William J. Sonnenstuhl

The Organizational Transformation Process: The Micropolitics of Dissonance Reduction and the Alignment of Logics of Action

Arguing that current theories of organizational change fail to pay adequate attention to how organizations move from one stable state to another, a model is generated of the organizational transformation process. It is argued that to the degree that organizations are systems of exchange, they may be said to be transformed through a process by which the logics of action that parties bring to the exchange are aligned, misaligned, and realigned. Developing the concept of logic of action and drawing on cognitive dissonance theory, examination is made of how, in the face of a massive environmental shift (in this case, airline deregulation), changes at the institutional level were transformed into changes at the core level. The model is generated from an analysis of qualitative data on the impact of deregulation on labor and managements approach to employee emotional well-being in the airline industry.

The Social Construction of Alcohol Problems in a Union's Peer Counseling Program

While the referral processes in management-based employee assistance/industrial alcoholism programs have been studied, little attention has been paid to those in union peer counseling programs. This study closes the gap by reporting ethnographic data collected in one unions member assistance program. The Tunnel and Construction Workers Union is an occupational community characterized by a heavy drinking culture, and its program consists of credentialed alcoholism counselors and a network of union members who also belong to Alcoholics Anonymous. In negotiations with these groups, drinkers learn that they are alcoholic and achieve sobriety. Negotiations break down into three stages: Getting into the Network, Learning to Stay in the Network, and Taking Responsibility. As in management-based programs, constructive confrontation and job performance are crucial elements in the negotiations. In unions, however, those elements take on a slightly different meaning because unions operate within a different social context than management-dominated work organizations.

Contrasting Employee Assistance, Health Promotion, and Quality of Work Life Programs and Their Effects on Alcohol Abuse and Dependence

Numerous programs addressing employee alcohol abuse and dependence have appeared in organizations in the U.S. since the 1940s. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) have effectively used a dual strategy of constructive confrontation and counseling for dealing with problem drinkers at the work site. In many organizations, however, practitioners have begun to treat problem drinkers by altering this strategy and/or relying on health promotion programs (HPPs) and quality of work life (QWL) efforts. This article compares EAPs, HPPs, and QWL, discussing their theoretical underpinnings, methods, and demonstrated effectiveness in treating alcohol abuse and dependence. The author encourages cooperation among EAP, HPP, and QWL practitioners in addressing work place factors related to drinking problems, and makes several recommendations for future research.

Screening older, blue-collar workers for drinking problems: an assessment of the efficacy of the drinking problems index.

The authors examine the performance of the Drinking Problems Index (DPI) as a screening instrument for the identification of drinking problems among older blue-collar workers. Performance was assessed using a random sample of 1055 retirement-eligible blue-collar workers with the CAGE as a problem-drinking criterion. The authors also assessed the relative performance of the DPI versus the CAGE on the basis of each instruments sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) with regard to other alcohol-related criteria. DPI was found to offer reasonable levels of sensitivity and specificity, although its sensitivity varied by age. Moreover, for older, blue-collar workers, the DPI was found to more effectively screen for problematic patterns of alcohol consumption than the CAGE.

Reaching the Impaired Professional: Applying Findings from Organizational and Occupational Research

This paper argues that constructive confrontation strategy is an effective technique for identifying alcoholic and other troubled professionals. The research on constructive confrontation in work organizations and occupations is reviewed and applied to the professions. Currently, there is little empirical research on reaching the impaired professional; consequently, qualitative studies need to be undertaken in order to fully describe and understand how assistance programs actually work with impaired professionals.

Retirement and drug abuse: The conditioning role of age and retirement trajectory

Although recent research on the link between retirement and drinking behavior among older adults suggests that retirement may also serve as a risk factor for drug abuse, the latter association has yet to be subject to rigorous research. We examined this association, as well as the possible conditioning effects of age and retirement trajectory, using a sample of 978 retirement-eligible workers (some having retired, others deferring their retirement) from 3 blue-collar employment sectors: (e.g., construction, manufacturing, and transportation). The findings indicate a weak but significant positive association between retirement and the severity of drug abuse. Age moderated the retirement-drug abuse relationship with - among older workers - higher rates of drug abuse found among those deferring retirement and lower rates among those actually retiring, and the exact opposite pattern found among younger retirement-eligible workers. Also, as hypothesized, the moderating effects of age on the association between retirement and drug abuse were weaker among those opting to return to work post-retirement as opposed to those fully retiring.

Inside EAPs: View from the New York State Thruway

Article discusses the implementation of a qualitative field research project: a study of socialization processes of New York State employee assistance workers. Field techniques are described, including training to conduct in-depth research interviews; locating members of a systematic sample; administering the research instrument; and adapting to the inherent uncertainties of field research.

Mutual Aid and Union Renewal: Cycles of Logics of Action

This book will be of interest to anthropologists interested in doing work in organizations. More to the point for ASQs readers, it could be useful to students of organizations hoping to extend their research to new settings or to develop insights into emerging phenomena that may not be amenable to a more deductive approach. Although this is not an ethnographic how-to, readers will find the discussions of research dilemmas and tradeoffs, ethical questions, and constraints presented by particular settings helpful. All of the chapters highlight, directly or implicitly, questions of access, trust, ethics, usefulness, and legitimacy. Many of the case studies are also interesting, such that I often wished I were reading a more complete ethnography. The point of this book is not to present a set of ethnographies, however, but to provide pieces of ethnography to illustrate and reflect on the ethnographic process and contribution. There did seem to be a lack of coherence among chapters, as well as unevenness in the level of insight offered on ethnography in organizational research. This may, in fact, mirror the biases of anthropology for description over prescription and for particularism over generalization. I found Van Maanens afterword helpful in this regard and also benefited from rereading Hirsch and Gellners introduction after reading all the main chapters. This was a small concession to make for a text that is potentially valuable in exploring new research areas and methods and stimulating our thinking along the way.

Drug Use in the Workplace: Risk Factors for Disruptive Substance Use Among Young Adults.

Description of the Study Prevalence Rates of General and Disruptive Substance Abuse Structure of Disruptive Substance Abuse Demographic Correlates of Disruptive Substance Use Relationship Between General Drug Use and Disruptive Drug Use Disruptive Drug Use and Work-Related Factors Psychosocial Correlates of Disruptive Drug Use Disruptive Drug Use and Other Deviant Attitudes and Behaviors Stability and Change of Disruptive Drug Use Adolescent Personality and Psychosocial Functioning Predictors of Later Disruptive Drug Use Adolescent Reasons for Drug Use as Predictors of Later Disruptive Drug Use Other Drug Problems and the Development of Risk Factors Indices