Observations of Interrank Conflicts at the Company Level: Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

The period of greatest public concern with drug abuse as a serious social problem was the early 1970's, and the Army felt a special concern about drug abuse as a possible threat to defense readiness. As a result, the Army Research Institute conducted research in 1971-1975 on the behavioral and social aspects of drug and alcohol abuse in the Army. This report is of interest in 1977 in light of the company-level leadership problems now being addressed by organizational effectiveness programs Army-wide. The present research memorandum presents observations collected during a 1974 investigation of the relationships between company-level leadership and the illicit use of drugs or excessive drinking; the data consist of responses to structured questions asked during small group discussion sessions with peer groups of various ranks in Army companies.