Inclusive workplaces for people with disability – a rapid literature review

In Sweden, the Discrimination Act (SFS 2008:567), aims to counteract discrimination and promote equal rights and opportunities for all despite factors such as disability, sex, ethnicity, and religion. In practice, this means that work organizations need to work for diversity and inclusion. This work is often manifested through recruitment process and to ensure, for example, that gender and disability do not constitute an obstacle for employment. However, the fact that an organization achieves diversity does not automatically mean that the employees have a sense of inclusion.

Shore et al (2011, p. 1265) define inclusion as “the degree to which an employee perceives that he or she is an esteemed member of the work group through experiencing treatment that satisfies his or her needs for belongingness and uniqueness”. Inclusion in working life leads to many positive aspects such as good working relationships, job satisfaction, intention to stay, improved work performance, sense of organizational belonging and commitment, well-being, increased creativity and career opportunities (Shore et al 2011). Exclusion, on the other hand, risks leading to negative effects on psychological and physical health (Alexanderson, 2004), regardless of whether the exclusion occurs due to obvious prejudices or subtle forms of discrimination (Shore et al 2018). 

The purpose of our presentation is to present a systematic overview of the research on disability and inclusion in working life and identify knowledge gaps relevant for the Swedish context. The study is conducted as a systematic literature study with literature search in international and Nordic databases. The project used predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria and all reviewed articles in this project represent research of good standard. 

Furthermore, we will present a short overview of a 3-year research project starting in January 2023, that to some extent builds on the review and aims to examine disability and remote work. 

References

Alexanderson K. (2004) Den könssegregerade arbetsmarknaden - samband med sjukdom: positiva effekter av könsintegration, negativa av könssegregering? / Kristina Alexandersson. Den könsuppdelade arbetsmarknaden: betänkande av Utredningen den könsuppdelade arbetsmarknaden, 2004.

Discrimination Act 2008:567

Shore, LM., Randel, AE., Chung, BG., Dean, MA., Ehrhart, KH. & Singh, G. (2011) Inclusion and diversity in work groups: a review and model for future research. Journal of management, 37(4), 1262-1289.

Shore, LM., Cleveland, JN. & Sanches, D. (2018) Inclusive workplaces: A review and model. Human resource management review, 28, pp. 176-189.