A Qualitative Study on the Effective Operation of EAP Counseling: Focusing on longitudinal case analysis
Authors:   Form of Public Safety and Culture, Kim Su Lim 
Published: June 2023

Recently, more and more companies are interested in EAP counseling and are operating counseling programs in accordance with the changing needs of organizations and executives and employees. However, the culture and context of the organization are diverse, making it difficult to apply EAP counseling in an appropriate operating method. In order to provide professional counseling services tailored to the characteristics of the company, reflective evaluation and analysis of the existing EAP counseling operation are required, and longitudinal research is needed for this. In addition, research on operational measures to revitalize EAP counseling should be studied in-depth analysis of improvements after operating EAP counseling, as well as obstacles and improvements. In particular, as a reflective and exploratory study on improved matters, what is the significance in terms of institutional changes? Tracking from a longitudinal perspective to find its meaning is a very valuable important task for the effective operation of EAP counseling. However, there are no studies on these improvements as well as from a longitudinal perspective. Therefore, this study attempted to provide practical information on the field, and through this, it aims to lay the foundation for information and efficient operation plans for companies and EAP counselors who want to introduce EAP. Research problems to achieve the purpose of this study are divided into three main research problems and a total of seven sub-problems. Stationery Question 1. What are the annual research results of S Development Corporation's EAP consultation from 2019 to 2022? Sub-Question 1) What are the characteristics of grievances according to the organizational culture of the company for 4 years, and 2) What are the obstacles to the EAP counseling operation process? And, Stationery Question 2. What changes do the research results show over the past four years? The sub-question for is 1) Did the obstruction factors improve? 2) What were the improved factors? 3) What results did these results show over the course of the year? And, Research Question 3. What is the effective operation plan of EAP counseling applicable to the field? The sub-question for is 1) What is the effective operation plan of S Development Corporation? 2) What is the effective operation plan that can be generalized? The research problem of this study requires the derivation of comprehensive and total results. First of all, it is possible to derive comprehensive and overall results for the main research problem by solving the sub-problem. This study was designed as a qualitative research method. Case research methods and longitudinal research methods were applied as a phenomenological approach in research methodology, and the EAP counseling case of S Development Corporation, which operated the same psychological test and program for four years from 2019 to 2022, was selected as a research case for this study. The subjects of the study consisted of workers selected by the S Development Corporation's own screening method from 2019 to 2022, and the participation of this study was conducted with the voluntary consent of the S Development Corporation and the workers. The number and period of EAP counseling participants are 160 sessions, 8 sessions each for 60 minutes, for 20 people from May to June 2019, From April to July 2020, a total of 80 sessions were conducted for 10 people, 8 sessions each for 60 minutes, A total of 68 sessions for 17 people from April to July 2021, 4 sessions for 60 minutes each, and a total of 2 sessions for 1 person in December, From July to November 2022, 17 people will have a total of 68 sessions, 4 sessions each for 60 minutes, and 2 sessions each for 2 people will have a total of 4 sessions, A total of 18 consultations were conducted for two people and one additional consultation for 60 minutes each, and a total of 398 consultations were conducted for a total of 69 people.