

This analogue study investigated 90 hypothetical supervisors' EAP referral behaviors with three subordinates: cocaine abusers, alcohol abusers, and non-abusers. It also examined supervisors' behaviors across three work environments: manufacturing company, high school, and hospital. Relying on Bayer and Gerstein's Bystander Model of Supervisory Helping Behavior, we predicted that cocaine abusers would be referred more often than alcohol or non-abusers. We also anticipated higher referral rates in the school setting compared to the other work environments. ANOVA results supported our first hypothesis, but not our second prediction. Interpretations are offered based on Bayer and Gerstein's propositions concerning how supervisors' helping behavior might be influenced by the severity of an employee's problem, the costs associated with intervening, levels of supervisory arousal, and the degree of “we-ness” supervisors may have experienced with their impaired subordinates.

US Corporate Substance Abuse Policies: A Benchmark

Since logistics employee substance abuse can have a significant negative effect on logistics efficiency and effectiveness, logistics managers should develop policies and procedures effectively to control logistics employee substance abuse. This article provides a benchmark for managers who seek to develop such policies by reporting the results of a survey of current US corporate logistics substance abuse policies and practices. Forty per cent of the respondents reported not having a written substance abuse policy. The most widely used detection methods were management observation followed by drug testing. Only 50 per cent of the firms employed pre‐employment screening and less than 40 per cent screened current logistics employees. Of those who did drug test, more than two‐thirds tested for cause only, in all logistics occupations except truck driver, airline pilot and vehicle mechanic. Logistics management should aggressively pursue substance abuse policy development, pre‐employment screening, detection methods for all job classifications and employee assistance programmes.

Perceived organizational climate and employee counterproductivity

In this study, we replicated and extended the research of Hollinger and Clark (1983) on the prevalence and correlates of employee counterproductivity. Two separate employee groups completed an expanded version ofReid Survey III. Roughly one-third of subjects admitted to employee theft. Separate scales measuring perceived attitudes of management, of supervisors, of coworkers, and of employees themselves regarding theft all intercorrelated positively, supporting the concept of a pervasive organizational theft climate. Further, these climate measures were related to subjects' self-reported on-the-job theft. Parallel results were obtained for employee substance abuse. Implications for controlling employee counterproductivity are discussed.

Employee substance abuse: Epidemic of the eighties

Employee substance abuse: Epidemic of the eighties