Alcohol and drug use in the workplace: issues, controversies, and directions for future research

Journal of Management, June, 1992 by Michael M. Harris, Laura L. Heft

Drug and alcohol use in the workplace poses a problem of considerable

practical interest; research on this issue, however, has lagged behind.

The purpose of this article is to review extant research, highlight

controversial issues, and provide suggestions for future studies. Topics

include the relationship between work conditions and substance use,

drug testing, Employee Assistance Programs, and legal issues.

Alcohol and drug use in the workplace is considered one of the most critical problems facing business and industry today. Although the precise annual loss in productivity due to drug and alcohol use is probably impossible to determine, the estimates are staggering. Among the most commonly cited figures are 30 billion dollars of lost productivity due to illegal drug use and 60 billion dollars in lost productivity due to alcohol abuse (Faley, Kleiman, & Wall, 1988). Despite the magnitude of the problem, human resource management and organizational behavior (HRM/OB) scholars and Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychologists have conducted relatively little research on this topic.

The major purpose of this article is to provide an overview of, and future directions for, research on alcohol and drug use in the workplace. A review of this literature is important for at least two reasons. First, research on this topic has been conducted by scholars from a variety of disciplines (e.g., sociologists, counseling psychologists) and is published in a variety of outlets typically not read by HRM/OB researchers and I/O psychologists, such as the Journal of Drug Issues, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and Journal of Studies on Alcohol. Second, despite the attention given to alcohol and drug use in the workplace, HRM/OB scholars and I/O psychologists have shown surprisingly little interest. Hence, it is our hope that the present article will serve as a stimulus for more research by our colleagues.

This article is organized around four substantive topics. The first section reviews research regarding work conditions (e.g., job stressors) as a correlate of alcohol and drug use. Readers seeking an overview of this research are encouraged to peruse Martin (1990), who provides a very balanced summary of this topic.

The next three sections of the article focus on company-sponsored programs and practices to alleviate and reduce alcohol and drug use in the workplace (Harris, 1989). Specifically, research on testing (e.g., pre-employment urinalysis screening), rehabilitative approaches (i.e., Employee Assistance Programs or EAP's), and sanctions for substance use are described in the second, third, and fourth sections, respectively. An overview of drug testing may be found in Crown and Rosse (1988) and Faley et al. (1988). Readers interested in a brief summary of rehabilitative approaches should examine Sonnenstuhl, Staudenmeier, and Trice (1988), Blum and Bennett (1990), and Shain and Groeneveld (1980). Because research and writing on the effects of workplace sanctions on substance use is virtually nonexistent, interested readers are encouraged to read Tittle (1980) for a more general background on this issue. We conclude with a review of relevant methodological issues and a brief discussion concerning the practical implications of the research summarized throughout the article.

Work Conditions and Alcohol and Drug Use

A number of researchers from a variety of disciplines have examined the relationship between work conditions and alcohol and drug use in the workplace. In most cases, work conditions have been measured using respondents' self-reported reactions to the workplace, particularly perceived job stress, job satisfaction, and work alienation. Different researchers have employed different criteria; some of the research has examined alcohol use, whereas other studies have included both alcohol and drug use. Despite all of these differences, there is a remarkable degree of consistency in the results of these studies.

The remainder of this section is divided into three subtopics: (a) a summary of the literature examining the basic relationship between work conditions and alcohol/drug use; (b) a review of studies testing more complex models of work conditions and alcohol/drug use; and (c) a critical summary, along with suggestions for future research in this area.

The Relationship Between Work Conditions and Alcohol and Drug Use

In one of the earliest published studies, Mangione and Quinn (1975) analyzed data from a national survey of over 1,000 working people regarding drug use (as well as several other counterproductive behaviors) and job satisfaction. Breaking down the sample into four subgroups on the basis of sex and age (over 30 years old versus under 30 years old), Mangione and Quinn found that job satisfaction was significantly related to self-reported drug use within only one subgroup: men over 30 years old. Moreover, the correlation was very small (r--.12). On the basis of this, as well as a handful of other studies, an early review of this literature asserted that there was insufficient evidence to firmly conclude whether work conditions were actually related to alcohol consumption (Herold & Conlon, 1981).