A deep dive into employees’ experiences of internal alcohol policy implementations in Dutch health organizations.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption is embedded in the Dutch culture, posing significant health risks and harm to Dutch society. Dutch health organizations address this serious problem through e.g. internal alcohol policies. For internal alcohol policies to be effective, attention is needed for implementing such policies as this process matters for employees’ perception and thus the ultimate success of the policy.

METHOD: A qualitative design was used for this research by interviewing 5 KWF and 5 employees of the Hearth Foundation. The data was transcribed by the program Goodtape and was coded using the program Nvivo. Thematical analysis was used for contextualizing and interpreting the retrieved data.

RESULTS: An overarching narrative emerged where all interviewees from the two health organizations viewed the implementation of the internal alcohol policy and its implementation as logical, understanding its importance for their organizations’ credibility and role model function. The prevalent social norm promoting a healthy lifestyle, including reduced alcohol consumption, largely explains the high acceptance and compliance with their internal alcohol policies, alongside recognitive justice. Despite low perceived procedural justice, acceptance and compliance were thus high, contradicting the existing theory that elements of procedural- and recognitive justice would be needed for acceptance and compliance of an internal alcohol policy.

CONCLUSIONS: This research concluded that a healthy social norm regarding alcohol consumption appeared of greater importance than recognitive- and procedural justice for the success of the implementation process of an internal alcohol policy of health organizations. Most elements of recognitive justice, and to some extent the elements of procedural justice, had also a positive influence on the acceptance and compliance of internal alcohol policies in health organizations. However, it can be argued that those may be of greater importance in general organizations.