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Brinksmanship Redux: Employee Assistance Programs’ Precursors and Prospects

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Abstract

Originating in the U.S. 70 years ago as industrial alcoholism programs, and promoted for decades by R. Brinkley “Brink” Smithers, these programs finally gained popularity during the 1970s and 1980s, when they were renamed “employee assistance programs” and given a broader mission than identifying alcoholics. Attempting to change their image as instruments of coercion, EAPs added a variety of social work functions to their portfolios but, now primarily operating as external contractors, have seen cash flows fall dramatically in the face of intense competition from similar services. EAP practitioners have called for restoring the approach promoted by academics supported by Smithers, who aggressively maintain that eliminating behavioral health problems is the responsibility of employees rather than employers. This article compares the evidence addressing the efficacy of that approach with that of alternatives, being developed outside of the U.S., that expand employee rights.

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Notes

  1. The director of the Yale Divinity School’s Center for Faith and Culture, where Tyson sponsored a conference promoting CAPs, described John Tyson as seeking “to build a company that adheres to certain Christian values” (Banerjee 2006). Yet, although some CAPs boast of bringing employees to Christ—Marketplace Ministries claims to have led 2,600 of their clients to Bible-teaching fellowships—Tyson takes pride in its 128 chaplains’ ecumenicism. At an Iowa pork plant, for example, “the chaplain has a relationship with monks at a local Buddhist monastery” (Banerjee 2006). Presumably, that relationship does not include inviting them to pig roasts.

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  1. Department of Business Administration, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Richard M. Weiss

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Weiss, R.M. Brinksmanship Redux: Employee Assistance Programs’ Precursors and Prospects. Employ Respons Rights J 22, 325–343 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-010-9144-0

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