- Email: [email protected]
Evaluation of employee assistance programs
430
Book
Reviews
REFERENCES COX,F.M.,
ERLICH, J.L., ROTHMAN, J., & TROPMAN, J.E. (Eds.). (1987). Stralegies of community organization: Macro practice, fourth edition. Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock.
LAIJFFER, A. (1978). Socialplanning glewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
al fhe community level. En-
MACHIAVELLI, N. (1950). Theprince. New York: Random (Written in 1513).
Evaluation of Employee Assistance Programs, Haworth Press, 1988, 283 pages.
House.
by Michael
PATTON, M. (1978). Utilizarion-focused evaluarion. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
TRIPODI, T. (1974). Uses and abuses of social work. New York: Columbia University Press.
research
in social
WEISS, C.H. (1972). Evaluation research: Methods of assessing program effectiveness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
J. Holosko
and Marvin
D. Feit (Eds.).
New York: The
Reviewer: Gary L. Bowen Published previously as Employee Assistance Quarterly, Volume 3, Numbers 314, 1988, Evaluation of Employee Assistance Programs is a collection of 19 articles focusing on the evaluation of employee assistance programs (EAPs). As stated by the editors in the preface (p. l), “The purpose of this text is to document issues and concerns, and to bring together in one volume articles centering on developments in evaluating EAPs, as well as illustrating a number of actual case examples.” Yet, in combination, its articles do more than examine the issues, methods, and findings of evaluation research in EAPs; they review the history and development of EAPs in North America and offer practical frameworks and suggestions for planning and implementing these programs. The volume is divided into three sections. Section I, “State-of-the-Art” of the EAP Field, contains three articles that review the history and development of EAPs, their status and role in the context of current economic transformations, and the expanding scope and nature of these programs. These articles provide a historical and contemporary context for articles in the other two sections of the text. Section II, The Context of EAP Evaluations, is the core of the text. It includes nine articles that present some of the issues and obstacles in evaluating EAPs as well as frameworks and strategies for conducting such evaluations. These articles stress the importance of understanding the organizational context in designing evaluation strategies, specifying measurable program objectives for guiding their design, and recognizing the potential differences in the perspectives of major stakeholders (e.g., the employee; the work organization) who may vary in their perspectives toward program success. The final section, Case Exarnpies of EAP Evaluation, includes seven articles that offer examples of both formative and summative evaluations of EAPs in different contexts. Focusing more on methods and strategies for conducting evaluations than on evaluation findings per se, these articles both highlight different problems that may arise in the evaluation of
EAPs and stress the need to tailor evaluation strategies to organizational realities. In addition to its 19 articles, the editors provide a preface to the volume that both outlines the purpose of the volume and provides an overview of each article. The editors also provide a short epilogue, Onward and Upward, that discusses the broadening programmatic focus of EAPs and the importance of evaluation research to effective planning and performance of these programs. For readers without time to review the entire volume, it is recommended that they give priority to the articles by Mark J. Stern, Economic Change and Social Welfare: Implications for Employees' Assistance, and Keith McClellan and Richard E. Miller, EAPs in Transition: Purpose and Scope of Services, in Section I; articles by Stanley F. Battle, Issues to Consider in Planning Employee Assistance Program Evaluations, Hide Yamatani,
EAP Benefit and Cost Structure Analysis: A Suggested Estimation Method, and Dong Soo Kim, Assessing Employment Assistance Programs: Evaluation Typology and Models, in Section II, and the article by R. Paul Maiden, Employee Assistance Program Evaluation in a Federal Government Agency, in Section III. Combined, these articles provide the reader with an overview of the history, development, and current status of EAPs, a review of obstacles and issues in the evaluation of these programs, and frameworks and strategies for guiding and performing these evaluations, including suggested methods for benefit and cost structure analysis. From the perspective of the reviewer, the book has two primary limitations. First, there is too much repetitive content among articles in the text, especially in Section II. This limitation at least partially relates to the earlier publication of the volume as a special issue of Employee Assistance Quarterly. Editors of texts often have greater opportunity to work with authors in coordinating content across articles than editors of peerreview journals. Second, the reviewer would have preferred the editors to have provided an expanded preface and conclusion to the volume. For example, the
Book Reviews editors should have offered a formal definition of EAPs in the preface, including a discussion of the lack of consensus among researchers and practitioners in specifying the definitional parameters of these programs. In addition, the volume would have been strengthened by concluding with an integrative framework that outlines phases and methods in the design and evaluation of EAPs. Given the lack of quantitative research that has examined the effectiveness of EAPs, it would have also been useful for the editors to have recommended strategies for promoting more systematic evaluation of these programs. As an introduction to the evaluation of EAPs, the
431
volume receives a positive recommendation. Readers who are unfamiliar with the development, growth, and evaluation needs of these programs as well as the challenges that they present to evaluation researchers will find this volume required reading. However, this volume is not intended as a “how to” manual. Combined with an evaluation sourcebook of research designs, methods, and techniques, this volume provides evaluators with practical guidance for the design of evaluations with high validity, sensitivity to the organizational contexts in which they performed, and responsiveness to the interests of the audience requesting the evaluation.
Book
Reviews
REFERENCES COX,F.M.,
ERLICH, J.L., ROTHMAN, J., & TROPMAN, J.E. (Eds.). (1987). Stralegies of community organization: Macro practice, fourth edition. Itasca, IL: F.E. Peacock.
LAIJFFER, A. (1978). Socialplanning glewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
al fhe community level. En-
MACHIAVELLI, N. (1950). Theprince. New York: Random (Written in 1513).
Evaluation of Employee Assistance Programs, Haworth Press, 1988, 283 pages.
House.
by Michael
PATTON, M. (1978). Utilizarion-focused evaluarion. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
TRIPODI, T. (1974). Uses and abuses of social work. New York: Columbia University Press.
research
in social
WEISS, C.H. (1972). Evaluation research: Methods of assessing program effectiveness. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
J. Holosko
and Marvin
D. Feit (Eds.).
New York: The
Reviewer: Gary L. Bowen Published previously as Employee Assistance Quarterly, Volume 3, Numbers 314, 1988, Evaluation of Employee Assistance Programs is a collection of 19 articles focusing on the evaluation of employee assistance programs (EAPs). As stated by the editors in the preface (p. l), “The purpose of this text is to document issues and concerns, and to bring together in one volume articles centering on developments in evaluating EAPs, as well as illustrating a number of actual case examples.” Yet, in combination, its articles do more than examine the issues, methods, and findings of evaluation research in EAPs; they review the history and development of EAPs in North America and offer practical frameworks and suggestions for planning and implementing these programs. The volume is divided into three sections. Section I, “State-of-the-Art” of the EAP Field, contains three articles that review the history and development of EAPs, their status and role in the context of current economic transformations, and the expanding scope and nature of these programs. These articles provide a historical and contemporary context for articles in the other two sections of the text. Section II, The Context of EAP Evaluations, is the core of the text. It includes nine articles that present some of the issues and obstacles in evaluating EAPs as well as frameworks and strategies for conducting such evaluations. These articles stress the importance of understanding the organizational context in designing evaluation strategies, specifying measurable program objectives for guiding their design, and recognizing the potential differences in the perspectives of major stakeholders (e.g., the employee; the work organization) who may vary in their perspectives toward program success. The final section, Case Exarnpies of EAP Evaluation, includes seven articles that offer examples of both formative and summative evaluations of EAPs in different contexts. Focusing more on methods and strategies for conducting evaluations than on evaluation findings per se, these articles both highlight different problems that may arise in the evaluation of
EAPs and stress the need to tailor evaluation strategies to organizational realities. In addition to its 19 articles, the editors provide a preface to the volume that both outlines the purpose of the volume and provides an overview of each article. The editors also provide a short epilogue, Onward and Upward, that discusses the broadening programmatic focus of EAPs and the importance of evaluation research to effective planning and performance of these programs. For readers without time to review the entire volume, it is recommended that they give priority to the articles by Mark J. Stern, Economic Change and Social Welfare: Implications for Employees' Assistance, and Keith McClellan and Richard E. Miller, EAPs in Transition: Purpose and Scope of Services, in Section I; articles by Stanley F. Battle, Issues to Consider in Planning Employee Assistance Program Evaluations, Hide Yamatani,
EAP Benefit and Cost Structure Analysis: A Suggested Estimation Method, and Dong Soo Kim, Assessing Employment Assistance Programs: Evaluation Typology and Models, in Section II, and the article by R. Paul Maiden, Employee Assistance Program Evaluation in a Federal Government Agency, in Section III. Combined, these articles provide the reader with an overview of the history, development, and current status of EAPs, a review of obstacles and issues in the evaluation of these programs, and frameworks and strategies for guiding and performing these evaluations, including suggested methods for benefit and cost structure analysis. From the perspective of the reviewer, the book has two primary limitations. First, there is too much repetitive content among articles in the text, especially in Section II. This limitation at least partially relates to the earlier publication of the volume as a special issue of Employee Assistance Quarterly. Editors of texts often have greater opportunity to work with authors in coordinating content across articles than editors of peerreview journals. Second, the reviewer would have preferred the editors to have provided an expanded preface and conclusion to the volume. For example, the
Book Reviews editors should have offered a formal definition of EAPs in the preface, including a discussion of the lack of consensus among researchers and practitioners in specifying the definitional parameters of these programs. In addition, the volume would have been strengthened by concluding with an integrative framework that outlines phases and methods in the design and evaluation of EAPs. Given the lack of quantitative research that has examined the effectiveness of EAPs, it would have also been useful for the editors to have recommended strategies for promoting more systematic evaluation of these programs. As an introduction to the evaluation of EAPs, the
431
volume receives a positive recommendation. Readers who are unfamiliar with the development, growth, and evaluation needs of these programs as well as the challenges that they present to evaluation researchers will find this volume required reading. However, this volume is not intended as a “how to” manual. Combined with an evaluation sourcebook of research designs, methods, and techniques, this volume provides evaluators with practical guidance for the design of evaluations with high validity, sensitivity to the organizational contexts in which they performed, and responsiveness to the interests of the audience requesting the evaluation.