Recent developments in alcoholism:the workplace

We examine the results of recent research that considers the relationship of the work environment to drinking behavior and problems. We bring the concept of culture to the foreground in this discussion, and show that much of what alcohol researchers term as work-related risk factors are, in effect, best understood as aspects or dimensions of cultural processes which operate in complex organizations. We identify and review four perspectives on alcohol use in occupational contexts that highlight these cultural processes at work: (1) the development of organizational norms with respect to drinking, definitions of problem drinking, and mechanisms of social control; (2) working conditions that produce in some workers experiences of powerlessness, alienation, or stress which are in turn alleviated by drink; (3) the interaction of cultural factors external to the workplace--regional/national, community, ethnic, and religious--with organizational cultural norms which affect alcohol values, beliefs, and behaviors; and (4) processes that underlie the development of occupationally based drinking subcultures.