Thriving of employees with disabilities: The roles of job self‐efficacy, inclusion, and team‐learning climate

• Author: Cong (Timothy) Sun,Kenneth S. Law,Dan Yang,Xiji Zhu
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21920
• Date: 01 January 2019

HR SCIENCE FORUM

Thriving of employees with disabilities: The roles of job

self-efficacy, inclusion, and team-learning climate

Xiji Zhu

1

| Kenneth S. Law

2

| Cong (Timothy) Sun

3

| Dan Yang

2

1

Business School, The Central University of

Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

2

Department of Management, CUHK Business

School, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,

Shatin, Hong Kong

3

School of Management and Economics, The

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen,

Guangdong, China

Correspondence

Cong (Timothy) Sun, School of Management

and Economics, The Chinese University of

Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Room 541, Teaching A

Building, 2001 Longxiang Road, Longgang

District, Shenzhen 518172, Guangdong, China.

Email: congsun@cuhk.edu.cn

[Correction added on 03 July 2018 after first

online publication: Affiliation 2 has been

updated to correct the name of Law’s and

Yang’s institution.]

With the growing global emphasis on welfare-to-work policies, an increasing number of people

with disabilities (PWD) have entered the workforce. However, studies on PWD have focused

primarily on company practices to accommodate PWD, with a limited understanding of factors

affecting psychological integration of PWD into the workplace. This scarcity in research makes

it difficult for managers to utilize the full work potential of PWD. To fill this research gap, the

current study focuses on the job self-efficacy of PWD and investigates how employee disability

interacts with inclusion and team-learning climate to affect job self-efficacy, and in turn thriving

at work. Using a sample of 485 employees in 114 teams, surveys found job self-efficacy was a

key intervening mechanism linking employee disability to thriving at work. These results suggest

high workplace inclusion can buffer potential negative effects of disability at the individual level,

strengthened further by a high team-learning climate. The data supported a three-way cross-

level interaction effect of disability, inclusion, and team-learning climate on the thriving of

employees with disabilities, through job self-efficacy. Our results demonstrate the importance

of inclusion and team-learning climate to foster employee thriving in a diverse workforce.

KEYWORDS

disability, inclusion, job self-efficacy, team-learning climate, thriving at work

According to the World Report of Disability, released by the World

Health Organization (WHO), employment rates for people with dis-

abilities (PWD) are lower than those of the overall population. Data

show worldwide, the employment rates for men and women with dis-

abilities are 52.8 and 19.6%, respectively, compared with 64.9% for

men without disabilities and 29.9% for women without disabilities

(WHO, 2011). Governments worldwide are trying to promote the

employment of PWD by motivating workforce participation and

reducing discriminatory tendencies. On the supply side, some govern-

ments have started welfare reform programs that encourage PWD to

participate in the workforce. For example, the 1996 U.S. welfare

reform set strict work requirements for low-income PWD receiving

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) (Personal Responsi-

bility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996). On the

demand side, many countries have established laws against employ-

ment discrimination of PWD (OECD, 2010). Some countries even

have specific measures to promote employment opportunities for

PWD. For example, the U.S. government requires federal contractors

to ensure their workforce is at least 7% PWD (The 2014

implementation of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act 1973). In

Asia, the Chinese government has passed legislation to impose fines

on firms with less than 1.5% PWD among employees (Regulation on

the Employment of People with Disabilities of, 2007).

While the passage of recent welfare and antidiscrimination laws

has stimulated a great deal of research in legal studies, sociology, eco-

nomics, and rehabilitation psychology, the impact on business and

industrial and organizational psychology studies has been inconspicu-

ous (Colella & Bruyère, 2011). This is especially true regarding the

internal psychological states of PWD, such as perceived self-efficacy,

and integration into the workplace. Colella and Bruyère (2011) sum-

marized the current disability research into three broad categories:

accommodation, selection, and integration. They noted, while

research on the first two categories was abundant, relatively less

research has focused on integration, or the process after PWD are

recruited into the workplace.

There is some evidence legislative progress affects attitudes

toward PWD (Barron, 2009). The introduction of new welfare and

antidiscrimination laws has led many PWD previously living only

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21920

Hum Resour Manage. 2019;58:21–34. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 21