Ears and Organisations (original) (raw)
Related papers
Governance and Aboriginal hearing loss
2020
This chapter from Mixed Messages by Damien Howard describes research on the impact of hearing loss on two Aboriginal committees of management. The impact of hearing loss on governance is being compunded by social distancing during the pandemic see https://phoenixtraining.online/?sdm\_downloads=risk-of-disrupted-governance-during-the-pandemic for further discussion
Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 2019
Background: Despite policies and legislation mandating the employment of persons with disabilities, individuals with hearing impairment continue to face barriers and challenges accessing the labour market and have typically experienced higher rates of unemployment or underemployment. In South Africa, the majority of individuals with disabilities remain dependent on social-welfare to meet basic needs and as a result, their potential remains grossly untapped. Misconceptions regarding the capabilities of hearing impaired individuals have resulted in the occupational marginalization of this population. Objective: This study aimed to investigate employers' perceptions and experiences in recruiting and retaining individuals with hearing impairment in KwaZulu-Natal Provinces' private sector. Method: A descriptive survey with quantitative methods of analysis was used to obtain information from employers, human resource personnel or management in various industries who have employed individuals with hearing loss. The Chronbach Alpha suggested that the self-administered questionnaire had good internal consistency (p = 0.858). A total of 30 responses were obtained from the 19 companies who agreed to participate. Results: Approximately 75% of participants indicated either a medium or low level of awareness regarding disability. Legislation such as the Employment Equity Act (EEA, no 55 of 1998) and the Skills Development Act (SDA, no 97 of 1998) were considered the most useful legislature, as indicated by 66.7% of participants. Those who indicated that external services or resources, such as the KZN Blind and Deaf Society and eDeaf were used during recruitment and retention were more likely to report to the benefits of employing hearing impaired individuals, this being statistically significant (p < 0.001). Less than half of the participants reported that reasonable accommodations were provided for their employees, and half indicated that they were willing to provide sign language interpreters. Most participants (70%) suggested that communication difficulties, particularly in meetings, contributed towards poor employment rates amongst individuals with hearing impairment. Communication difficulties were further endorsed by 73.3% of participants as a major challenge when recruiting and hiring persons with hearing impairment. Other concerns related to the safety of employees and attitudes of co-workers. Conclusion: The findings suggest that a lack of familiarity of disability and disability legislature can manifest in reliance on erroneous stereotypes that individuals with disabilities are poor job performers and incapable of working independently. However, with the use of reasonable accommodations which includes sign language interpreters and desensitization workshops, employers were able to successfully integrate hearing impaired employees into the workforce.
2019
The following remarks are important to note beforehand: The editorial style as well as the references drawn in this dissertation follow the format prescribed by the Publication Manual (6th ed.) of the American Psychology Association (APA). This practice is in accordance with the policy of the Programme in Human Resource Management of the NorthWest University (Potchefstroom) as requirement to use the APA style in all scientific documents since January 1999 onwards. This dissertation was submitted in the form of two research articles. The editorial style is specified in accordance with the South African Journal of Human Resource Management, as it is in line with a significant part of the APA style. Construction of tables was followed in line with APA guidelines. Qualitative articles tend to comprise more manuscript pages as compared to quantitative articles (Levitt et al (2018). 1 The reasons for this are twofold: Firstly, the methods section includes detailed procedures. Secondly, the results section employs a narrative that consists of rich descriptions. In light of the above, the qualitative research article presented in chapter 2 exceeds the length of standard quantitative articles.
Exploring the job demands experienced by employees with hearing impairment in South Africa
SA Journal of Human Resource Management
Orientation: South Africa’s employment equity agenda towards persons with disabilities requires more insight to develop polices and standards of practice.Research purpose: This study sought to inductively inquire about job characteristics that employees with hearing impairment (EwHIs) experience as job demands.Motivation for the study: Scholarly research regarding job demands experienced by EwHIs is underrepresented in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and specifically on the African continent. Therefore, this study aimed to address this gap in literature within the South African context.Research approach/design and method: An exploratory, qualitative research approach was used. Social constructivism served as the paradigm. The approach was complemented by a descriptive phenomenological design aimed at deeply understanding the job demands of EwHIs within South Africa Purposive sampling was used to identify 14 respondents. Data were collected by using open-ended deaf-accessibl...
Managing the positioning of auditory impaired people within an organization
Occupational Safety – Science and Practice, 2018
Globalization and the ageing of population result in seeking extended occupational activity of groups inactive in the labour market, e.g., hearing-impaired people. This article discusses the theory as well as survey results, which show the status and forms of positioning of hearing-impaired employees within an organization. It also identifies major flaws in the theory, the different status and opinions in organizational practice, and recommendations in terms of theory and practice.
What Makes Deaf Employees Stay and Quit?
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2021
People with disabilities are largely marginalized and experienced economic exclusion for various reasons. Aside from employers' negative perception towards people with disabilities, they also have the fear of costs and legal liabilities which may arise from employing disabled employees. Moreover, as a result of social exclusion at family, community/social, and institutional/state levels, people with disabilities have a lower chance of participating in the labour market not only because they lack the necessary skills and education and have low self-esteem, but also because the workplace environment is unfavourable. This research was conducted to explore whether these factors apply to deaf employees in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Deaf people were chosen for this research among other types of disabilities because they are highly preferred by the employers, and thus more likely to be employed. Nevertheless, their participation in the labour market is still significantly low. Qualitative methods were employed for this research whereby interviews were conducted with fourteen deaf employees (assisted by sign language interpreters). The findings revealed three major themes-organizational, individual and labour market factors as the cause of deaf employees staying or leaving the company. In brief, deaf employees stay because the job suits them, they are satisfied with the salary and the working environment, receive fair treatment, able to communicate and have good relationship with colleagues and superiors, have patience and able to adapt to changes in the workplace, and also because alternative employments are scarce for them. On the flipside, deaf employees quit or intent to quit because of communication difficulties, poor relationship with others, being bullied and discriminated at work, unsatisfied with the salary and career development opportunities, unfavourable working conditions, job stress, job boredom, and feeling excluded at the workplace. This research concludes that awareness, acceptance and learning sign language are among the ways to create a more inclusive workplace for deaf employee in specific.
Human Research in Rehabilitation, 2019
The aim of this paper is to determine the opinions of deaf workers on their labor capacity and the opinions of their hearing co-workers about the labor capacities of the deaf. The sample consisted of 247 respondents, of whom 127 were deaf and 120 were hearing workers. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were used in processing the results. Testing was performed by Wilks' Lambda, tested significance in discriminant analysis was done by F test, at the statistical significance of 0.01. It was found that the sub-sample of respondents had a statistically significant difference in views on claims regarding the exploitation of deaf workers by employers, the employment of deaf people in low-paid simple occupations, and the equally successful but insignificant productivity of deaf workers. The statistical differences found indicate that there are differences in the assessment of the labor capacity of deaf workers in the hearing work environment. Qualitative analysis found that hearing ...