Personnel Security: Personnel Addictive Behavior

N. S. Mikhailova

, V. A. Lyubina

and S. A. Verkhoturov

The Zabaikal’sk Institute of Rail Transport – the branch of Irkutsk State Transport University, Chita, Russian Federation

Keywords: Personnel safety, risk-based management, personnel risks, job satisfaction, behavior, addiction, addictive

behavior, addictive reaction, deviant behavior, prevention of alcoholism, mental disorders, psychoactive

substances, drugs, alcohol.

Abstract: The article deals with the issues of personnel security related to the problems of addictive behavior of

personnel who ensure the organization's activities in the implementation of production processes. The study

aims to determine the influence of addictive behavior on the management process and the efficiency of the

use of personnel in production activities. The authors set the task of reducing and limiting the presence in the

production and in management structures of persons who are potentially and actually included in a certain

risk group associated with the use of alcoholic beverages or being in the workplace in a state of alcoholic

intoxication. We conducted theoretical and empirical studies, reflecting statistical data on the drunkenness of

workers, alcohol dependence of personnel, and facts of alcohol consumption for the first time among

employees of railway enterprise divisions. The results of the study allowed us to determine the vector of

measures that ensure the reduction of personnel risks associated with deviant behavior.

1 INTRODUCTION

The classical theory of management defines the main

resources that support the activities of the enterprise,

which include financial, material and technical,

human, and information resources. The efficiency of

the use of resources depends more on the level of

competence of the manager. The executor of the

functional processes is the personnel who have the

necessary qualifications. Human resource

management is part of a special risk area called

personnel risks. Unlike other types of risks, personnel

risks are quite difficult to calculate in advance, since

human actions are unpredictable, and actions and

motives are determined both at the conscious and

unconscious levels (at the level of emotions). The

elements of uncertainty inherent in the functioning

and development of many processes cause the

emergence of situations that do not have an

unambiguous outcome.

In risk-based management, personnel risks are

considered at the entry to the organization, during the

performance of direct functional duties, and at the

stage of dismissal of employees from the

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organization. Depending on the degree of uncertainty,

there are situations of risk and situations of

uncertainty. At the same time, the situation of risk,

being a kind of uncertainty, is characterized by the

fact that each action can have different results. Most

managers are concerned with risk minimization and

strategic risk planning processes.

The anti-crisis policy is developed in conditions

of full or partial uncertainty. Human behavior is

difficult to imagine in the form of any prescribed

management algorithm since personnel risks are

manifested in two ways. On the one hand, the

personnel affects the efficiency of doing business and

ensuring its safety, on the other hand, personal well-

being and safety. Under such conditions of

interaction, both wins and losses can be observed on

the part of the organization and the employee. The

company can thrive due to the presence of a person

with specific competencies, or vice versa, become

bankrupt when making an incorrect management

decision. The human factor is very often the cause of

any losses. Therefore, risk orientation enables to find,

eliminate or protect the most vulnerable places in the

management field (Melnyk, Shuprudko, and

172

Mikhailova, N., Lyubina, V. and Verkhoturov, S.

Personnel Security: Personnel Addictive Behavior.

DOI: 10.5220/0010695900003169

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc-Practical Conference "Ensuring the Stability and Security of Socio-Economic Systems: Overcoming the Threats of the Crisis Space" (SES 2021),

pages 172-178

ISBN: 978-989-758-546-3

Kolosovska, 2020). Back in the early 20th century,

Henry Ford said that if all his car factories were taken

away from him but people were left behind, he could

rebuild his car empire. And if he only had factories

without people, then he couldn't do anything (Ford,

1993).

Today, Russian companies implement a variety of

employee management tools: adaptive technologies,

certification system, competence-based approach,

grading system, and many other personnel policy

tools. The use of personnel management technologies

is not enough for efficient personnel management.

The work process is of great importance in terms of

the resources used by employees, presented

professional qualifications, motivation and ability to

adapt to changes in the environment, and factors

affecting people's behavior.

The entry of society into the information phase of

its development, market globalization and

competition, and many other factors have

significantly influenced people's behavior. The ideas

of experts and scientists about human behavior

received a particularly successful and rapid

development in the early twentieth century when

behaviorists declared it a subject of psychological

science. Behavior was initially understood as any

observed external reactions: motor, vegetative,

speech, which function according to the stimulus-

response scheme. In general, behavior can be defined

as "inherent in living beings, interaction with the

environment mediated by their external and internal

activity" (Mendelevich, 2016). Behavior that

corresponds to the rules accepted in society is

considered the norm, and non-compliance is

considered a deviation.

1.1 Problem Statement

One of the tasks of a modern enterprise is to limit the

presence in the production and in management

structures of persons who are potentially and actually

included in certain risk groups. In the modern world,

many scientific fields are engaged in the study of

interdependencies, or addictions, including medical,

sociological, psychological, and other schools. On the

edges of such studies, an unusual science has formed

– addictology, or the science of addictions. Currently,

the science of addictology studies a wide range of

human addictions, such as alcohol, narcotic,

toxicological, tobacco, pharmacological, chemical,

computer, gambling, including computer games,

various types of labor addictions, as well as food,

sexual, dependence on people, objects, actions, and

many others. The basis of addictive behavior is the

desire of a person to change the state of their

consciousness and thereby escape from reality. The

types of specific addictions differ depending on the

mechanisms used to escape from reality (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Types of human addictions.

When a person leaves reality, they experience

strong emotional overload and experiences, and at the

same time, their inner state actually depends on

emotions. That is, emotions, conventionally called

individual indicators of personnel security, are an

integral part of the dependence (Karzaeva and

Davydova, 2020). Is it legitimate to consider the

presence of people with addictions in the company as

an opportunity to develop personnel risks? Yes, it is

possible since the risks of personnel security can lead

to the following consequences:

 external management of a dependent

employee who is at risk can lead to the destabilization

of the company by disclosing secrets, luring

customers, losing vigilance, etc.;

 ability of a dependent employee to spread their

habits and addictions to the internal environment of

the company by organizing a group of like-minded

people and sympathizers;

 satisfaction of personal addictions through the

use of various material and stratification resources of

the organization;

 destabilization of the work of a well-

coordinated team, destruction of team spirit;

 tendency to commit offenses and criminal acts

both for the sake of achieving their goals and as a

result of the consequences that have arisen.

Let's consider the most common form of human

addiction – alcoholism. Alcoholism is the use of

alcohol-containing beverages, that is, a mental and

physiological craving for alcohol. People with such

an addiction are a great danger to society, especially

when applying for a job. One can detect signs of

alcohol intoxication in a candidate for a vacant

position or a full-time employee both with the help of

medical and psychological methods and by external

signs.

Typical signs of alcoholism of a person are

represented by a fairly wide range of examples:

Personnel Security: Personnel Addictive Behavior

173

 uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic

beverages at business meetings and entertainment

events;

 appearance of external signs in preparation for

alcohol consumption: increased fussiness, irritability

or emotional elation, rubbing of hands and nose;

 changes in certain facial features (redness of

the nose tip, swelling of the face, swelling of the

eyelids, changes in the color of the face skin);

 speech signs, such as loss of sentence

meaning, limited vocabulary, stuttering, etc.;

 memory lapses, changes in external behavior,

loss of "human appearance" and much more.

To determine the predisposition of people to

alcoholism, various medical methods are used.

Alcohol abuse negatively affects the entire system of

the human body, and at the same time, the negative

influence of an alcoholic on the organization is

expressed mainly in characteristic changes in their

personal qualities, their physical and emotional state.

The consequences of such changes are quite obvious:

 significant losses of working time and,

consequently, economic losses;

 constant threat to industrial and information

security, including the threat of accidents;

 collapse of the team, involvement in the

drinking of alcoholic beverages of young people,

colleagues;

 committing criminal acts or omissions,

causing bodily harm to colleagues and other persons,

etc.

Studies have found that a person who abuses

alcoholic beverages has a demoralizing effect on

people from the immediate environment. Despite this,

it is possible to exclude the harmful influence of such

employees on the organization. It all depends on the

degree of alcoholism. The more acute the stage of

alcoholism, the more obvious the reason for getting

rid of such an employee becomes. As a rule, the

dismissal of such an employee with a negative

attitude of the team to alcoholics does not carry a

social danger.

1.2 Results of Theoretical and

Empirical Studies

The basis for the formation of any addiction is a clear

sequence of non-standard psychological states, which

are the source of replacing various negative feelings

in a person with positive ones; for example, the

feeling of loneliness and anxiety is replaced by a

positive feeling of solidarity. At the same time, the

path of acquiring a new sensation and eliminating

troubles remains in the person's mind for a long time,

and the person feels safe and quite calm. Such a

subjective tactic of a person is called an addictive

reaction.

The negative consequences of drunkenness and

alcoholism are multidimensional and widely known.

These are millions of broken destinies, a huge number

of victims, violent crimes, motor vehicle accidents

(drunk drivers are the culprits of every fourth road

accident), increased mortality, injuries, degradation,

unfavorable heredity, loss of the health of the nation.

From 2010 through 2019 only, Russia has lost about

1 million people due to reasons related to

drunkenness and alcoholism. About 40 thousand

people die from ethanol poisoning every year. Factors

that contribute to the drunkenness of workers (Figure

2) were developed during the Soviet era, and they are

still relevant today.

Figure 2: Factors contributing to personnel deviant

behavior.

This problem has been around for a century.

Statistical data on the drunkenness of workers in 1935

(Figure 3).

Figure 3: Statistical data on the drunkenness of workers

(1935).

According to a survey conducted by the Russian

Statistics Office in 2019, the use of alcoholic

beverages in 73% of Russian citizens is associated

with the tradition of celebrating holidays with

alcohol. The second most popular answer was

"pleasure experienced as a result" according to 27.8%

of respondents. The feeling of calmness and

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carelessness was indicated by 25.3% of respondents.

2.4% of respondents mentioned the cause of alcohol

consumption as they simply could not imagine their

lives without alcohol.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

There are many tests available to identify employees

who are prone to deviant behavior. To determine this

behavior, in particular, to identify deviations from

normal behavior, predisposition to alcoholism, the

collection questionnaire by K.K. Yakhin and V.D.

Mendelevich is used for detecting earlier signs of

alcoholism (Mendelevich, 2016). This questionnaire

is aimed at conducting diagnostic studies to determine

the levels of alcoholization of the individual –

domestic drunkenness, when the constant use of

alcoholic beverages is a habit in a person but has not

yet led to the development of addiction and chronic

alcoholism, when the body is intoxicated with alcohol

and there is a persistent psychological and physical

dependence on it.

To keep a person from developing alcoholism and

from consequences in case of constant alcohol

consumption – serious health problems, inability to

build a career and achieve success in life, loss of

human appearance, and early death, it is necessary to

reveal the content of this disease and indicate safe

ways to have a sober lifestyle.

To identify the proportion of people who are

prone to deviant behavior, we conducted testing

among the persons of one of the structural divisions

of the Trans-Baikal Railway.

The survey involved 120 employees, of which 40

people are "managers, specialists, employees" and 80

people are "workers".

The level of propensity to alcoholism is as

follows:

 the level of development of alcoholism is

below -12.8 points;

 the level of development of domestic

drunkenness ranges from +12.8 to -12.8;

 the level of health status is above +12.8

points.

According to the results of the survey to identify

early signs of alcoholism, it was found that:

 57% of respondents are healthy;

 16% of respondents suffer from a domestic

form of drunkenness;

 27% of respondents have alcoholism.

As we can see, from the data in Figures 4, 5, the

category of "domestic drunkenness" makes up a

larger percentage of respondents (16%), and those

suffering from alcoholism come second (27%).

Figure 4: Results of the survey on alcoholism of personnel.

Such data confirms that the problem of alcoholism

is present in the organization and requires a solution.

The analysis of the specialized questionnaire

allowed us to formulate the following results.

Alcoholism in adolescence can develop due to

dissatisfaction with modern living conditions and

everyday life. According to the survey, the proportion

of young people who drink alcohol during their

school years is 65%, but this was not considered

drunkenness.

Figure 5: Results of the "Age when you first tried alcohol"

survey.

By drinking alcohol, young men tend to weaken

their characteristic state of timidity, uncertainty and

get rid of excessive indecision. Often parents, friends,

and peers show negative examples related to

drinking. One of the reasons for the use of alcoholic

beverages is the poor organization of recreation and

leisure activities of young people, family relations,

domestic problems, financial difficulties, lack of

employment opportunities, etc. (Yakovleva,

Gaponenko [et al.], 2020). Such circumstances as

prolonged illness, loss of relatives and friends, and

conflicts in the family can also lead to domestic

drunkenness.

In the organization, as well as in society as a

whole, it is possible to identify many different factors

that lead to alcoholization of personnel, such as a

wide range of wine and vodka products, low level of

anti-alcohol policy at the enterprise, development of

negative traditions, for example: when meeting

friends and acquaintances to drink alcohol, "pop the

Personnel Security: Personnel Addictive Behavior

175

cork" for the appointment to a new position or the

birth of a child, etc.

According to scientists, since there is no obvious

pronounced predisposition to alcoholism at a young

age (although foreign scientists do not agree with

this), the assimilation of alcohol habits is carried out

mainly in small groups, such as family, social circuit,

and friends. Alcoholism is recognized in the modern

world as one of the most tragic and dangerous forms

of deviant behavior, which poses a serious threat to

the life of the population, the health and creative well-

being of both individual employees and the workforce

as a whole. The consequences of the development of

drunkenness are enormous, it negatively affects all

aspects of human activity, including labor discipline,

performance of official duties, etc.

The appearance of an official at the workplace in

a state of alcohol or drug intoxication negatively

affects the reputation of the enterprise, hinders its

normal functioning, entails organizational and

production risks, and also affects the success of the

company.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A set of psychological, organizational, and other

measures aimed at preventing alcoholism is carried

out by the organization's officials. In addition, work

is being carried out to identify the circle of

subordinates who are prone to this form of behavior.

Team conversations are held about the negative

consequences of drinking alcoholic beverages during

working hours, which can lead to both downtime in

the work of the organization and more serious

consequences (loss of a workplace or, even worse,

health or death, both in the workplace and outside it).

These activities should be carried out within the

framework of social work and should be attributed to

one of the current important tasks.

The main types of preventive measures against

alcoholism (Figure 6) include:

- primary prevention aimed at reducing the risk of

alcohol consumption by non-drinkers, especially

young people. This type of prevention of alcoholism

can be carried out among the circle of people with

mental disorders, prone to depression and mood

swings, since they are often prone to various

addictions;

- secondary prevention, which consists of helping

people with alcoholism. These activities are aimed at

making people aware that they should give up

alcohol. Most often, people suffering from

alcoholism do not understand that they are sick and

do not take this problem seriously. They are sure that

they have everything under control, and they can give

up this addiction at any time. At the same time, they

perceive such obvious signs of addiction as an

unhealthy appearance, an unpleasant smell and

fumes, and inappropriate behavior as normal;

- tertiary prevention, which consists of helping

people who have given up alcohol. This type of

preventive measures is aimed at reducing the risks of

returning to this addiction. Although it is important to

note that this type of activity is less efficient than the

previous two since any stressful situation can return a

former alcoholic to drinking alcohol.

Figure 6: Types of alcoholism prevention.

As a solution to the problem of deviant behavior

at the enterprise, the authors propose a set of

measures aimed at reducing the factors and

minimizing the risks that affect the occurrence of

employee behavior deviations (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Set of measures aimed at reducing the factors and

minimizing the risks that affect the occurrence of employee

behavior deviations.

One of the most efficient measures, in our opinion,

is the conduct of medical examinations aimed at

identifying alcohol and drug intoxication. The labor

legislation allows for mandatory daily medical

examinations for employees engaged in the harmful

and dangerous production, which includes the railway

transport industry. The algorithm for conducting a

medical examination is shown in Figure 8.

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Figure 8: Algorithm for conducting a medical examination.

The periodic medical examination includes the

measurement of the pulse and blood pressure, the

general assessment of the person's state of health, the

clarity of consciousness, and is conducted during the

working time. If alcohol or drug intoxication is

suspected, the employee is obliged to pass an express

test, and in case of positive results, he/she is

suspended from work. In addition, the reason for

suspension from work may be general malaise or

pressure drops.

Disciplinary measures include the method shown

in Figure 9. This method is used in practice by one of

the Far Eastern companies. At the initial appearance

at the workplace in a state of alcoholic intoxication,

the employee is reprimanded, and he/she is deprived

of 50% of the bonus. In case of repeated violation of

labor discipline, the employee is already deprived of

100% of the bonus, and the next time he/she will be

dismissed. This method is efficient in those industries

where there is an acute shortage of personnel, and

there is no possibility of dismissal of employees.

Figure 9: Disciplinary measures.

Figure 10 shows the methods of socio-

psychological impact.

Figure 10: Methods of socio-psychological impact.

One of the most efficient tools related to measures

of socio-psychological impact is the prosecution of

persons who have allowed the use of alcoholic

beverages in the workplace, with the analysis of such

cases at the general meeting of the team to create

intolerance to such violations of labor discipline.

Raids are also an efficient method for preventing

alcoholism. In this case, the employees of the

organization responsible for conducting this event

periodically go around the workplace and check the

labor discipline in terms of drinking alcoholic

beverages. Raids and medical examinations are

carried out at different times, without warning the

organization's personnel.

Anti-alcohol agitation and propaganda of a

healthy lifestyle is a fairly efficient method of

preventing alcoholism. This method helps to reduce

alcohol consumption among low-drinkers and may

encourage an employee with alcoholism to seek

treatment. This method is quite efficient in visual

agitation with the use of medical knowledge (one can

give an example of the harmful effects of alcohol on

the human body, show photos or videos on this topic).

To implement this method, doctors, psychologists,

social workers, or representatives of the Alcoholics

Anonymous Society can be invited to the company.

The development of organizational culture and the

organization of leisure time for employees is also an

important method of preventing alcoholism

(Osetrova, Prykhodko and Glazunov [et al.], 2019).

Properly organized leisure time of the organization's

personnel contributes to team cohesion, the

realization of the needs of the organization's

personnel in rest.

Game is the most common form of leisure. Based

on the conducted research, experts distinguish the

game in the broad and narrow sense of the word. The

game form of activity is a simulation and

reproduction of any actions or practical activities of a

person that contribute to their development and

improvement as an employee of a particular

organization (Hussain, Qazi, and Ahmed [et al.],

Personnel Security: Personnel Addictive Behavior

177

2018). The functional orientation of games is shown

in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Functional focus of games.

Thus, using the game as an organization of

corporate leisure, one can create a healthy and

creative atmosphere, provide the team with active,

interesting, and healthy rest.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The use of modern mechanics in personnel

management allows developing a set of personnel

strategies to prevent or minimize risks by changing

the perception of employees about the ideal model

and trajectory of behavior in the labor market, as well

as about the career strategy. By creating conditions

for the implementation of preventive measures to

minimize the factors that contribute to the

manifestation of negative addictions, it is possible to

get an efficient employee who meets the requirements

of the company.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors express their gratitude to the director of

the Trans-Baikal Institute of Railway Transport for

organizing surveys at railway transport enterprises, as

well as to the management and employees of the

divisions of Russian Railways JSC directly

participating in the surveys.

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