NCJ Number
156828
Journal
International Journal of Health Services Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: (1989) Pages: 693-707
Date Published
1989
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The emergence of employee drug testing is examined in the context of the historical development of the principle and practice of workplace surveillance.
Abstract
The evolution of disciplinary and control systems is traced from the early industrial revolution through the scientific management movement and its recent offshoots. Industrial medicine and industrial psychology are presented as elements of the process of making surveillance scientific. Drug testing and other contemporary surveillance technologies are placed in this context, and their cultural, political-economic, and moral underpinnings are examined. The discussion also explores the dilemma posed by the need to address the real problem of drug abuse in the context of a social control paradigm. The analysis concludes that it will not be easy to reframe the drug testing debate in a larger context, but the failure to do so perpetuates the view that drug testing, like quality circles and other concepts, is just another in a series of independent devices to keep workers from hurting themselves and others and to improve productivity and competitiveness in the interest of society as whole. Furthermore, sufficient historical and contemporary evidence exists of ideological and political influences on scientific research and government drug policymaking as to justify severe skepticism in accepting drug testing at its face value. 56 references (Author abstract modified)