Managing Disability in Workplace

Workplace is combination of various types of individuals. People with disabilities are not an isolated group. They may have physical disability or mental disability developed at the birth, childhood, teenage, or later in life during education or employment. People with disabilities has contributed the world in different ways. But when it comes to a workplace there are so many discrepancies that they face due to disability. According to the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of Disabled Persons (2008) that has provided an effective definition of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the disability is described as “loss or abnormality of a certain organ or function, psychologically or physiologically, or in anatomical structure and lost wholly or in part the ability to perform an activity in a normal way” (Zhu et al., 2019, p. 22). People who claim to have disabilities have to justify the above definition and get a government issues certificate that certifies that in China.

And also based on the data from the International Labor Office (ILO), over 470p million PwD (People with Disabilities) are there at the age of labor, and they experience there are 470 million PwD at the labor age, but they experience inequality hindrances in their employment in most of the workplaces employment (O’Reilly, 2007). Based in the Employment Equality Directive, PwD has the equal rights to work like others in an organization. But the employment rates of Pwd is still low (48.7%) while the employees without any disabilities takes a higher rate (72.5%).

Figure 1 - Vornholt, Uitdewilligen and Nijhuis, 2013



The Figure 1 shows the factors that affects the Acceptance of the people with Disabilities at work. The absence of non-disable employees who are willing to accept the PwDs are the main reason why employees with disabilities fail to stay in an organization. Eventhough, the PwD are a popular set of group, there have been only a little amount of researches that has been carried out compared to other types such as age, race, gender,ethnicity and culture, (e.g., Zanoni, 2011). Dwertmann (2016) declared that the “empirical research on the topic of disability is very limited, when it comes to top-tier management journals.” In Organizational science field, from the work of Stone and Colella (1996) they have focused on factors that affect treatments of the individuals with disabilities in workplace. Thus, the workplace disability consists of so many investigative factors such as social, labor, economic, legal, and medical factors that has eventually made a great complication because of its interdisciplinary character. Additionally, the lower level of disability in employees will get more social encouragement than the employees without disability. There is a fixed low proficiency stereotype toward PWD (Fiske et al., 1999).

Figure 2 – 2022



Based on the Figure 2 there are three fundamental factors in disability management as Accommodation, Support for recovery and Prevention. In order to maintain a productive and positive environment for all the employees regardless of them with disability or not, and Effective workplace disability management practices are necessary.

References

2022. [online] Available at: [Accessed 25 April 2022].

Fiske, S.T., Xu, J., Cuddy, A.C. and Glick, P., 1999. (Dis) respecting versus (dis) liking: Status and interdependence predict ambivalent stereotypes of competence and warmth. Journal of social issues, 55(3), pp.473-489

Dwertmann, D.J., 2016. Management research on disabilities: examining methodological challenges and possible solutions. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(14), pp.1477-1509.

Pagan, R., 2017. Impact of working time mismatch on job satisfaction: Evidence for German workers with disabilities. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18(1), pp.125-149.

Vornholt, K., Uitdewilligen, S. and Nijhuis, F., 2013. Factors Affecting the Acceptance of People with Disabilities at Work: A Literature Review. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 23(4), pp.463-475.

Zanoni, P., 2011. Diversity in the lean automobile factory: Doing class through gender, disability and age. Organization, 18(1), pp.105-127.

Zhu, X., Law, K.S., Sun, C. and Yang, D., 2019. Thriving of employees with disabilities: The roles of job self‐efficacy, inclusion, and team‐learning climate. Human resource management, 58(1), pp.21-34.

Comments

  1. ShashikaApril 26, 2022 at 10:05 AM

    5 ways to effectively support employees with disabilities

    Embed accessibility into every part of your recruitment process. ...Myth bust with managers. ...Modify your working arrangements. ...Provide unconscious bias training for all employees. ...Pay workers with disabilities equally

    ReplyDelete
  2. sampathJMay 6, 2022 at 5:59 AM

    People with disabilities are not a homogeneous group. They may have a physical disability, a sensory, intellectual or mental disability. They may have had a disability from birth, or acquired this in their childhood, teenage years or later in life, during further education or while in employment. Their disability may have little impact on their ability to work and take part in society, or it may have a major impact, requiring considerable support and assistance. Throughout the world, people with disabilities are participating and contributing in the world of work at all levels. However, many persons with disabilities who want to work do not have the opportunity to work due to many barriers. It is increasingly apparent that disabled people not
    only have a valuable contribution to make to the national economy but that their employment also reduces the cost of disability benefits and may reduce poverty. There is a strong business case for employing people with disabilities since they are often qualified for a particular job. Employers may also gain by expanding the number of eligible workers through continuing the employment of those who become disabled, since valuable expertise acquired on the job and
    through work-related training is retained.

    ReplyDelete

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