FACTORS AFFECTING SUPERVISORY REFERRALS TO EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS - THE IMPACT OF RACE AND GENDER

Current societal trends have created a workforce which has become high ly diverse and complex in terms of sociocultural factors such as age, gender, race, and marital status. These trends have greatly expanded t he role of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). The present study exam ined the relationship between gender and race and supervisors' beliefs concerning EAP referrals. Participants responded to the Behavioral In dex of Troubled Employees (Bayer & Gerstein, 1988a), which measures be liefs about behaviors reflective of worker impairment. They also rated hypothetical scenarios on the likelihood of supervisors making an EAP referral. The findings indicated significant gender differences in be liefs about behaviors associated with problem employees. Supervisors a lso differentiated among behavioral factors in the identification of p roblem employees.