Fostering Well-Being Among Public Employees With Disabilities: The Roles of Disability-Inclusive Human Resource Practices, Job Resources, and Public Service Motivation

• Author: Chris Rowley,Eryadi Masli,David Qian,Luu Trong Tuan,Dinh Cong Khai,Hanh Quyen Le
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X19897753
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X19897753

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2021, Vol. 41(3) 466 –496

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X19897753

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Article

Fostering Well-Being Among

Public Employees With

Disabilities: The Roles of

Disability-Inclusive Human

Resource Practices, Job

Resources, and Public Service

Motivation

Luu Trong Tuan1, Chris Rowley2,

Dinh Cong Khai3, David Qian1, Eryadi Masli1,

and Hanh Quyen Le1

Abstract

Regardless of their disabilities, employees with disabilities can contribute to the

performance of public organizations. Our research purpose is to investigate how

and when disability-inclusive human resource (HR) practices nurture the well-

being of employees with disabilities in the public sector. Participants for this study

consisted of employees with disabilities from departments and wards (grassroot-level

governments) under the district-level governments in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Our results revealed the relationships between disability-inclusive HR practices and

the well-being of public employees with disabilities via job resources as a mediator.

The results further demonstrated that the effect of job resources on employee well-

being was stronger for employees low in public service motivation than for those high

in public service motivation.

Keywords

disability-inclusive HR practices, well-being, job resources, public service motivation,

Vietnam

1Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

2University of Oxford, UK

3University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Corresponding Author:

Luu Trong Tuan, Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of Technology, John Street,

Hawthorn, Victoria 3122, Australia.

Email: luutrongtuan@gmail.com

897753ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X19897753Review of Public Personnel AdministrationTuan et al.

research-article2020

Tuan et al. 467

Introduction

The existence of negative stereotypes about employees with disabilities, including

perceptions of lower productivity and higher accident rates, may influence not only

hiring rates but also the work lives of employees with disabilities, leading to numerous

negative experiences in the workplace such as unfair treatments regarding pay, train-

ing, or promotion opportunities, or through inappropriate interpersonal mistreatment

(Snyder et al., 2010). Due to such unfair treatments toward them, employees with dis-

abilities may lack necessary job resources that are important for their well-being

(Kirk-Brown & Van Dijk, 2016; Zhu et al., 2019) including those at the task level (e.g.,

skill variety, autonomy, and performance feedback), job position (e.g., participation in

decision making), interpersonal level (e.g., supervisor and coworker support), and

organizational level (e.g., career development opportunities). Thus, extant studies with

an anchor on the attitudes of others toward employees with disabilities have the poten-

tial to focus more on selection of than integration of persons with disabilities (i.e., the

process after they are recruited into the workplace) (Zhu et al., 2019) and neglect to

explore resources necessary for nurturing perceptions of fair treatments among

employees with disabilities as well as their well-being.

Irrespective of negative attitudes toward and negative self-perceptions by people

with disabilities (Hashim & Wok, 2014), people with disabilities are active in seeking

access to training and employment (Hong Nhung & Phan Anh, 2013). Many individu-

als with disabilities, with the aspiration to serve the community and help other people

with disabilities, choose to work in the nonprofit or public sector (Riccucci, 2018).

Although well-being serves as a vital predictor for work performance among employ-

ees with disabilities (Cavanagh et al., 2017; Sundar & Brucker, 2019; Westoby &

Shevellar, 2019), one of the salient organizational levers for their well-being is human

resource (HR) practices (Bartram et al., 2019; Baumgärtner et al., 2015; Luu, 2018b).

Research has remained rather quiet about the nexuses between HR practices and well-

being among employees with disabilities in general (Bartram et al., 2019) and in the

public sector in particular. Our research aims to cover this void in the literature by

exploring how and when HR practices nurture the well-being of employees with dis-

abilities working in public organizations. By work-related well-being, we refer to “the

overall quality of an employee’s experience and functioning at work” (Grant et al.,

2007, p. 52).

From this overarching aim, our research can fill at least three gaps emerging in the

literature. First, this study advances our understanding of the relationship between HR

practices and well-being among employees with disabilities by examining both psy-

chological (job satisfaction) and physical (need for recovery) aspects of well-being,

exploring the impact of fine-grained HR practices, namely disability-inclusive HR

practices, on well-being of employees with disabilities and stationing this relationship

in the public sector context. Our research distinguishes itself from prior research that

has focused mainly on job satisfaction among employees with disabilities (Baumgärtner

et al., 2015; Mache et al., 2016; Sundar & Brucker, 2019). By considering disability-

inclusive HR practices, the current research further responds to recent works (Bartram