A tale of two countries: How do employees with disabilities respond to disability inclusive HR practices in tourism and hospitality industry?

Abstract

Though inclusive initiatives generally and disability inclusive practices particularly can contribute to the sustainable development goals in the tourism industry, the tourism research has been scarce about the work and life experiences of employees with disabilities and the impact of disability inclusive initiatives on such experiences. This study aims to unravel how disability inclusive HR practices influence work-family interface outcomes among employees with disabilities. South Korean and Vietnamese tourism and hospitality industries served as the contexts for comparative analysis of our research model. Valid responses were collected from 394 employees with disabilities from Vietnam-based companies and from 368 employees with disabilities from Korea-based companies. The results unveiled that in both samples, disability inclusive leadership mediated the nexuses between disability inclusive HR practices and work-family conflict as well as work-family enrichment among employees with disabilities. Leaders’ work-family conflict attenuated the negative relationship between disability inclusive leadership and employee work-family conflict in both research contexts. Nonetheless, while the interactional effect of disability inclusive leadership and leaders’ work-family enrichment was imposed on work-family enrichment among Vietnamese employees with disabilities, this moderation mechanism was not supported in the Korean sample. Implications for disability management literature and practice are discussed.