Sowing Seeds of Change: How Work Organizations in New York State Responded to Occupational Program Consultants

The article reports on both qualitative and quantitative research evaluating the role and success of an “expanded” network of Occupational Program Consultants. It concentrates on two basic questions: what OPCs actually did, and, second, what outcomes did they achieve relative to their mandated goals—to encourage and aid employers and unions in adopting and implementing job-based alcoholism programs. First, largely qualitative data, with some quantitative, provided a description of inherent difficulties in the role: its newness, problems of legitimacy and power, financial insecurity, role conflicts, and role ambiguities. Initially these produced substantial amounts of goal displacement that were temporarily overcome, but reemerged to plague the network near the end of this three-year study. Despite these problems the OPCs were able to devise a plausible strategy—to carefully select client organizations for their probable responsiveness, and bypass reluctant ones. This resulted in an average of 21 program start-ups per OPC for the first two years of the state network. Next, the study went to a statewide sample of work organizations where the OPC had made substantial presentations and secured data from them on how their organization had responded. This data was used in both bivariate and multivariate analyses to determine what characterized work organizations that responded favorably to the OPC. These characteristics were: prior familiarity with job-based programs, union support, perception of OPC as competent and empathetic, viewing programs as good for both labor and public relations, as relatively easy to administer, and as helping supervisors manage marginally performing employees.