When salespeople join new firms, their beliefs and habits around drinking alcohol are strongly influenced by the patterns established by veterans and clients, according to a study of sales and client-service departments of Chinese manufacturers. A team led by Songqi Liu of Pennsylvania State University showed that when team veterans often drink with clients and clients drink during business meetings, newcomers are more likely to believe that alcohol might be useful in enhancing job performance. Moreover, newcomers registering 1 unit higher on a 5-unit scale of frequency of work-based heavy drinking were 2.7 times more likely to subsequently engage in a more general pattern of harmful and hazardous alcohol use.

(Source: Academy of Management Journal)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 31st, 2015

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