Market reactions to the inclusion of people with disabilities

Disability, workplace inclusion and organizational citizenship behavior: an exploratory study of the legal profession

Purpose –

Many workers with disabilities face cultures of exclusion in the workplace, which can affect their participation in decisions, workplace engagement, job attitudes and performance. The authors explore a key indicator of engagement-perceptions of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)-as it relates to disability and other marginalized identities in the workplace.

Design/methodology/approach –

Using an online survey, legal professionals answered questions about their workplace experiences. Ordinary least squares (OLS) multivariate regression analysis with progressive adjustment was used to investigate the effect of demographic and organizational factors on perceptions of OCB.

Findings –

The authors find that employees with disabilities have lower perceptions of OCB, both before and after controlling for other personal and job variables. The disability gap is cut nearly in half, however, when controlling for workplace culture measures of co-worker support and the presence of an effective diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policy. Disability does not appear to interact with gender, race/ethnicity and LGBTQ + status in affecting perceptions of OCB.

Originality/value –

The results point to the workplace barriers faced by people with disabilities that affect their perceptions of engagement, and the potential for supportive cultures to change these perceptions.

Corporate social responsibility or corporate social innovation? Two approaches towards the labour integration of disabled employees in Colombia

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate social innovation (CSI) are implemented in the integration of employees with disabilities (EWD) and how they differ in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

This study implemented a qualitative approach through a comparative study of two representative cases in Colombia, using a cross-case analysis technique.

Findings

Four characteristics differentiate CSR and CSI in the labour integration of EWDs: altruistic vs goal-oriented, inclusive vs egalitarian, humanistic vs transformative and sympathetic vs synergetic, relating motivations, practices, impact and collaborations correspondingly.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore the conceptual (theoretical) and instrumental (practical) base of CSR and CSI, undertaking business strategies to integrate EWDs in the labour market in the context of a developing country, Colombia. Examining EWDs’ labour integration represents an original approach to understanding how CSI can be considered an evolution of CSR.