Browsing by Division "CDI - Center for Disability and Integration"

The number of employees with disabilities in the workforce is increasing and accommodations are essential to the work of many of these individuals. Prior research has explored perceptions of accommodation requests as well as coworkers’ and managers’ reactions to accommodations; yet, we know little about how employees with disabilities experience their own accommodations. We draw from the disability literature as well as contemporary justice and social exchange theory to develop and subsequently test a multilevel moderated mediation model on this subject. We test our hypotheses with data from 4,083 employees nested in 256 workgroups across two time points. We find support for our prediction that accommodation-focused interpersonal justice influences turnover intentions. The effect of these justice perceptions was mediated by workgroup openness to communication. Further, we find that representation of accommodated employees with disabilities at the workgroup level plays an important role in these relationships. We look beyond the technical aspects of accommodation with this research to highlight the social experience of accommodation as a cen tral driver of employee perceptions and work outcomes.

Due to the demographic change in age, societies, firms, and individuals struggle with the need to postpone retirement while keeping up motivation, performance, and health throughout employees’ working life. Organizations, and specifically the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices they design and implement, take a central role in this process. Being influenced by macro-level trends such as new legislation, organizational HRM practices affect outcomes such as productivity and employability both at the firm and individual level of analysis. This editorial introduces the Special Issue on “Age-related Human Resource Management Policies and Practices” by conducting an interdisciplinary literature review. We offer an organizing framework that spans the macro-, meso-, and individual level and discusses major antecedents, boundary conditions, and outcomes of age-related HRM practices. Further, we propose a typology of HRM practices and discuss the role of individual HRM dimensions versus bundles of HRM practices in dealing with an aging and more age-diverse workforce. Building on these considerations, we introduce the eight articles included in this special issue. Finally, taking stock of our review and the new studies presented here, we deduct some recommendations for future research in the field of age-related HRM.

Two megatrends characterize the modern working world. First, remote work has become the “new normal” for many employees. Second, the increasing heterogeneity of the workforce has made a case for inclusion, i.e., belongingness and the opportunity for authenticity, that employees must perceive to reap the benefits of diversity. However, it is unclear whether the relationship between remote work and inclusion is positive or negative and if these two factors cause a unidirectional or reciprocal impact on each other. Furthermore, it is unresolved whether diversity dimensions, such as gender, have a moderating impact on the relationship. To address these questions, we collect a large-scale longitudinal dataset (N = 2,380) and use an advanced methodology (random intercept cross-lagged panel model) to separate the between-person from the within-person variances, thereby allowing for causal conclusions from the within-person effect. Our results show opposing effects at the between-person and within-person levels: although the employees who worked remotely more experienced more opportunity for authenticity and belongingness in general (between-person variance), an increase in remote work led to lower belongingness and authenticity within a single employee (within-person variance). A gender effect was observed for the opportunity for authenticity, with only negative within-person effects being shown for women.

Persons with disabilities (PWD) often face considerable barriers regarding their workplace inclusion on the one hand but may also receive support fostering their inclusion. This becomes especially crucial when regarding the career ambitions. Interviews with 21 employees with disabilities across three Swiss companies revealed a multitudes of career paths. Each comes with its own distinct role of disability type, onset, and agency. Three distinct career patterns emerge from the analysis: Stepping back, reinvention, and a ‘model’ career. They all come with internal differentiations based on the context in which they are embedded. A key finding is that disability can have both a transformative and or disruptive impact on people’s careers.