Union-Related Correlates of Employee Referrals to an Occupational Alcoholism Project in a Health Maintenance Organization

The adoption of an employee assistance policy itself was found to be crucial to program outcome, measured by increased chances of referrals, and particularly the quality of union-management relations, are strong predictors.

Abstract

A number of union-related factors, including the degree of unionization and the skill level of the work force, the quality of union-management relations, the extent of union involvement in program development, as well as the provision of supervisory training, have been found to be important in explaining occupational alcoholism program outcome. This study attempted to determine the relationship of such factors to an unusual measure of program outcome, employee referrals to the treatment component of an occupational alcoholism project housed in the counseling department of a health maintenance organization. Multiple-regression techniques were used, with data collected for unionized companies that adopted formal, written employee assistance program (EAP) policies and those that did not. The adoption of an EAP policy seems more important than any other factor in predicting referrals to treatment, In unionized companies without policies, the union-related factors bear no relationship to referrals, while in unionized companies with policies, these variables, particularly the quality of union-management relations, are strong predictors. Supervisory training has only a modest positive effect on referrals. The adoption of an employee assistance policy itself was found to be crucial to program outcome, measured by increased chances of referrals.