No description available.

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), when they first were introduced in the United States of America (USA), were support programmes providing assistance to alcohol addicted employees. During the 1960s, EAPs became comprehensive and offered employee assistance services (EAS) such as financial, marital and family, psychological, work-related stress, chemical dependency (alcohol and drugs), depression, health, anxiety, and even job boredom problems that affect employee work performance. Since then, EAPs have proven to be valuable because skilled and high performing employees who experienced problems could receive assistance in the workplace and once they overcame their problems, they often became more productive and more employers could benefit from EAPs. Due to the benefits provided by EAPs to both employees and employers, South Africa is one of the many countries that have adopted this performance-enhancing strategy. EAPs in South Africa are a relatively new workplace management phenomenon designed similarly to the USA model and thus do not have a long history. In the South African Police Service (SAPS), EAPs are as a result of the operational nature of policing services and the demanding conditions under which police services are carried-out. The EAPs are provided as a means of employee support to promote employee wellness and to create a working environment that is conducive to an effective and efficient delivery of police services. This research investigated the implementation of EAPs at Moroka Police Station, the biggest of the eleven (11) police stations that are situated within Soweto. This station serves approximately a total population of two hundred and fifty thousand (250 000) community members. The research gathered opinions of three selected groups of respondents (non-commissioned officers, EAP practitioners and commissioned officers) about the effectiveness of EAPs in the study area and how they can be improved. Employees in this police station, as in many others, are exposed to daily traumatic events since their duties require them to attend to crime scenes such as murder, collisions of varying seriousness, and often witness the murder of their colleagues. These incidents have a profoundly adverse impact on their psychological well-being and work performance. The findings show that even though remarkable progress has been made with the institutionalisation of EAPs, there are a few concerns which still require management’s attention. From the results of the interviews held with the non-commissioned officers, a few concerns, that if attended to could improve the effectiveness of EAP, include concerns about non-commissioned officers’ lack of knowledge of the functions of EAP, their general experience of EAP, the credibility and adherence by EAP practitioners to ethical guidelines, the frequency of the consultations as well as concerns about the accessibility of the EAP to them. The findings of the interviews held with EAP practitioners tended to be less complimentary than those gathered from non-commissioned officers, and a longer list of concerns was recorded. Numerous concerns that relate to the circumstance under which they administer EAS were articulated. These include concerns about how employees perceive the EAP and their understanding of EAS. Lastly the findings of the questionnaires administered to the commissioned officers, as compared to both the findings gathered from the non-commissioned officers and EAP practitioners, were more positive, especially their understanding of the EAP, how the EAP functions, their overall experience of the services provided through the EAP and their overall satisfaction of the EAS. Although the findings were positive there were few concerns that they identified as needing attention. These concerns are the functions of EAP, implementation of EAP, general experience of EAP, feedback from the EAP practitioners and resistance by employees to consult EAP practitioners. This research concludes by offering recommendations for each of the three groups, and by offering a research agenda for further investigation in this field. / Public Administration and Management / M.Tech. (Public Administration)

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), when they first were introduced in the United States of America (USA), were support programmes providing assistance to alcohol addicted employees. During the 1960s, EAPs became comprehensive and offered employee assistance services (EAS) such as financial, marital and family, psychological, work-related stress, chemical dependency (alcohol and drugs), depression, health, anxiety, and even job boredom problems that affect employee work performance. Since then, EAPs have proven to be valuable because skilled and high performing employees who experienced problems could receive assistance in the workplace and once they overcame their problems, they often became more productive and more employers could benefit from EAPs. Due to the benefits provided by EAPs to both employees and employers, South Africa is one of the many countries that have adopted this performance-enhancing strategy. EAPs in South Africa are a relatively new workplace management phenomenon designed similarly to the USA model and thus do not have a long history. In the South African Police Service (SAPS), EAPs are as a result of the operational nature of policing services and the demanding conditions under which police services are carried-out. The EAPs are provided as a means of employee support to promote employee wellness and to create a working environment that is conducive to an effective and efficient delivery of police services. This research investigated the implementation of EAPs at Moroka Police Station, the biggest of the eleven (11) police stations that are situated within Soweto. This station serves approximately a total population of two hundred and fifty thousand (250 000) community members. The research gathered opinions of three selected groups of respondents (non-commissioned officers, EAP practitioners and commissioned officers) about the effectiveness of EAPs in the study area and how they can be improved. Employees in this police station, as in many others, are exposed to daily traumatic events since their duties require them to attend to crime scenes such as murder, collisions of varying seriousness, and often witness the murder of their colleagues. These incidents have a profoundly adverse impact on their psychological well-being and work performance. The findings show that even though remarkable progress has been made with the institutionalisation of EAPs, there are a few concerns which still require management’s attention. From the results of the interviews held with the non-commissioned officers, a few concerns, that if attended to could improve the effectiveness of EAP, include concerns about non-commissioned officers’ lack of knowledge of the functions of EAP, their general experience of EAP, the credibility and adherence by EAP practitioners to ethical guidelines, the frequency of the consultations as well as concerns about the accessibility of the EAP to them. The findings of the interviews held with EAP practitioners tended to be less complimentary than those gathered from non-commissioned officers, and a longer list of concerns was recorded. Numerous concerns that relate to the circumstance under which they administer EAS were articulated. These include concerns about how employees perceive the EAP and their understanding of EAS. Lastly the findings of the questionnaires administered to the commissioned officers, as compared to both the findings gathered from the non-commissioned officers and EAP practitioners, were more positive, especially their understanding of the EAP, how the EAP functions, their overall experience of the services provided through the EAP and their overall satisfaction of the EAS. Although the findings were positive there were few concerns that they identified as needing attention. These concerns are the functions of EAP, implementation of EAP, general experience of EAP, feedback from the EAP practitioners and resistance by employees to consult EAP practitioners. This research concludes by offering recommendations for each of the three groups, and by offering a research agenda for further investigation in this field. / Public Administration and Management / M. Tech. (Public Administration)

Thesis (M.A. (Social Work)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Social workers are working with vulnerable, marginalised and abused clients on a daily basis. Hence, Employee Assistance Programme services are vital to nurture the emotional well-being of employees. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of social workers regarding utilisation of Employee Assistance Programme services in the Greater Giyani Municipality of Limpopo Province. The objectives of the study were to determine social workers' awareness of Employee Assistance Programme services available to them and to establish factors that contribute to the utilisation of Employee Assistance Programme services. The study adopted a qualitative approach and used face-to-face interviews aided by a semi-structured interview schedule to collect data. Non-probability sampling and purposive sample technique were used to select the participants. Moreover, exploratory design was used as a blue print of the study to obtain insight about the perception of social workers of the utilisation of Employee Assistance Programme services. The researcher used thematic analysis to analyse and interpret data. The findings show that participants are not taking advantage of the available psychosocial services within the Department of Social Development. The study also found that participants had never used the EAP, despite the fact that the majority of them had felt the need to seek professional help at some point. Furthermore, participants do not believe in the credibility of the Employee Assistance Programme resulting in them not utilising the available services. Participants expressed concerns about confidentiality, a lack of office space, resources, and poor marketing. The study has concluded that social workers based at the Greater Giyani Municipality of Limpopo Province, have a negative perception regarding the use of EAP services, hence the programme is under-utilised.

Between June and August, 1983, a postal survey was conducted to gather information on industrial mental health programs in mid-sized corporations in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The sample included all companies listed in Standard and Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives (1982) with an employee population of 500 to 2,000. Approximately 27% of the responding corporations indicated that they had formal existing industrial mental health programs. The responses indicated that the majority of formal industrial mental health programs were located in banking, insurance, high technology, media, and professional enterprises. The relationship between the size of companies and the provision of services was curvilinear.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Social Work)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / An Emergency Medical Service (EMS) is considered one of the most stressful work environments. Copious literature has demonstrated that emergency service work has an undesirable impact on the health and wellbeing of personnel. In South Africa, research findings described that emergency services personnel are among the highest group of professionals at risk of suffering from job-related stress. In spite of the fact, previous studies have examined the association between critical incidents and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms including the psychological influence of trauma, a minority studies have explored the EMS personnel’s traumatic experiences and the subsequent coping strategies applied. This study sought to explore and describe the lived experiences of Emergency Medical Personnel in Capricorn District and to develop a user led model for mitigating occupational stress among EMS personnel. The principal aim of this study was achieved through the following objectives; to profile work related stress and the lived experiences of EMS personnel in Capricorn District, to Identify and appraise coping strategies employed by EMS personnel, to establish how accessible and user friendly EAP services are to EMS personnel, to determine the nature of social support (colleagues and supervisors) EMS personnel receive and to develop a user-led model for EMS personnel. This study was rooted in three theories, namely; trauma theory, resilience theory and the strengths perspective theory. The three theories were appropriate in this study to offer a perspective of situation and to analyse the situation under study to provide an understanding into the way in which EMS personnel make sense of their situation of the challenges they come across and make use of the available resources. The three theories interlaced together played a critical role in this study as they both align with building resilience, recognise individual’s innate strengths and coping in the face of hardship. Owing to the inimitability role of the emergency personnel and the services’ work context, the study adopted a qualitative approach. The purpose of the study was exploratory descriptive in nature. Exploring both their experience of critical incidents and the coping strategies employed by them to mitigate work-related stress and traumatic incidents from this qualitative perspective allowed the researcher to employ phenomenological research design for this study. A sample size of 21 emergency employees comprising 7 station managers and 14 EMS personnel) was obtained through purposive sampling technique. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data.  The findings suggest that life in the emergency field can possibly have an undesirable long-term effect on employees’ overall health and welfare and higher risk of PTSD. The distressing incidents were those in which the participants experienced feelings of vulnerability and had no control of the situations. The study established that emergency personnel find it most hard to deal with incidents involving children and colleagues. Emergency personnel suffer from emotional and physical stress owing to high job demands and repeated exposure to traumatic incidents. Regardless of the traumatic nature of emergency work and the inimitable role of emergency personnel, this study discovered that fact several stressors originate from organisational failure such lack of involvement in decision-making process, lack of training and shortage of staff. Unsupportive work environment, Lack of personal and job resources were found to be the extensive contributory factors to the job pressure experienced by which lead to compassion fatigue and exhaustion. It was also discovered the current EAP programme in the Department of Health (DoH) is not known and inaccessible to EMS personnel. The coping strategies utilised by emergency personnel were not adequate to prevent the aftermath of critical incidents. However collegial and social support from supervisors were found helpful in dealing with work-related stress. The study findings revealed that emergency personnel were unaware of the available support services within the DoH in Capricorn District. Collectively, the findings confirm that there is a need for an extensive marketing strategy of the EAP services and the user-led model which will be implemented by the organisation. The researcher recommends that EAP policies should form part of package given to new recruits during induction or orientation programme and diverse marketing strategies should be adopted to familiarise employees with EAP services available to them. The DoH should consider decentralisation of EAP services to enhance accessibility.

The objective of the research study is to determine, whether Cape Medical Plan has the need for an employee assistance program, the content of such a program, as well as the important principles which are to be considered when implementing an employee assistance program within the organisation. The investigation consisted of 26 staff members participating, of which 9 were managers and 17 employees. With reference to the empirical investigation, it was concluded that a recommendation be made that a formal policy in terms of an employee assistance program be compiled; and be championed by the Human Resource Manager. A model, that will meet the needs of the company, should be followed, to ensure the successful implementation of an employee assistance program. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Social Work)

Thesis (Dr.P.H.)--University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 1983. / Typescript. Dissertation Abstracts International order no. 84-08513. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 140-143).

The objective of the research study is to determine, whether Cape Medical Plan has the need for an employee assistance program, the content of such a program, as well as the important principles which are to be considered when implementing an employee assistance program within the organisation. The investigation consisted of 26 staff members participating, of which 9 were managers and 17 employees. With reference to the empirical investigation, it was concluded that a recommendation be made that a formal policy in terms of an employee assistance program be compiled; and be championed by the Human Resource Manager. A model, that will meet the needs of the company, should be followed, to ensure the successful implementation of an employee assistance program. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Social Work)

The purpose of the study was to determine if one company-sponsored EAP and health program influences some behaviors and lifestyle choices of employees when off the job. This study compared the perceptions of employees and management regarding what is within the “legitimate” (job-related) EAP scope. During the past four decades the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) has increased in number and scope such that an estimated 50 percent of working Americans currently have access to an EAP. Designed originally to treat alcoholic workers, they now address other behavioral health problems such as drugs, family, emotional, financial and legal difficulties. In concert with EAPs, other initiatives have proliferated at the work site including health and wellness programs and drug testing policies. These convergent forces have served to create a blurring of the distinction between personal prerogatives regarding health and the work domain. What was once the province of the community—health care—has now shifted to the employer. This trend places EAP mental health practitioners, in particular, in the dual relationship of serving both client and company. Other issues which come to light include privacy, confidentiality, personal responsibility, paternalism, and de facto reinforcement of company-imposed values on the individual regarding lifestyle, fitness and even family life. The employees of a public utility in central California were surveyed. The entire population of 2,030 received the questionnaire; 575 people responded (28.3%). The findings were that all dimensions of EAP services were perceived to be job-related by a majority of the respondents. No more than 40 percent of the respondents felt that any single service was not job-related. That maximum was regarding smoking cessation. Although behavior had changed on some of the individuals as a result of EAP participation, the accompanying findings that those services were job-related nullified the distinction between behaviors at work and behaviors off the job. This raises the question of why employees think that EAP services are job-related. That and other aspects of EAP use patterns are discussed.