Employee Drug Testing as Social Control

Abstract

Workplace drug testing is a commonplace practice in the United States. Social control theory, the study of social responses to deviant behavior, provides a useful framework for examining the underlying rationales for employee drug testing. A historical-legal analysis of federal employee drug testing uncovers six contrasting justifications supporting such tests (performance, health, and safety; deterrence; rehabilitation; symbolic; technology; and conflict). The article presents a promising theoretical structure (typology) for studying personnel policies that emerge as the result of new technologies in the workplace. Implications for personnel administrators and first-line managers are also explored.