Driven to Drink: Managerial Control, Work-Related Risk Factors, and Employee Problem Drinking

Abstract

Using a sample of blue-collar workers and drawing from managerial control theory, we derived and tested an integrative model of employee drinking behavior focusing on four key sets of work-related risk factors: (1) workplace culture, (2) alienation, (3) stress, and (4) policy enforcement. Our results suggest that perceived permissive drinking norms are the strongest direct predictor of employee problem drinking. Such norms also both mediate and moderate the effects of stress and policy enforcement variables on problem drinking, but the mediational effects may have higher explanatory potential. Implications for the management of counterproductive employee behaviors are discussed.