Troubled Employees Research Articles

The impact of a human resource management intervention on the capacity of supervisors to support and supervise their staff at health facility level

BackgroundA systematic and structured approach to the support and supervision of health workers can strengthen the human resource management function at the district and health facility levels and may help address the current crisis in human resources for health in sub-Saharan Africa by improving health workers’ motivation and retention.MethodsA supportive supervision programme including (a) a workshop, (b) intensive training and (c) action learning sets was designed to improve human resource management in districts and health facilities in Tanzania. We conducted a randomised experimental design to evaluate the impact of the intervention. Data on the same measures were collected pre and post the intervention in order to identify any changes that occurred (between baseline and end of project) in the capacity of supervisors in intervention a + b and intervention a + b + c to support and supervise their staff. These were compared to supervisors in a control group in each of Tanga, Iringa and Tabora regions (n = 9). A quantitative survey of 95 and 108 supervisors and 196 and 187 health workers sampled at baseline and end-line, respectively, also contained open-ended responses which were analysed separately.ResultsSupervisors assessed their own competency levels pre- and post-intervention. End-line samples generally scored higher compared to the corresponding baseline in both intervention groups for competence activities. Significant differences between baseline and end-line were observed in the total scores on ‘maintaining high levels of performance’, ‘dealing with performance problems’, ‘counselling a troubled employee’ and ‘time management’ in intervention a + b. In contrast, for intervention a + b + c, a significant difference in distribution of scores was only found on ‘counselling a troubled employee’, although the end-line mean scores were higher than their corresponding baseline mean scores in all cases. Similar trends to those in the supervisors’ reports are seen in health workers data in terms of more efficient supervision processes, although the increases are not as marked.ConclusionA number of different indicators were measured to assess the impact of the supportive supervision intervention on the a + b and a + b + c intervention sites. The average frequency of supervision visits and the supervisors’ competency levels across the facilities increased in both intervention types. This would suggest that the intervention proved effective in raising awareness of the importance of supervision and this understanding led to action in the form of more supportive supervision.

THE ROLE OF SUPERVISORS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE IN THE SUCCESSFUL UTILISATION OF THE EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

Murder and suicide are common amongst members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and supporting statistics to this effect are regularly highlighted in the media (Allers, 2006:2). It is also evident that employee productivity is often influenced negatively as a result of personal and/or work-related problems. McCraty, Atkinson and Tompson (in Williams & Weyers, 2006:281) mention that particular attention should be given to occupational stress in policing as its potentially negative consequences affect society in more direct and critical ways than in the case of most other organisations. Although the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) of the SAPS is a suitable vehicle to address these problems, Allers (2006:2) states that, as far as seeking help is concerned, there is a culture amongst police members of “boys don’t cry”. He continues that there is nearly no internal support for members who are confronted with shocking experiences on a continuous basis. Such a statement seems to imply that referral by supervisors of troubled employees to the EAP is not enough.

Gangster Tour of Texas (review)

Reviewed by: Gangster Tour of Texas Dan K. Utley Gangster Tour of Texas. By T. Lindsay Baker. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2011. Pp. 350. Illustrations, maps, sources, index. ISBN 9781603442589, $29.95 paper.) As someone who has had the privilege of traveling through parts of the state with T. Lindsay Baker on more than one occasion, I can attest to the fact that Gangster Tour of Texas gives the reader a sense of what such a road trip might be like. Baker is a premier yarn spinner and a consummate historian, and his writing accurately conveys his remarkably honed sense of place, as well as his enthusiasm for a historical tale well told. What draws the reader in immediately whether the stories are familiar (such as Bonne and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, or the Newton Boys) or perhaps lesser known (like the Flapper Bandit, the Rum King of San Antonio, or the Post Morphine Ring), is the personal voice of the author. By that I mean he has crafted each story in a way that conveys the experience of following along with him on his historical investigations. At the end of each chapter, he ups the personal approach by offering a universal challenge: “Judge the Evidence Yourself”—a unique way of presenting his list of sources. Gangster Tour of Texas is site-based history at its most compelling level. In his [End Page 207] dogged pursuit of history, Baker follows the research trail through publications, archives, oral histories, and courthouses, as one would expect, but like a gumshoe historian he also strikes out on extensive truth treks that take him down back alleys, out to rural crossroads, underneath overpasses, inside historic buildings, across front yards, and back beyond the fences. What he finds, he carefully documents, photographs, and maps so heritage tourists can literally follow the crime spree. This is not the usual overview of outlaws and lawmen, although those who favor such studies will find more than enough here to warrant their interest. The book instead explores new layers of gangster stories, from the personal and poignant to the lasting effects of crime on communities—and even the state. Embedded within the layers are clearly-defined bits and pieces from the past that speak to broader contexts of economics, politics, the legal system, families, society, and the cultural landscape, both rural and urban. It is, as the title suggests, a tour, but a tour unlike any other. An important aspect of the book is that it appropriately reflects Texas crime in its broadest sense, yet Baker clearly provides parameters by focusing on organized crime, which he defines as “any activity in which two or more people conspire to break the law for personal gain” (xiv). As a result, there are some of the usual suspects in the book, but some that might also seem surprising to find there, including General Land Office Commissioner Bascom Giles; the noted goat-gland charlatan, Dr. John R. Brinkley; and Becky Rogers, who began her criminal career as a troubled employee of the Texas State Historical Association. The chronological span of the book stretches from the era of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow forward to the demise of the extensive gambling operations in Galveston. Gangster Tour of Texas makes a significant contribution to our collective understanding of the recent past by exploring one important aspect of social history. The book will appeal to those who appreciate well-crafted stories solidly grounded in the historical record and to those who like to take a leisurely literary tour around the state reflecting on the past. It is a study that is, at once, engaging, comfortable, rewarding, and unforgettable. Dan K. Utley Texas State University–San Marcos Copyright © 2012 The Texas State Historical Association

Employee Assistance and the Concept of Authority

This article maintains that the employee assistance field, because it has jettisoned its heritage, hence its authority, is in danger of extinction or, at best, becoming no more than a pawn in the service of ideas and ideologies which have agendas of their own, all of which are inimical to traditional EAP practice. The article also explores how an understanding of the concepts of authority and tradition can help the field regain its former legitimacy and vitality and focus once again on three essential ideas—the troubled employee, the importance of management to effective EAP practice, and the concept of organizational development—all of which are essential to sound and effective employee assistance programs. Last but not least, the article suggests that the ultimate authority for employee assistance practice—and that which distinguishes the field from other efforts in the human services field—is the unique nature, structure, and purpose of the worksite.

Applying Needs-Assessment Skills in the Implementation of EAP Structures

Needs-assessment skills were applied in order to promote the growth of underdeveloped EAPs in Korean corporations. Employees in Korean manufacturing were examined in terms of what problems they experienced and what services they would like to see developed in the workplace. The findings suggest that the respondents' concerns mainly centered on job stress, vocational guidance, retirement, mental and physical health, cultural activities, time management, and smoking habits. Correspondingly, they desired employer assistance in areas such as job stress management, vocational guidance, retirement services, mental health services, physical health promotion, cultural activity promotion, time-management services, and smoking prevention. The results not only facilitate the application of needs-assessment skills, but also trigger the birth of EAPs for troubled employees in South Korea.

Where Have We Been? … Where Are We Going?

Summary This chapter addresses changing trends within the EAP field; and, discusses the prevalence of EAPs internationally. There has been a change in focus from earlier EAPs, which were somewhat sequestered away within the organizational structure; and, with a focus most exclusively on the “troubled employee.” A program model which may be more salient for the diverse employee needs of today would be a strengths-based and solution focused approach and an EAP involved in multiple aspects of an organization's work culture.

The Role of Supervisory Referral in Employee Assistance Programs

Abstract A growing number of organizations offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to help employees with their personal problems. Many organizations rely on their supervisors to help identify and refer troubled employees to the EAP for assistance, yet very little conclusive evidence exists regarding the factors that influence whether or not supervisors identify and intervene with troubled employees. A previous review of the literature (Nord & Littrell, 1989) found that the following variables were consistently related to referral: (a) degree of management support for the EAP, (b) gender of supervisor, (c) gender of subordinate, (d) existence of a supervisor network, (e) occupational category of the employees supervised, (f) social distance between supervisor and troubled employee, (g) supervisors' attitude toward their role in referral, and (h) supervisor knowledge of the EAP. However, results of some of the studies reviewed for the current paper were inconsistent with Nord and Littrell's (1989) findin...

Self-Disclosure as a Predictor of EAP Supervisory Utilization

ABSTRACT The value of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) has been cited in a variety of published papers and articles. An important managerial element relative to the assessment and referral of troubled employees has been supervisory training. There have been numerous studies highlighting the various factors and circumstances associated with supervisory behavior and EAP referrals. The inclusion of emotional awareness factors in EAP supervisory utilization has not been thoroughly investigated, although frequently found in the literature as a training and development objective for managers in business and education. The present study provides support for supervisory self-disclosure/self-confrontation as a predictive characteristic among EAP utilizing supervisors and as a viable component for inclusion in future EAP supervisory training efforts as well.

Employee assistance programmes and their place within universities

In recent years British universities have been subject to demands for increased efficiency, greater accountability and cost effectiveness, without a corresponding increase in the resources available to them. As more university employees find it difficult to cope with these new pressures, there is an increasing need for universities to provide enhanced support for employees in the workplace. The response in British universities to the ‘troubled employee’ is considered, and contrasted with the development of Employee Assistance Programmes in North American universities. Different types of EAP are discussed, and it is argued that British universities might benefit from introducing such programmes.

Working Sober: The Transformation of an Occupational Drinking Culture.

Americans assume that workers do not drink on the job and that, if they do, it is because they suffer from alcoholism rather than because they are conforming to occupational expectations. William J. Sonnenstuhl disagrees. He contends that some occupational cultures encourage heavy drinking. Moreover, his research suggests that the sense of community which motivates drinking can also sometimes inspire workers to break the pattern and work sober.Revised and updated, this report addresses questions often raised by employers and union leaders developing job-based programs to help alcoholic and other troubled employees. This new edition discusses the efforts of EAP workers, the historical development and key components of EAPs, and the importance of balance in program strategies and in corporate and union responsibilities.

Process Evaluation of an Australian EAP

Summary This paper discusses the process evaluation-results from a larger study. Impact and outcome evaluation results are discussed elsewhere. The larger study was a comprehensive, independent and controlled evaluation of an employee assistance program (EAP) in one blue collar workplace of 400 employees. The EAP service provider supplies an external counselling service for employees in Western Australia. In this multiple time series design, the experimental group was those who used the EAP counselling service, and the two comparison groups were those who used Self-Arranged Counselling, and those who had No Counselling, over the 2.5 years of the study. Measurements were taken by employee surveys and employee records in five sets, 2 pre and 3 post EAP. The EAP was found to be implemented as planned, and effective in terms of being utilised, and in penetrating the pool of troubled employees in this particular company. Awareness and knowledge of the EAP were high for both supervisors and general staff, but a...

An Analysis of an Employee Assistance Supervisory Training Program

ABSTRACT There have been a variety of articles and papers published regarding the value of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Supervisory training has become an important managerial element relative to the assessment and referral of troubled employees. Very little empirical investigation has been conducted in evaluation of the effectiveness of specific training methodologies. Using a repeated measures design, this study provides support for the employment of small group interaction as well as corrective feedback strategies as a specific methodology when training managers and supervisors in EAP practices.

When careers reach a dead end: identification of occupational crisis states.

The reliability and validity of the Occupational Crisis Scale, (OCS; Hutri, 1995a) were examined in 3 separate studies. The OCS was developed to identify employees who are at a dead end in their job or career. Participants were employees from various occupations, psychology students, and previous vocational counseling clients. The results demonstrated the OCS's internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, divergent and convergent validity, as well as changes in occupational crisis states after a 1-year follow-up. The prevalence of occupational crises was rated to be at least 1 for every 30 employees. All identified crisis participants were women. Occupational crises were related to long consideration of career change, suggesting that the crises were of developmental origin. The findings are compared with the results from a preliminary study among vocational counseling clients. The use of the OCS to assist troubled employees is discussed.

Aiding troubled employees: the prevalence, cost, and characteristics of employee assistance programs in the United States.

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) are job-based programs designed to identify and assist troubled employees. This study determines the prevalence, cost, and characteristics of these programs in the United States by worksite size, industry, and census region. A stratified national probability sample of more than 6400 private, nonagricultural US worksites with 50 or more full-time employees was contacted with a computer-assisted telephone interviewing protocol. More than 3200 worksites responded and were eligible, with a response rate of 90%. Approximately 33% of all private, nonagricultural worksites with 50 or more full-time employees currently offer EAP services to their employees, an 8.9% increase over 1985. These programs are more likely to be found in larger worksites and in the communications/utilities/transportation industries. The most popular model is an external provider, and the median annual cost per eligible employee for internal and external programs was $21.83 and $18.09, respectively. EAPs are becoming a more prevalent point of access to health care for workers with personal problems such as substance abuse, family problems, or emotional distress.

Business dimensions to organizational counselling

Abstract Organizations are increasingly introducing counselling for troubled employees. For some organizations, with a long history of employee care or paternalism, the role of Welfare or Personnel has grown to cover emotional as well as other needs. Other organizations, impressed by Employee Assistance Programmes and their claims of increasing employee effectiveness and reducing sickness absence, have opted for commercial counselling providers. This paper looks at the background to Organizational Counselling, alternative approaches to meeting organizational needs, and presents the current Post Office approach to employee care and counselling.

Use of Employee Assistance Programs by the Hotel-Motel Industry

It is estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of the total employees in any organization can be considered troubled employees. Furthermore, from that total approximately 12% may have substance abuse problems. The hotel and motel industry provides a perfect breeding ground for many of these problems. A study was conducted to determine if the hotel and motel industry was presently utilizing Employees Assistance Programs (EAPs) in response to problems in the workplace. If they were, what kinds of programs were they using and if not, why not. The results of the study showed the industry for the most part was in a state of denial concerning employee problems and often was uneducated relating to what EAPs were especially in relation to cost-benefit issues.

Supervisor Training in Employee Assistance Programs:

The role of the supervisor in the constructive confrontation process has been established as central to employee assistance programs (EAPs) (Googins and Kurtz, 1980; Hoffman and Roman, 1984; Roman and Blum, 1988). Supervisors are in a unique position to identify troubled employees and intervene in a meaningful way. As a result, EMS have implemented supervisor training programs in order to enhance supervisors' skills in performing these tasks. These training programs have been implemented and accepted in virtually all EAPs (Trice and Belasco, 1968; Trice and Roman; 1972). Despite the general acceptance of supervisors and supervisor training as critical to the E M mission, there has been very little research in this area by E M professionals. Thus, with only a few notable exceptions (Googins and Kurtz, 1980; Hoffman and Roman, 1984; Trice and Beyer, 1981), supervisor training remains relatively unexamined despite its importance to the EAP field. This paper will present data from the first phase of a study project funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse to study the effectiveness of supervisor training. In this first phase a national telephone survey of EMS was conducted to obtain an accurate picture of the extent and nature of supervisor training practices within EAPs. On the basis of these survey data, an analysis of current supervisor training practices will be presented with particular emphasis placed on recent changes in the EAP and training environments. Finally, a number of recommendations are offered to enhance the quality of current training programs and help in designing new programs to meet the changing needs of EAPs.

Mediation and the workplace: Creating an awareness within employee assistance programs

AbstractEmployee Assistance Programs (EAPs) have arisen in work sites to help troubled employees deal with personal problems before their jobs are permanently affected. Originally known as Occupational Alcoholism Programs, EAPs now deal with a wide spectrum of problems. Depending on the work site, 20 to 45 percent of persons using EAPs do so for family or marital reasons. EAP is a burgeoning industry across North America, yet its links with mediation services are limited. EAP can act not only as an access route to mediation but also as a workplace‐based support system for those involved in the mediation process.

Ideology and Referral Categories in Employee Assistance Program Research

Practitioners tend to employ cultural referral categories when classifying what has motivated clients to enter employee assistance programs (EAPs). These categories are rooted in ideology and used in ways that often conceal the diverse factors leading troubled employees to seek help. In particular, application of the term “self-referral” has grown dramatically while application of the term “supervisory referral” has declined, which may reflect practitioners' underlying beliefs about how employees ought to use EAPs. The article discusses some studies of alcohol treatment efforts for which the use of cultural referral categories made interpretation of the findings difficult. Following a review of the medical and psychiatric literaure on seeking help, the authors call for construction of a grounded theory based on qualitative research, and recommend that EAPs develop more accurate classifications for labeling cases.

Book Reviews : Inside an Emotional Health Program- a Field Study of Workplace Assistance for Troubled Employees W.J. Sonnenstuhl

Book Reviews : Inside an Emotional Health Program- a Field Study of Workplace Assistance for Troubled Employees W.J. Sonnenstuhl