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In this longitudinal study, the authors compared 1,244 white- and blue-collar workers who reported 0, 1, or 2 contacts with layoffs; all were employees of a large manufacturing company that had engaged in several mass waves of downsizing. Consistent with a stress-vulnerability model, workers with a greater number of exposures to both direct and indirect downsizing reported significantly lower levels of job security and higher levels of role ambiguity, intent to quit, depression, and health problems. Findings did not support the idea that workers became more resilient as they encountered more layoff events. The authors found only partial evidence that the similarity or dissimilarity of the type of repeated downsizing exposure played a role in how workers reported changes in these outcome variables.

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We suggest that the "simple political spillover" hypothesis—that participation in decision making at work increases the probability of participating in politics outside the workplace—ought to be respecified in such a way that it takes into account (1) the possible differential effects on political participation of direct and representational forms of decisional participation at work; (2) the possibility that the pathway between workplace and political participation is mediated by the former's impact on psychological outlooks; and (3) the possibility that participation in decision making in economically troubled enterprises may diminish political participation. Using a sample of 1,247 workers from producer cooperative, employee stock ownership, conventional union, and conventional non-union wood products mills, we show that this more complex spillover model gives us a better understanding of the linkages between workplace and political experiences.Scholars and philosophers working in the participatory democratic tradition generally assume the existence of a relatively simple association in democratic societies between participation in workplace decision making and participation in politics outside the workplace. This view is part of a larger &dquo;workplace spillover&dquo; tradition which suggests that experiences at work have strong effects on attitudes and behaviors outside of work, including organizational, community, and leisure involvement, because people either compensate for or learn from such workplace experiences (Gardell 1976; Goldthorpe et al. Downloaded from 306 workplace and job experiences are such that they nurture the desire and the skills to participate in social institutions, people will participate in politics. When work and job are such that they fail to nurture participatory aspirations and skills, people are discouraged from active engagement in politics (Bachrach ).We suggest that while the &dquo;simple political spillover&dquo; model is not incorrect, it is incomplete, requiring respecification. We have been forced to rethink the model because of a finding from our present research which was designed, in part, to replicate the research reported in Greenberg's Workplace Democracy: the Political Effects of Participation (1986). In the earlier work, data for which were collected in 1978 and 1983, Greenberg reported the existence of a significant association between workplace participation and participation in politics outside the workplace. Members in democratic enterprises (producer cooperatives) were shown to be more likely to vote than workers in non-democratic ones, and more involved in community affairs and political campaigns, confirming &dquo;simple political spillover.&dquo; & d q u o ;In the current research, however, data for which were collected in 1993 in three cooperatives, one employee stock ownership plan company, four union plants, and seven non-union plants in the wood products industry in the Northwest, we discovered that members of the most democratic enterprises...

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This study examines the moderating role of escapist reasons for drinking alcohol in the job stress/self-reported alcohol use and problems relationship. It was hypothesized that higher levels of job stress would be associated with higher levels of self-reported drinking (H1) and drinking problems (H2) only for those who endorsed escapist reasons for drinking. For those who did not hold such beliefs, higher levels of job stress were predicted to be associated with lower self-reported alcohol intake (H3) and problems (H4). Survey data from white- and blue-collar workers employed across all paycodes and positions were collected randomly at a large manufacturing organization (62% response rate). Participants responded to questions concerning work stress, reasons for drinking, alcohol intake, and alcohol problems. Using only nonabstainers with complete data (N = 1,645), results from regression analyses generally supported all hypotheses.

This study examined health and well-being among workers who have experienced varying types of contact with layoffs in an organization undergoing downsizing. Using survey data from a large organization employing both white- and blue-collar workers (N = 2,279), the authors argued that there are important differences among surviving workers as a function of their layoff experiences. Having any kind of personal contact with layoffs is found to be associated with less job security, more symptoms of poor health, depression, and eating changes as compared with having no layoff contact. Being laid off and rehired is associated with more work-related injuries and illnesses and missed work days due to such events than is receiving a "warn" notice, indirect contact (i.e., friends or coworkers laid off), or no contact with layoffs. Job security partially mediates the relationship between type of layoff contact experiences and health.

Although previous research has found weak support for the model of stressful work ‘spilling over’ to negative coping responses during nonwork hours, we argue that a variety of conceptual and methodological problems may partially explain the weak and inconsistent findings. Two important shortcomings are inadequately specified models and a failure to consider nonescapist responses to job‐related stress. We therefore propose that there may be escapist (i.e. increased drinking, working through job dissatisfaction for those who believe that alcohol consumption is an effective means to reduce stress) and nonescapist (i.e. decreased drinking for those who are dissatisfied with their jobs but do not believe alcohol is an effective coping strategy) responses to work stress. These hypotheses were tested on a sample of 972 production workers in the Pacific northwest. Results show moderate support for the existence of both escapist and nonescapist responses to job‐related stresses. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.