Contrasting Organizational Responses to Alcohol and Illegal Drug Abuse among Employees

The example of the employer response to substance abuse provides an illustrative case of the importance of environmental influences in shaping the employer response to worker deviance. Despite similar claims of the ill effects of worker abuse on the business interests of employers (e.g., absenteeism and lost productivity), abuse of alcohol and drugs are defined differently, the proper limits of employer interest are defined differently, and the two substances are dealt with quite differently, strongly influenced by the organizational environment. The author describes major differences in employer control efforts in the policy areas of identification, discipline, and rehabilitation for alcohol versus illegal drug cases and provides a conceptual framework for thinking about these differences and the influences on them.