Charity-Oriented Versus Human Resource-Oriented Perspectives: Investigating Staff Understandings of Employment Practices for Persons With Disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this case study investigation is to understand how staff from a large multisite organization with demonstrated excellence in supporting persons with disabilities (PWDs) construct their understanding of disability and hiring practices related to PWDs. Better understanding how individual employees internalize organizational practices regarding PWDs is essential to facilitate expanded employment opportunities, enhanced organizational functioning, and more supportive work environments for PWDs. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, in this investigation we have sought to better understand how employees internalize (or do not) the organizational commitment to hire PWDs, and how individual employee understandings of PWDs negotiate (mis)alignments between their perspectives and organizational practices and values. Overall, we found fundamental differences in the understandings, motivations, rationales, support strategies, and concerns of participants related to the employment of PWDs. Even though participants in this study were recruited because of their direct involvement in supporting PWDs in the workplace, they articulate different definitions of disability, perceptions of organizational commitments, and investments in employment practices related to PWDs. We found that virtually each participant in this study is mission-driven, articulating a rationale for hiring and supporting PWDs that is connected to their perception of the organizational investment in the same. However, participants negotiate two very different rationales in articulating their perspectives—with one extreme being charity-oriented and the other human resource oriented. While some participants seemed to embody the elements of one extreme consistently, many incorporated elements of both in discussing their understandings.