Supervisor Undermining, Social Isolation and Subordinates' Problematic Drinking: The Role of Depression and Perceived Drinking Norms.

Findings regarding the mechanism underlying the impact of supervisor incivility on subordinate alcohol misuse remain equivocal. Specifically, some studies indicate that stress mediates the impact of supervisor incivility on subordinate alcohol misuse, while others, find no evidence for such an effect, suggesting the need to investigate other mechanisms. Extending Conservation of Resource (COR) theory and employing a longitudinal study design, this study examines two alternative mechanisms grounded on social isolation. The first suggests drinking as a resource-mobilizing response, with social isolation eliciting the perception of more permissive injunctive drinking norms, thus facilitating problematic drinking. The second suggests problematic drinking as a mode of coping with a negative emotional state elicited by social isolation, namely depression. Findings indicate that supervisor undermining's association with subsequent subordinate problematic drinking is serially mediated by social isolation and depression, with no support found for the first mechanism. Implications for research, practice and policy are discussed.

Behavior change versus stability during the college-to-work transition: Life course and the "stickiness" of alcohol misuse at career entry.

To what extent and under what conditions do college graduates disengage from employment-incompatible behaviors during the college-to-work transition? Drawing from the life course perspective, we proposed a model highlighting considerable stability of employment-incompatible behaviors during initial months of organizational socialization. Our model predicted that maturing out of such behaviors, which is expected by employers and beneficial to career adjustment, would be more likely to occur given a conducive transition context. Using a large dataset tracking graduates from their last semester in college to up to approximately 1.5 years after graduation and with alcohol use as our empirical referent, we demonstrated that a pattern of high-risk drinking behavior may remain even after the transition into full-time employment. We further showed that lower levels of perceived cohort drinking norms and higher levels of mentoring were associated with a higher probability of maturing out, manifesting in a transition from a high-risk drinking profile before graduation to a moderate drinking profile after starting full-time employment. Finally, we found that maturing out was associated with lagged outcomes including lower levels of sleep problems and depression and fewer work days lost to absenteeism, thus underscoring the consequential nature of behavior profile shifts during the college-to-work transition.

Does college alcohol consumption impact employment upon graduation? Findings from a prospective study.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 103(1) of Journal of Applied Psychology (see record 2017-44578-001). In the article, the authors incorrectly used the term "probability" instead of the term "odds" when relating to the impact of drinking in college on post-graduation employment. The abstract should note "a roughly 10% reduction in the odds...", and in the 2nd paragraph of the Discussion section, (a) "a roughly 10% lower probability" should be "a roughly 10% lower odds", and (b) "their probability of full-time employment upon graduation is roughly 6% lower than..." should be "their odds of full-time employment upon graduation is roughly 6% lower than..." All versions of this article have been corrected.] Although scholars have extensively studied the impact of academic and vocational factors on college students' employment upon graduation, we still know little as to how students' health-related behaviors influence such outcomes. Focusing on student alcohol use as a widely prevalent, health-related behavior, in the current study, we examined the employment implications of student drinking behavior. Drawing from literature examining the productivity effects of drinking and research on job search, we posited that modal quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, as well as the frequency of heavy episodic drinking (HED) adversely impact the probability of employment upon graduation. Using data from 827 graduating seniors from 4 geographically diverse universities in the United States collected in the context of a prospective study design, we found modal alcohol consumption to have no adverse effect on the likelihood of employment upon graduation. However, we did find a significant adverse effect for the frequency of heavy drinking, with the data suggesting a roughly 10% reduction in the odds of employment upon graduation among college seniors who reported engaging in the average level of HED. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Prevalence and Distribution of Aging-Friendly Human Resource Practices.

The aging of the workforce in the developed world has prompted organizations to implement human resource (HR) policies and practices encouraging older workers to defer retirement. However, little is known about the prevalence of such practices, and the organizational factors associated with their adoption. In this study, we used data collected from 2008 to 2009 from a national probability sample of retirement eligible workers in the United States (N = 407) to assess the prevalence of aging-friendly human resource practices (AFHRP), and their organizational predictors. Results indicate that employee wellness programs, unpaid leave, and reassignment based on physical needs are among the most prevalent AFHRP. However, in the vast majority of enterprises, AFHRP are limited. Results also indicate that projected organizational growth and a focus on internal labor market practices are positively associated with the adoption of AFHRP. Organizational size and the degree of unionization, while positively associated with aging-friendly benefits, were inversely associated with flexibility practices.

Income decline and retiree well-being: the moderating role of attachment.

Given that it influences the appraisal of situations and the utilization of coping resources, attachment orientation may condition the effects of retirement-related stressors on retiree well-being. Focusing on depression, psychosomatic complaints and health, as well as income decline as a retirement-related stressor, we followed a sample of workers from just before retirement to up to 7 years postretirement. Results indicate that attachment avoidance-but not anxiety-moderates the adverse effects of income decline on well-being, with such effects more pronounced among individuals reporting higher levels of attachment avoidance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Social support and employee well-being: the conditioning effect of perceived patterns of supportive exchange.

Seeking to explain divergent empirical findings regarding the direct effect of social support on well-being, the authors posit that the pattern of supportive exchange (i.e., reciprocal, under-, or over-reciprocating) determines the impact of receiving support on well-being. Findings generated on the basis of longitudinal data collected from a sample of older blue-collar workers support the authors' predictions, indicating that receiving emotional support is associated with enhanced well-being when the pattern of supportive exchange is perceived by an individual as being reciprocal (support received equals support given), with this association being weaker when the exchange of support is perceived as being under-reciprocating (support given exceeds support received). Moreover, receiving support was found to adversely affect well-being when the pattern of exchange was perceived as being over-reciprocating (support received exceeds support given). Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Alcohol consumption and workplace absenteeism: the moderating effect of social support.

Although it is commonly assumed that alcohol consumption has a significant impact on employee absenteeism, the nature of the alcohol-absence relationship remains poorly understood. Proposing that alcohol impairment likely serves as a key mechanism linking drinking and work absence, we posit that this relationship is likely governed less by the amount of alcohol consumed and more by the way it is consumed. Using a prospective study design and a random sample of urban transit workers, we found that the frequency of heavy episodic drinking over the previous month is positively associated with the number of days of absence recorded in the subsequent 12-month period, whereas modal consumption (a metric capturing the typical amount of alcohol consumed in a given period of time) is not. In addition, consistent with both volitional treatments of absenteeism and social exchange theory, perceived coworker support was found to attenuate, and supervisory support to amplify, the link between the frequency of heavy episodic drinking and absenteeism.

Firefighters, critical incidents, and drinking to cope: the adequacy of unit-level performance resources as a source of vulnerability and protection.

The authors investigated the moderating role of unit-level performance resources on the distress-mediated relationship between the intensity of involvement in workplace critical incidents and problematic drinking behavior (i.e., drinking to cope). Building on recent developments in hierarchical linear modeling, the authors tested a cross-level, moderated-mediation model using data from 1,481 firefighters in 144 companies. The findings indicate that (a) there is a significant, distress-mediated association between intensity of involvement in such incidents and drinking to cope, which varies by company (i.e., unit), and (b) the adequacy of unit-level performance resources explains much of this cross-unit variance and attenuates both individual-level mediation stages (i.e., intensity of involvement in critical incidents 3 distress, and distress 3 drinking to cope). Implications regarding the role of unit resources adequacy as a vulnerability factor in stressor-strain relations are discussed.

Harassing under the influence: the prevalence of male heavy drinking, the embeddedness of permissive workplace drinking norms, and the gender harassment of female coworkers.

Drawing from the literature linking alcohol consumption and aggressive behavior, the authors examine the degree to which the risk of gender harassment toward female workers may be associated with the drinking behaviors and perceived workplace drinking norms of their male coworkers. Using multilevel analyses to examine data from 1,301 workers (including 262 women employed in 58 work units in the manufacturing, service and construction sectors), our findings indicate that, even when controlling for a variety of other demographic and unit-level factors, there is a significant association between the proportion of males in a work unit identified as being heavy or "at-risk" drinkers and the probability of gender harassment toward unit females. Our findings further indicate that this association is amplified as a function of the embeddedness of permissive workplace drinking norms among males' referent others.

Retirement, risky alcohol consumption and drinking problems among blue-collar workers.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we assess the initial effects of employment status (not yet retired/continued employment, retirement with bridge employment and full retirement) on the alcohol consumption and drinking problems of retirement-eligible blue-collar workers. METHOD: Data were collected at two points from a random sample of members of nine unions within 6 months of retirement eligibility. Alcohol consumption and drinking problem data were collected from 1279 members 6 months prior to retirement-eligibility (T1) and from 1083 retained respondents 1 year later (T2). At T2 respondents were categorized as (1) not yet retired, (2) retired but engaging in bridge employment or (3) fully retired. RESULTS: Across all of the models tested, alcohol consumption and drinking behaviors at T1 were significant predictors of those same patterns of consumption or behavior at T2 and explained the greatest proportion of the variance in those same patterns at T2, suggesting that alcohol consumption and drinking behaviors remain largely stable over the period of time in which individuals become eligible to retire. Nevertheless, taking into account the effects of periodic heavy drinking prior to retirement and a variety of other factors, individuals opting to retire fully were twice as likely to engage in periodic heavy drinking (odds ratio = 2.01, p < .05) as those continuing to work. Bridge employment (as compared with continued employment) was also associated with significantly higher quantities of alcohol consumed on average drinking occasions (Beta = 0.14, p < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Retirement, at least in its early stages, is not associated with major shifts in alcohol consumption or problem drinking status. However, the particular retirement trajectory taken may have significant implications for individuals.