Work Pressure and Drug Abuse in the Workplace: A Conceptual Review

Abstract

Drug use in the workplace is a behaviour displayed by employees to cope with work-related pressures. Based on the review of existing literature, this paper concluded that work pressure is caused by some Organisational factors, and employees resort to drug abuse to cope with work-related pressures. The availability of substances in the workplace, the work environment's culture, management control, job dissatisfaction, work group influence, and inadequate regulations are some of the workplace factors identified as contributing to drug use among employees. It was also noted through the lens of social control theory that turning to drug use in response to workplace pressure could result in absenteeism, low productivity, losing one's job, showing deficient performance, and psychological problems. The paper suggested that every Organisation's human resource management department can lessen pressures at work enacting strict laws to deal with the phenomenon of drug use in the workplace.