Constructing positive identities in ableist workplaces: Disabled employees’ discursive practices engaging with the discourse of lower productivity

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.

On the treatment of persons with disabilities in organizations: A review and research agenda

“…Several studies also addressed changing others' expectations related to disclosure issues (Hebl & Kleck, ; Jans et al, ). A qualitative study by Jammaers et al () shows more active communication strategies to reshape the collective mindset about disability and productivity. It identified three discursive practices that employees with disabilities use: contesting the discourse of lower productivity, redefining productivity, and reaffirming the discourse of lower productivity.…”

Identity Management Strategies for Workers with Concealable Disabilities: Antecedents and Consequences

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A Beginning and not the End: Work After a Diagnosis of Dementia

“…Author a andcolleague, 2012, 2015;Fevre et al, 2013;Foster 2007;Hoque et al, 2014;Jammaers et al, 2016;Mik-Meyer, 2016;Randle and Hardy, 2017;). Our particular focus is on people diagnosed with dementia, now increasingly common either through young onset-dementia or working into later life (Alzheimer's Society, 2014).…”