Aocholoism in the Workplace

In contemporary American society, the "use of certain substances to modify mood or behavior under certain circumstances is generally regarded as normal and appropriate. Such use includes recreational drinking of alcohol, in which a majority of adult Americans participate à" (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994, p. 165). Problems for most people develop when "maladaptive behavioral changes associated with the more or less regular use of psychoactive substances that affect the central nervous system" appear (p. 165).

Alcohol use in the workplace is an increasingly important problem in the United States. Lost productivity for the organization, as well as adverse personal and family effects, are costly to organizations, individuals, and society (Welch, 1999). Employee assistance programs (EAPs) and health promotion programs are among the organizational approaches implemented to deal with the problem of alcoholism in the workplace. Despite these efforts, the problem persists (Pawsey, 2000).

Alcohol is the most widely abused chemical substance (Sandahl & Ronnberg, 1990). There are four causal classifications of the abuse of alcohol (Kaplan & Sadock, 1997). These causal classifications are as follows:

Social learning theories, which hold that individuals learn to use chemical substances as a means of coping ù a behavior that eventually

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justified on the grounds that no "biological indicators can" be used to determine when a person is addicted (p. 17). Addiction, according to Peele, cannot be detected "in the absence of its defining behaviors. In general, a person is addicted when he says that he is. No more reliable indicator exists" (p. 17). Peele contends, thus, that substance addiction is a product of both physical dependence and psychic dependence. To contend that Peele (1985) is incorrect in stating that dimensions other than the biological are involved in substance addiction would be as indefensible as Peele's claim that psychic factors are equal to physical factors in explaining all instances of substance addiction. The indefensibility of Peele's contentions is reflected in his explanation of withdrawal symptoms. If, as Peele contends, withdrawal symptoms are partly a function of setting and social milieu, then withdrawal symptoms should vary between settings, for example, such symptoms should be more severe when they occur in the addict's normal social environment than when they are experienced in a clinical setting. That such is not the case weakens Peele's argument. A similar analogy may be made on the basis of alternative opportunities. As t
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Approximate Word count = 4263
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)