Toward a role-stress model of employee substance use

Typescript (photocopy).A causal model of employee substance use was developed from research emanating from both traditional drug abuse literature and findings gleaned from industrial/organizational readings. It was hypothesized that work related stress (i.e. role conflict, ambiguity, and powerlessness) and its consequences (low job satisfaction and organizational commitment) would be related to increased employee substance use. Moreover, it was further hypothesized that both intra- and extra-organizational factors would influence employee substance intake. The present study applied hierarchical multiple regression techniques to test the model with data from 1336 municipal employees. Substantial support was obtained for the model. Invariably, high stress and low organizational commitment led to greater usage of and problems with drugs and alcohol. Also, considerable support was found for the hypothesized effects of the moderators. The findings suggest that organizations do have an impact on employee behavior. More importantly, the study targets areas that can be developed to aid organization and employee efforts to attenuate job-based drug use. Directions for future research are discussed