Disabilities in the Workplace Case Series
We hope you'll take a look at this innovative and noteworthy educational tool for promoting discussions and generating new ideas among managers. If you have any questions about these resources or would like assistance in facilitating case study programs within your organization, please call us at (530) 757-8643.
Michael Lawler, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Human Services
Introduction to the Cases
Teaching cases, as they are prepared at business schools across the country, are one of the primary tools of management education. They are used globally in university settings, professional development and executive education training, and provide students and readers with a great wealth of insider knowledge about the "norms" of business practices. The strength of case learning rests on the presentation of an actual business situation in a real company and the ability of the instructor to use the case to raise issues and promote discussion.
Our intention with the five cases in this series is to demonstrate "best practices" in the employment of people with disabilities, a population which has historically had low employment rates. The most recent rates tell a similar story, but many companies and corporations have created corporate cultures that are supportive of people with disabilities, often making their inclusion part of the overall human resources strategy to create diverse organizations.
These cases are the result of a qualitative research study in various industries and organizations throughout California: Smith Barney (financial services); Naval Medical Center San Diego-Cisco-Northrup Grumman (military-IT-defense); Crossroads Services (employment-retail); IBM (software); and AT&T (telecommunications). They tell stories of people with a variety of disabilities—hearing loss, mobility issues, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment, and mental health issues. Providing students of management with a window into five distinct corporate cultures, the cases offer a view of the attitudes, practices, policies and sensibilities that have created diverse workplaces that are accommodating for people with disabilities, both in the legal sense of the word 'accommodate' and in the ways in which they are hospitable and welcoming. Intended to promote discussion and generate new ideas among managers, the cases can also be used in classes for younger students with disabilities to help them understand possible career trajectories in the corporate world.
Management and Policy Best Practices
Our research on the employment of people with disabilities is concerned with public policy and with the private sector work of corporate human resources departments. In the first arena it is seen as an issue of workforce development, and in the second as the need to create a diverse workforce. These cases focus on five best practices that emerged from companies that have successfully employed people with disabilities.
Deliberate and Public Diversity – People with disabilities are included as part of the company's overall human resources strategy to create a diverse workforce. This establishes an atmosphere of acceptance and even something akin to celebration. Companies organize and support employee resource groups and help groups sponsor events in their employees' local communities and within the company itself. This reciprocal relationship can provide the employees with a networking opportunity, further educational and training opportunities, and a learning community within the organization. The company gains a reputation as a good corporate citizen and as a workplace that is supportive of people with disabilities.
Team Building and Teamwork – Much of the work in a corporate setting occurs in teams with different tasks allocated to various members according to their skill sets. This is an important teaching point that appears most clearly in the Smith Barney case, where the high value placed on teamwork and team building is overt. From the perspective of Bill Stepanek, one of the company's training consultants, the team is the most important unit of expertise and enterprise, and this has great bearing on how the company thinks about employees with disabilities. "We don't necessarily do anything in my world to accommodate anyone who has a disability," says Stepanek. "We just help the team adjust to and around the folks on the team who may have challenges, because everyone has some sort of a difficulty … disabilities fall off in the face of a team effort." Stepanek's comment points to the modern view of disability as "caused by an interaction between the individual's functional limitation and the social environment," rather than "a deficiency within an individual."1
Pipeline Practices and Intermediary Organizations – Intermediary organizations, either nonprofit or for profit organizations, act as pipelines for companies. An intermediary organization creates a short-term opportunity for the employer to hire a person with a disability and also provides an opportunity for a prospective employee to learn something about the company. For example, internship programs such as Entrypoint!, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, give students a chance to understand work in a corporate world; Crossroads helps people with mental health issues get jobs in the competitive marketplace; and Lift places software engineers in temporary one-year jobs to see if a permanent position will be suitable. Pipelines act as recruitment agencies but also offer employers a buffer against legal complaints if a problem surfaces during the short-term trial period.
Infrastructure and Constituency Organizations – Leading companies have developed an infrastructure that is attentive to the issues of people with disabilities both inwardly, in terms of personnel policies, and outwardly, in the development of the products that the company itself places in the market. This infrastructure is created through advisory boards, champions at the executive level, task forces and company conferences. Companies also partner with national or local disability organizations through the sponsorship of events, creating corporate goodwill among the community and potential employees.
Supported Employment through Training and Coaching – The practice of supported employment has been used in the area of developmental disabilities for many years and has become a successful strategy in the last decade in the area of mental health issues. Supported employment is described in this series in case centered on Crossroads Employment Services (CES). Crossroads acts as an intermediary agency, training and supporting potential employees who have weak employment records. Supported employment makes possible competitive employment for people with mental health needs and is another recruitment strategy for companies seeking job applicants with external training, support and guidance.
1 Stapleton, D.C., and R. Burkhauser (eds.) 2003. The decline in the employment of people with disabilities: A policy puzzle. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
