Disability and Academic Careers: Using the Social Relational Model to Reveal the Role of Human Resource Management Practices in Creating Disability (original) (raw)

Towards a Sociological Understanding of Employment Policy Regarding People with Disabilities

Like other workers from marginalised groups, people with disabilities are especially vulnerable to workplace exploitation. Historically, disabled workers—and disabled people generally—in the United States and other countries have been treated as ‘other’, something separate from the human body politic. These otherised treatments have taken several forms throughout time: the religiously based charitable model, in which people with disabilities are objects of pity and sympathy; the pariah model, which renders disabled people objects of scorn and derision to be sequestered away from ‘normal’ people; and the medical model, which treats disabled people as patients needing to be cured of unfortunate afflictions (Linton, 1998). The systemic marginalisation of disabled people has led to poorer job outcomes, rampant unemployment, reduced job security, isolation from the community at large, low wages, and the loss of individual and collective autonomy (Winsor et al, 2017; National Disability Rights Network, 2011). Policymakers, analysts, and researchers can draw from sociological interpretations of disabled workers’ relationships to the working world to advance intelligent policy solutions that address the needs of workers with disabilities holistically and compassionately. Understanding the social context in which disability and work are situated allows for more responsive policy solutions than ones that examine surface conditions on their own. This paper aims to examine the relationship between people with disabilities and the workforce from multiple sociological perspectives and to outline how these sociological perspectives can inform policy decisions.

Issues concerning the employment and employability of disabled people in UK accounting firms: An analysis of the views of human resource managers as employment gatekeepers

The British Accounting Review, 2007

In this paper we consider attitudes of human resource managers towards the employment and employability of disabled people in United Kingdom (UK) accounting firms. Only one study [Duff, A., Ferguson, R.J., in press. Disability and accounting firms: Evidence from the UK. Critical Perspectives on Accounting] has considered the employment of disabled people in accounting firms, despite a growing number of studies considering gender, race and social class in accounting employment. This dearth of evidence is unexpected given the passing of disability rights legislation in the UK in 1995 and the United States of America in 1990. Our investigation utilizes nine semi-structured interviews with human resource managers (or their equivalent) in large and medium-sized UK accounting firms. Three participants are from the Big Four firms, which dominate the market for accounting and auditing services. Views were elicited regarding: (i) drivers of disability awareness, (ii) the role of partners, (iii) how firms view disability, (iv) impairments firms view as a problem, and (v) job applications. Participants' responses indicate an awareness of existing legislation governing disability issues, in particular, the UK's Disability Discrimination Act, 1995. However, there is evidence that accounting firms restrict their understanding of disability to legal definitions. The study identifies specific impairments which firms see as impediments to employment and critically assesses firms' perceptions of the employability of disabled people. r

Traversing Disability: Employers’ Perspectives of Disability Inclusion

Disabilities

Persons with disabilities still experience challenges in obtaining employment even though obligations associated with their employment are in place in legislative frameworks that strive to support transformation within the labour market. This paper explores employers’ perspectives on the employment of persons with disabilities in South Africa identified in a case study. The influence of social capital on disability inclusive employment was explored from the perspective of two employers who employed trainees who completed an auxiliary training programme for persons with disabilities, which provides opportunities to facilitate pathways to economic inclusion and/or employment. Findings reveal that despite the call for increased labour inclusivity, the development of social capital is not clearly apparent when persons with disabilities are considered for employment. Organisational attitudes and beliefs seem to stem from the obligatory standpoint of the organisations. The paper highlight...

Disability and Society

This paper aims to review the current state of workplace inclusion of employees with disabilities in India. Specifically, this work uses the human resource (HR) practices to examine how employees with disabilities are accommodated and integrated with the non-disabled workforce in organizations. A qualitative research design was adopted. Interview responses were collected from HR heads and employees with disabilities in sixteen organizations of foreign multinationals, Indian multinationals and Indian start-ups operating in India. This study found that the disability inclusion practices and programs, social and professional networking opportunities, and career development factors of employees with disabilities vary across different types of studied organizations. The country specific context becomes relevant for the implementation of disability inclusion initiatives. The findings are relevant to HR executives, who are entrusted with the responsibility of accommodating employees with disabilities. This paper serves as a guiding principle for rolling out initiatives targeted towards employees with disabilities. Points of interest • Organizations need to proactively implement initiatives to facilitate the inclusion of employees with disability in the workforce. • Supportive human resource principles, policies, programs, practices, and climate would enable employers to better accommodate people with disability in the workplace. • The disability inclusion practices, social and professional networking opportunities, and career development factors of employees with disability vary across different types of the organizations along with specific context of the country in which they are operating.

HR strategies for integrating individuals with disabilities into the work place

Human Resource Management Review, 1997

The premise of this article is that the social and political forces which were sufficient to promote the passage of the ADA are not likely to hold the solution to equal employment opportunities in work organizations for people with disabilities. Moreover, employment opportunities, employability, employment decisions and employment discrimination in this area are ultimately under the control of not any one entity. That said, the leaders of progressive work organizations and the well-informed and motivated HR specialist working there can make a difference. This paper uses a multilevel/multi-stakeholder perspective to provide a "model of the problem", that is to articulate the forces facing those individuals with disabilities who seek to gain, retain or advance their employment. More to the point, this article goes on to provide insights into a tentative, but plausible "model of the solution" as one that might be adopted or acted on by key stakeholders relevant to the phenomenon.

Being disabled, being a manager: ‘glass partitions’ and conditional identities in the contemporary workplace

Disability & Society, 2013

This article critically explores the working lives and views of disabled senior staff working in UK organisations. The qualitative research at the core of the article establishes that some disabled people are confounding established notions of disabled people only working in peripheral employment roles by exploring the working lives and perceptions of disabled managers. The findings do, however, point to continued barriers to what disabled staff in senior positions can be seen to do and be organisationally. Here both practical and ontological risk inheres in organisationally induced change, openness about impairment and risky identities. Such ideas, it is argued, present limits to further promotion and workplace inclusion for some disabled managers.

HR’s Role in Managing Disability in the Workplace

Employment Relations Today, 2000

It is estimated that there are 43 million Americans with disabilities. Many of these citizens are significantly unemployed or underemployed compared with their nondisabled peers. This is true despite the fact that it has been a decade since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits disability discrimination. This article describes the role of employers, management, and especially the HR professionals in minimizing disability discrimination. Findings from a recent study of private-and federal-sector employers (Bruyère, 2000) 1 point to ways to successfully minimize the negative consequences of disability both for the individual and the workplace.

An inclusive research approach to exploring the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities at work

2013

• Inclusive Research is about people with intellectual disabilities doing research with other researchers. Each person in the research team is important and is seen as an expert. • The Centre for Disability Studies (CDS) Inclusive Research Network is a group of people with intellectual disability doing research with other researchers. The research is not done to the people with intellectual disability. They work alongside the other researchers.

Achieving disability inclusive employment -Are the current approaches deep enough

Journal of International Development, 2022

Diverse approaches to promoting disability inclusive employment aim to transform workplaces into truly inclusive environments, usually with intervention strategies targeting two main groups: employers and jobseekers with disabilities. However, they do not always consider other relevant stakeholders or address the relationships and interactions between diverse actors in the wider social ecosystem. These approaches often neglect deeper ‘vexing’ difficulties which block progress towards disability inclusive work environments. Most interventions rightly embrace hegemonic ‘social models of disability’ and use human rights arguments but may neglect entrenched structural factors. Disability inclusive employment is complex, with unaddressed invisible aspects that continue to limit progress. We explore some key relevant disability concepts and then interrogate evidence from the ‘Inclusion Works’ programme working in four middle- and low-income countries, considering some intractable barriers underlying the slow movement towards inclusive employment. Finally, we propose that a more participatory action orientated approach involving disabled people and others is needed to both generate deeper understanding and provide pathways towards new solutions to obstinate problems through progressive action learning processes in context. Programmatic interventions that work across the levels of the ecosystem and address power relations and interactions between stakeholders could lead to more substantial forms of disability inclusive employment.

Rhetoric and Reality of Disabilities Management in Organisations: A Strategy to Manage Employee Turnover

International Journal of Learning and Development, 2012

In this era of competition, management is interested in attracting and retaining competent employees in their organisations. In addition, management and other stakeholders are worried on how to manage workforce with disability effectively in their organisation. Employee disability is one element of workforce diversity which needs to be nurtured and managed effectively in organisation. Organisations which have effectively promoted diversity in organisation are in a position to attract and retain best talents in their organisation to cope with any changes in the business environment. A lot of research has been done on managing of workforce diversity in organisation but there is limited research on managing disability workforce in organisation. To fill this gap the paper purports to investigate the challenges, strategies and importance of managing employees with disability effectively in organisation. The methodology adopted in this study is to review critically the published articles.The study contributes to the body of knowledge by inspiring managers to n understand and appreciate the role played by workforce with disability in organizations.