Career Management Strategies of People With Disabilities

• Author: K. V. Gopakumar,Mukta Kulkarni
• Date: 01 May 2014
• Published date: 01 May 2014
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21570

Human Resource Management, May–June 2014, Vol. 53, No. 3. Pp. 445–466

© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21570

Correspondence to: Mukta Kulkarni, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore,

Karnataka 560076, Phone: + 91 80 2699 3029, Fax: + 91 80 2658 4050, E-mail: mkulkarni@iimb.ernet.in.

CAREER MANAGEMENT

STRATEGIES OF PEOPLE WITH

DISABILITIES

MUKTA KULKARNI AND K. V. GOPAKUMAR

People with disabilities (PWD) tend to experience less career success than

their counterparts without a disability, and their talent and skill remain un-

derutilized. Disability literature also outlines various barriers to careers of

PWD. Yet there are those who successfully manage their careers. Our aim

in the present interview-based study was to understand which strategies

PWD engage in to manage their careers proactively. Findings indicate that

strategies include maintaining a positive mind-set; trouncing competence

stereotypes by sensitizing people to their ability through learning and ap-

plying new skills, and by seeking feedback; engaging in disability advocacy

to remove performance myths; and building, leveraging, and contributing to

disability networks. We noted gender and tenure differences with regard to

strategies employed. Findings imply that career objectives of PWD are not

those traditionally expected or lauded by organizations, and motivations for

career self-management are unique to PWD as compared to those without a

disability. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: disability, career self-management, proactive strategies, India

An International Labour Organi-

zation report states that a tenth of

the world’s population, or 650 mil-

lion people, live with a disability.

About 470 million of these are of

working age (Sanchez, 2010). Houtenville

and Ruiz (2011) further note that those with

a disability have a lower employment rate,

are more likely to be underemployed or work

part-time, and have lower earnings as

compared to their counterparts without a dis-

ability. Thus, despite legal pressures and orga-

nizational social responsibility programs,

people with disabilities (PWD) face less career

success than their counterparts without a

disability, and their skills are underutilized

(Houtenville & Ruiz, 2011; Markel & Barclay,

2009).

Current literature also lopsidedly focuses

on factors that lead to underemployment or

less career success for PWD. However, there

are indeed those who have had successful

careers (Noonan et al., 2004). Our focus in

the present interview-based study with 58

PWD in India is to understand how they

manage their careers proactively. Specifically,

which career self-management strategies do

PWD engage in to proactively manage their

446 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, MAY–JUNE 2014

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

Our focus in the

present interview-

based study with

58 PWD in India is

to understand how

they manage their

careers proactively.

Specifically,

which career

self-management

strategies do

PWD engage in to

proactively manage

their careers?

careers? Outlining such career self-manage-

ment strategies will not only complement

the present theoretical state of the disability

literature, but also extend clear implications

for employers engaged in productively utiliz-

ing skills of their employees with disabilities.

Following prior research, we define dis-

ability as an impairment that limits a major

life activity, but allows for gainful employ-

ment (Ren, Paetzold, & Colella, 2008; Stone

& Colella, 1996). Disability in the present

study refers to physical disability. This allows

us to maintain boundaries since physical dis-

abilities have different implications for career

outcomes as compared with mental dis-

abilities (Stone & Colella, 1996). A career is

defined as an employee develop-

mental process encompassing dif-

ferent experiences and jobs in one

or more organizations (Baruch

& Rosenstein, 1992). Finally, we

understand career self-manage-

ment to mean proactive strate-

gies and behaviors that employees

use to respond to or remove

career barriers, and thereby lead

to vocational adjustment (King,

2004). Such behaviors include

gathering information for career

problem solving and decision

making (Kossek, Roberts, Fisher,

& DeMarr, 1998), seeking devel-

opmental feedback (Chiaburu,

Baker, & Pitariu, 2006), developing

career goals through skill acquisi-

tion, forming mentoring relation-

ships, and career exploration in

the form of eliciting information

about oneself and the environ-

ment (Noe, 1996).

Understanding career man-

agement strategies is important, as

employers are increasingly expecting employ-

ees to take initiative and not wait for super-

visors or human resource managers to chalk

their career paths (Raabe, Frese, & Beehr,

2007). Employers do not always spell out

the rules for career advancement, and people

have to find their own ways to achieve suc-

cess and interpret signals and feedback about

their abilities (Beeson, 2009).

Understanding career management strat-

egies of those with a disability is even more

critical. Globally, PWD continue to be under-

employed as compared to their counterparts

without a disability, and earn a poorer liv-

ing. For example, in the United States, only

about 20 percent of those with disabilities

obtain full-time work as compared with

about 50 percent in the general population.

Even after securing work, the earnings gap

between those with and without a disability

is large, such that median earnings of PWD

lag behind those of others by about $10,500

(Houtenville & Ruiz, 2011). In less developed

or developing countries, the rates of full-time

employment and earnings are even lower, and

such data are often not captured. In India, for

example, the rate of employment for PWD is

almost half that of those without a disabil-

ity (World Health Organization and World

Bank, 2011). Managing careers for those with

a disability thus seems tougher than for their

counterparts without a disability.

That this group remains excluded from

organizations, or is underutilized, or under-

studied in terms of their career manage-

ment is rather surprising. This is because,

given an enabling environment, disability

becomes secondary to ability of the focal

employee. Furthermore, if left marginalized,

not only is a productive resource lost, but

it may even become a drain on the broader

society (World Health Organization and

World Bank, 2011). Employers globally have

attested to the fact that PWD make reliable

employees and having a diverse workforce

inclusive of those with a disability makes

for a sound business case. This is because

such inclusion not only directly and posi-

tively impacts productivity, but it also indi-

rectly does so by boosting overall employee

morale and signaling a certain organiza-

tional image to stakeholders (International

Labour Organization, 2010).

Indeed, Yap and Konrad (2009) have col-

lated diversity research to explain that a more

diverse workforce at all hierarchical levels is

advantageous for the organization in various

ways. For example, organizational diversity

is associated with lower costs of discrimina-

tion, more effective problem solving, higher