| Social
Control and Alcohol in the Workplace
Principal Investigator:
Genevieve Ames, Ph.D.
View
Video Presentation
System
Requirements: This presentation contains digital video, which
utilizes Windows Media Player 7/8 and is best viewed on a
computer with at least a Pentium III/450 MHz or better processor
and a DSL/ISDN (256 kbps) Internet connection. To avoid playback
interuptions, it is recommended all e-mail applications are
closed while viewing.
The
objective of this study was to identify and describe processes
of social control that predict drinking norms and drinking
patterns in the workplace. It compared employee perceptions
of social control mechanisms and drinking norms in two separate
work environments in the same U.S. industry where workers
are under different organizational cultures but represented
by the same union.
One
work setting has an organizational culture that is more traditional
among U.S. industries, and the other, one that is traditional
among Japanese industries. The conceptual model for this study
posits that social control in the workplace comprises four
interacting elements: company and union ideology; the organizational
structure of workers; alcohol-related policies and procedures;
and key roles responsible for handling alcohol problems.
Early
results from multivariate analyses showed that while general
consumption rates in both populations were similar, significant
differences existed between the two samples with regard to
work-related drinking, with the Japanese transplant setting
having far lower rates. Further analyses revealed that subjective
social control of drinking at work, specifically regarding
strengths of alcohol policy and procedures for enforcement,
predicted drinking norms and practices.
Results from analyses of ethnographic data revealed aspects
of the work culture that disabled mechanisms for social control
of drinking in the traditional setting and enabled mechanisms
for more effective social control in the other.
Proceed
to PRC CD Presentation featuring Dr. Genevieve Ames
Return to Projects
Directory
| 
