Supporting workers with disabilities: a scoping review of the role of human resource management in contemporary organisations

Abstract

This is a scoping review of literature on human resource management (HRM) and management practice that impacts on workers with physical, mental health and intellectual disabilities, employed or entering paid employment. The aim is to illuminate the use of HRM practices, managerial attitudes and employee outcomes in the disability literature. The methodological research framework commenced with seven databases and was supported with evidenced‐based literature to find three main themes. Themes highlight the management and employer support for workers with disabilities, discrimination and attitudes towards employment of this cohort of workers, and performance and employment outcomes. As governments around the world seek to reduce welfare costs and increase the employment of people with disabilities this paper is timely. Overall, the paper contributes to a dearth of literature on the management of people with disabilities at the workplace to unpack the key barriers, challenges and trends, and develop a comprehensive research agenda.

Diversity in the workplace: An overview of disability employment disclosures among UK firms

“…Our findings suggest significant regulatory gaps between global, regional, and national regulatory definitions, implementation and reporting practices, and their alignment for PWDs (Cavanagh et al, ; Hay et al, ; Stanley & Ridley, ; Zijlstra et al, ). Furthermore, in those countries that require the most support, that is, Global South or economically weaker countries, the lack of strong government effectiveness in prioritizing this minority group's issues impacts their life chances and quality of life.…”

“…The lack of good quality information and its use to demonstrate human capital and social impact persist as disclosure concerns that could seek more direct contributions from PWDs themselves (Waxman, ). Furthermore, the firm emphasis is towards strategic sustainability and CSR agendas (Hussain, Rigoni, & Orij, ; Ioannou & Serafeim, ; Khan & Korac Kakabadse, ; Schur, Colella, & Adya, ), whereas PWDs attention is more on social factors, for example, quality of life, access and opportunities to develop, or well‐being, as human resource considerations (Cavanagh et al, ; Procknow & Rocco, ; Santuzzi & Waltz, ) in judgments of corporate performance.…”

“…Contrastingly, in more regulated environments, that is, the United Kingdom, the firm seeks to meet only narrowly defined mandatory regulations, rather than incentivizing voluntary best practices. Improved national datasets will support more informed national policy formation, for example, sector or firm incentivization, towards engaging PWDs in employment, as well as better understanding about the range of different disabilities (Cavanagh et al, ).…”

“…With this in mind, managerial accountability could be more refined, for example, with respect to job advertising, interviewing, and managing PWDs as employees and evaluating aspects of the rights of PWDs with the highest relevance to their operation. This may feed into formal reporting mechanisms to increase transparency and refine sustainability performance appraisal (Cavanagh et al, ; Hussain et al, ; Williams & Mavin, ). In establishing their commitment to PWDs employment, companies should redefine their diversity management policies and social sustainability goals beyond the presumption that the rights of PWDs are legally protected and therefore should be excluded or disregarded from reported issues (Vornholt et al, ).…”

Job Seekers with Musculoskeletal or Sensory Disabilities: Barriers and Facilitators of Job Search

“…First, researchers typically focus on barriers to job seekers with disabilities that occur at the selection stage (e.g. interviewing -Araten-Bergman, 2016; Cavanagh et al, 2016). We extend this by drawing upon a process perspective which characterizes job search as a sequential pattern of activities (Kanfer, Wanberg and Kantrowitz, 2001;Wanberg, Zhu and Van Hooft, 2010;Wanberg et al, 2012b).…”