Organizational career development initiatives for employees with a disability

Abstract

Adopting the view that career development can be influenced by the organization, the present study outlines employer initiatives aimed at developing careers of employees with a disability. More specifically, through 17 in-depth interviews – across five states in India – with human resource personnel in companies known for good policies in hiring people with disabilities, the study outlines how employers have helped and continually aim to help those with a disability attain career success through certain human resource philosophies and practices. The present study complements prior research which has noted barriers to career success and outlines how employers and human resource practitioners can help develop careers of employees with a disability.

Keywords:

• career development
• disability
• India

Acknowledgement

I thank the editor, Lisa Schur, for her helpful guidance throughout the review process and the reviewers for their constructive comments. I also thank Douglas Kruse for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. I acknowledge the assistance of Alpana Sawant in the data collection and analysis for this research.

Notes

1. Only respondent numbers are noted in findings as all respondent detail is listed in Table 1.