Purpose - Individual factors associated with managers' organisational alcohol policy knowledge and inclination to initiate early alcohol interventions have been understudied. This study aims to examine differences in managers' policy knowledge and inclination across a range of socio-demographic, work-related and health characteristics, and it aims to examine the association between policy knowledge and inclination to intervene, net of these characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach - Questionnaire data were collected from 430 managers. Organisational alcohol policy knowledge and inclination to intervene were measured using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). Socio-demographic, work-related and health characteristics included gender, age, education, managerial responsibility, years in current position, self-rated health and alcohol consumption. Associations were examined using multilevel ordinal regression analysis.

Findings - Managers with a greater number of employees demonstrated the highest level of organisational alcohol policy knowledge and were more inclined to initiate early alcohol interventions. Alcohol policy knowledge was associated with inclination to intervene, net of individual characteristics.

Practical implications - Considering how managers' characteristics might influence efforts to decrease hazardous alcohol consumption is potentially important when designing future workplace alcohol prevention programmes.

Originality/value - Several individual factors related to managers' organisational alcohol policy knowledge and inclination to initiate early alcohol interventions were identified, particularly managerial responsibility. However, the association between policy knowledge and inclination to intervene remained strong after accounting for these individual factors. Future studies should explore alternative explanations at the individual and organisational levels.

Background: Alcohol interventions targeting the adult population are often conducted in healthcare settings, while preventive interventions often target adolescents or young adults. The general working population is often overlooked. A workplace-based intervention, consisting of development and implementation of an organizational alcohol policy, and skills development training for managers (APMaT) was carried out in order to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harms by identifying hazardous consumers at an early stage. 

Objective: This study aims to evaluate APMaT by focusing on managers’ inclination to initiate early alcohol intervention.

Methods: In a cluster randomized design, data were obtained from 187 managers (control: n = 70; intervention: n = 117). Inclination to initiate early alcohol intervention was measured using three items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Changes in managers’ inclination to intervene were analyzed by applying multilevel ordered logistic regression. Predictors included in the model were group (control vs. intervention), time (baseline vs. 12-month follow-up), and the multiplicative interaction term (group × time).

Results: Significant increase in inclination to intervene against hazardous alcohol consumption among managers in the intervention group compared to managers in the control group was observed. Specifically, a 50% increase of confidence to initiate an intervention was observed among managers in the intervention group.

Conclusions: APMaT seems effective to increase managers’ inclination to intervene early against hazardous consumption in the workplace. The effectiveness of APMaT at the employee level should be explored in prospective studies.

Background: The workplace can be affected negatively by hazardous alcohol use, and intervening at an early stage remains a challenge. Recently, a multi-component alcohol prevention program, Alcohol Policy and Managers’ skills Training (hereafter, ‘APMaT’), was delivered at the organizational level. In a previous outcome evaluation, APMaT appeared to be effective at the managerial level. The current study takes a step further by aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of APMaT in decreasing the alcohol risk level among employees.

Methods: Data from 853 employees (control: n = 586; intervention: n = 267) were gathered through a cluster-randomized study. To analyze changes in the odds of hazardous alcohol use among employees, multilevel logistic regression was applied using group (control vs intervention), time (baseline vs 12-month follow-up), and the multiplicative interaction term (group × time) as the main predictors. The intervention effect was further adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and policy awareness.

Results: Employees in the intervention group showed a larger decrease in the odds of hazardous alcohol use compared to the control group. However, this difference was not statistically significant, even after adjusting for several factors, including the sociodemographic factors and policy awareness.

Conclusions: The findings are insufficient to determine the effectiveness of APMaT at the employee level at the current stage of the evaluation. Future studies should strive to identify issues with implementation processes in workplace-based alcohol interventions. 

Trial registration: ISCRTN: ISRCTN17250048.

Purpose: An alcohol prevention programme, consisting of the implementation of an organisational alcohol policy and skills development training for managers, was delivered in Swedish workplaces. Previous findings revealed challenges in policy implementation due to the lack of dissemination amongst managers. This study aims to describe perceived dissemination barriers of the organisational alcohol policy by managers.

Methodology: A cross-sectional survey (n=193 managers) was performed to identify common dissemination barriers in the workplace and complementary case illustrations derived from semi-structured interviews (n=18 managers) were used to understand the dissemination barriers of the organisational alcohol policy. Frequency distributions were presented to describe common perceived barriers.

Findings: Sixty-five percent of managers reported that their workplace had not changed their approach to addressing alcohol-related issues compared to their usual practice before programme delivery. Various organisational factors, such as deprioritisation of programme dissemination, lack of communication, and inadequate strategies were some of the common barriers perceived by managers. Moreover, managers reported uncertainties regarding any changes concerning the workplace’s approach for addressing alcohol-related issues. Increased efforts in disseminating the organisational alcohol policy can reduce uncertainties among managers. 

Practical implications: A thorough process evaluation to understand processes in programme delivery and implementation is necessary to ensure the uptake of the intervention. 

Originality/value: The study highlighted the complexity of disseminating an alcohol policy in a dynamic setting, such as the workplace, and provided the importance of addressing organisational obstacles.