Minimization of workplace alcohol problems: the supervisor's role

Based on findings from an ethnographic analysis of an assembly plant in a large manufacturing industry, this paper delineates a conceptual framework for "minimization" that proposes to explain the interactional processes leading to systemized weakening of alcohol problem awareness and action in the unionized workplace. In the course of 50 semi-structured interviews and observations with union representatives and management, the role of the first-line supervisor emerged as pivotal to minimization. Individual case studies from the ethnography and responses from a survey sample of 1000 employees are used to illustrate how goals and processes of the workplace culture impede forthright action and clear lines of decision making on alcohol issues.