| The purpose of this case study was to develop an understanding of the experiences of six employees with the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) of their employer organization. The study sought to give voice to these employees who accessed the EAP in order to understand the factors they associated with the effectiveness and limitations of the program, as well as to offer some suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the program. The effectiveness of the EAP was derived from the research participants' perspectives, and involved each research participant's perception of the extent to which accessing the EAP services helped or failed to address the problems for which they sought help.The findings of this study revealed that the participants associated five broad factors with the effectiveness or limitations of the EAP. The factors related to: (a) issues of confidentiality involving EAP use, (b) effective promotion of, and communication about the EAP to employees and other stakeholder groups, (c) support for the EAP by senior management and the union officials, (d) formalized policies and procedures outlining the EAP's purpose and functions, and (e) the importance of education and training of employees and supervisors about the EAP. The study concludes with some recommendations for EAP effectiveness and for further research.The study drew on the phenomenological principles of inquiry to make sense of the research data. A purposeful sampling technique was employed to select the six research participants, and the primary method of data collection was semi-structured interviews involving the use of open-ended questions. |
