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Workplace experiences of persons with disabilities

Introduction

Despite comprising 15% of the world population,¹ people with disabilities are under-represented in the workplace with unemployment rates of 80‒90% in developing countries and 50‒70% in developed countries² and arguably even less represented in the academic literature regarding social relations in and around work.³ This set of articles is an exception. It includes seven papers that focus on the experiences of employees with different types of disabilities (e.g., Huntington's disease, mental health conditions, mobility impairments, hearing loss), using a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches. Although many of these papers consider the role of stigma, many also identify some positive aspects to living with a disability. The study of persons with disabilities' experiences is interesting in its own right, but these articles offer useful insights for researchers interested in stigma, marginalized groups, identity, identification, disclosure, discrimination, and interpersonal dynamics in the workplace.

The earliest paper in our selection, by Taub, Blind, and Greer (1999), is a qualitative investigation of how male college students with physical disabilities used sport and physical activity to counteract stigma. They found that demonstration of physical competence and enhanced bodily appearance allowed them to enact socially valued roles, which also helped to counteract internalized societal norms.

Using a matched sample of US College alumni, Perry, Hendricks, and Broadbent (2000) compare the incidence of access and treatment discrimination for people with and without various types of disabilities (e.g., wheelchair users), as well as how these experiences affect job satisfaction. By differentiating between access and treatment discrimination, they are able to provide a more comprehensive analysis of discrimination across the employment life cycle.

Although published about ten years ago, the paper by Barclay and Markel (2007) also remains highly relevant, especially with the recent advent of cheap genetic testing (e.g., 23andme). This theoretical paper explains how genetic inequity is a special case of disability discrimination (with particular reference to Huntington's disease) and raises nuanced issues surrounding the disclosure of potential disability. They identify stigma as being related to both the fear of being discredited now and/or discovered later.  

The paper by Jammaers, Zanoni, and Hardonk (2016) considers how persons with disabilities construct and sustain positive identities despite the negative (i.e., ableist) expectations of their workplaces. This qualitative study, set in Belgium, finds that a positive identity can be crafted by contesting the discourse of lower productivity, redefining productivity, or refusing individual responsibility for lower productivity.

Mik-Meyer (2016) conducted a qualitative study in Denmark that examines the perspectives of colleagues and managers of persons with disabilities. She explores how these individuals did not talk about their colleagues as being 'different' and yet they simultaneously compared them to 'other' demographic groups such as transvestites, redheads, elderly women, and very tall people.

A recent qualitative study by Elraz (2017) focuses on the stigmatizing and empowering aspects of mental health conditions (e.g., how individuals with disabilities position themselves in relation to organizational discourses on high performance). This article also draws attention to the linkages between identification and disclosure.

Baldridge and Kulkarni (2017) study the impact of adult onset hearing loss and find that many interviewees maintained, and re-crafted, successful careers when faced with dramatically changed biological abilities. Most initially saw themselves as victims and often tried to hide their hearing loss. Overtime, however, those who remained successful embraced their hearing limitations. Some even turn their 'disability' into a competitive advantage.

Catherine E Connelly,
Associate Editor, Human Relations
DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada

and

David C Baldridge,
Editorial Board member, Human Relations
Oregon State University, USA

Virtual Issue Table of Contents

To view an article, click on the title or the Full Text link below it.

Identity, mental health and work: How employees with mental health conditions recount stigma and the pejorative discourse of mental illness 
Hadar Elraz (2017)
Human Relations 71(5): 722-741.

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Abstract: This article asks how identity is constructed for individuals with mental health conditions (MHCs) in the workplace. It takes especial regard to how MHCs are discursively situated, constructed and reconstructed in the workplace. Employees with MHCs face a difficult situation: not only do they need to deal with the stigma and discrimination commonly associated with MHCs, but they must also manage their health condition whilst adhering to organizational demands to demonstrate performance and commitment to work. Discourse analysis derived from 32 interviews with individuals with MHCs delineates how these individuals feel both stigmatized and empowered by their MHCs. The findings address three discursive strands: (i) a pejorative construction of mental illness in employment and society; (ii) contesting mental illness at work by embracing mental health management skills; and (iii) recounting mental illness through public disclosure and change. This article enhances understanding of how the construction of positive identity in the face of negative attributions associated with MHCs contributes to literature on identity, organizations and stigma as well as raising implications for policy and practice.

Keywords: disability, discourse, employment, mental illness, mental health, MHC

The shaping of sustainable careers post hearing loss: Toward greater understanding of adult onset disability, disability identity, and career transitions
David C Baldridge and Mukta Kulkarni (2017)
Human Relations 70(10): 1217-1236.

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Abstract: Through this interview-based study with 40 respondents in the United States we have outlined enablers of career transitions and sustainable careers for professionals who have experienced severe hearing loss as adults. To sustain careers after adult onset disability, respondents engaged in a quest for meaning and big picture answers to 'who am I?' and 'am I still successful?' This included redefining themselves – e.g. I am now both a person with a disability (disability identity) and a successful professional (professional identity) – and career success (e.g. now I care about service to society as much as I care about material artifacts). Respondents also adopted new work roles where disability was a key to success (e.g. becoming an equal employment officer) and utilized social networks to continue being successful. Such redefining of work and networks supported the aforesaid quest for meaning and big picture answers. Findings not only indicate how individuals experience career success after a life-changing event but also help defamiliarize extant notions of ableism in workplace contexts.

Keywords: adult onset, career transitions, disability, disability identity, hearing loss, sustainable careers
 

Constructing positive identities in ableist workplaces: Disabled employees' discursive practices engaging with the discourse of lower productivity
Eline Jammaers, Patrizia Zanoni and Stefan Hardonk (2016) 
Human Relations 69(6): 1365‒1386. 

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Abstract: This article explores how disabled workers engage with the ableist discourse of disability as lower productivity in constructing positive identities in the workplace. Disabled employees inhabit a contradictory discursive position: as disabled individuals, they are discursively constructed for what they are unable to do, whereas as employees they are constituted as human resources and expected to be able to produce and create value. Our discourse analysis of 30 in-depth interviews with disabled employees identifies three types of discursive practices through which they construct positive workplace identities: (1) practices contesting the discourse of lower productivity as commonly defined; (2) practices contesting the discourse of lower productivity by redefining productivity; and (3) practices reaffirming the discourse of lower productivity yet refusing individual responsibility for it. The study advances the disability literature by highlighting how disabled speakers sustain positive workplace identities despite the negative institutionalized expectations of lower productivity both by challenging and reproducing ableism as an organizing principle.

Keywords: ableism, critical discourse analysis, disability, identity, productivity, resistance
 

Othering, ableism and disability: A discursive analysis of co-workers' construction of colleagues with visible impairments
Nanna Mik-Meyer (2016) 
Human Relations 69(6): 1341‒1363. 
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Abstract: The aim of this article is to explore how able-bodied co-workers engage in the 'othering' of colleagues with impairments. Taking a discursive analytical approach, the article examines interviews with 19 managers and 43 colleagues who all worked closely with an employee with cerebral palsy in 13 different work organizations. The primary finding of the article is that co-workers spontaneously refer to other 'different' people (e.g. transvestites, homosexuals, immigrants) when talking about a colleague with visible impairments. This finding suggests that disability is simultaneously a discursive category (i.e. the discourse of ableism prevents co-workers from talking about the impairments of a colleague) and a material phenomenon (i.e. employees with impairments are a distinct category of employees in the eyes of the co-workers). Othering of employees with disabilities thus demonstrates contradictory discourses of ableism (which automatically produce difference) and tolerance and inclusiveness (which automatically render it problematic to talk about difference).

Keywords: ableism, colleagues, co-workers, difference, disability, discourse analysis, employees, impairments, managers, othering, work organizations
 

Discrimination and stigmatization in work organizations: A multiple level framework for research on genetic testing
Lizabeth A Barclay and Karen S Markel (2007) 
Human Relations 60(6): 953‒980. 

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Abstract: In this article, we examine how genetic testing may be the basis of a new form of exclusion in organizations. Testing reveals the genetic composition of an individual and can identify genetically linked conditions. Discrimination, related to genetic composition, may occur through either the stigmatization or categorization of individuals or groups based on genetic test results. The potential impact of genetic testing and the associated discriminatory processes on both employees and organizations is outlined. This research discusses individual (stigmatization, perceived discrimination, and symptom timing and visibility), organizational (actual discrimination, genetic testing use and accommodation) and environmental (regulatory agencies, genetic testing laboratories, insurance providers and genetic advocacy groups) factors that impact genetic testing. Lastly, we propose research questions linked to these factors to guide future organizational study.

Keywords: discrimination, genetic testing, human resource management, organizational behavior
 

An Exploration of Access and Treatment Discrimination and Job Satisfaction among College Graduates with and without Physical Disabilities
Elissa L Perry, Wallace Hendricks and Emir Broadbent (2000) 
Human Relations 53(7): 923‒955.

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Abstract: The current study explored the extent to which college graduates with and without physical disabilities reported experiencing discrimination in their overall work histories. Resufts suggested that respondents with disabilities reported experiencing significantly more access discrimination than respondents without disabilities and that the specific type of physical disability influenced the extent of access discrimination experienced. There were no significant differences in the extent of treatment discrimination experienced by individuals with and without disabilities. The current study also explored the level of job satisfaction reported by currently employed respondents with and without physical disabilities. Results indicated that access discrimination significantly reduced current job satisfaction, and, when it was statistically controlled, individuals with disabilities reported marginally higher levels of job satisfaction than individuals without physical disabilities. These and other resufts are presented and their implications are discussed.

Keywords: access discrimination, disability discrimination, job satisfaction, physical disabilities, treatment discrimination

Stigma Management Through Participation in Sport and Physical Activity: Experiences of Male College Students with Physical Disabilities
Diane E Taub Elaine M Blinde and Kimberly R Greer (1999) 
Human Relations 52(11): 1469‒1484. 
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Abstract: Individuals with physical disabilities are often stigmatized because their bodies are assumed to vary from norms of physical competence and bodily appearance. Possession of a discrediting attribute may impair social interactions and result in the devaluation of an individual. The purpose of this paper is to explore how involvement in sport and physical activity may be one strategy to manage the stigma of a disabled body. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 24 male college students with physical disabilities. Findings indicate that respondents believe this context helps them exceed expectations associated with their disability through demonstration of physical skill, a fit healthy body, a muscular body, and a liberated body. Sport and physical activity may be effective in compensating for a spoiled identity as participation in this setting is unexpected and emphasizes an alternative representation of a disabled body.

Keywords: physical disability, stigma, sport and physical activity
 

Notes

¹ http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability

² https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/resources/factsheet-on-persons-with-disabilities/disability-and-employment.html

³ Dovidio JF, Pagotto L and Hebl MR (2011). Implicit attitudes and discrimination against people with physical disabilities. In Wiener RL and Willborn SL (eds) Disability and aging discrimination (pp. 157‒183). New York, NY: Springer

Reference

Moore ME, Konrad AM, Yang Y, Ng ESW and Doherty AJ (2011). The vocational well-being of workers with childhood onset of disability: Life satisfaction and perceived workplace discrimination. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79: 681‒698.

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Best wishes,

Claire

Claire Castle, Managing Editor, Human Relations, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations

Email: c.castle@tavinstitute.org         Telephone: +44 (0)7432740583         Website: www.humanrelationsjournal.org

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