Corporate Culture and Disability Projects

How does a company’s “culture”—values, norms, policies, and practices—facilitate or hinder the employment of people with disabilities? It is important to study the effect of a company’s employment practices, attitudes towards disabilities, workplace demands, conflict resolution process, and the provision of accommodations, on the employment outcomes, job satisfaction, and subjective attitudes such as company loyalty of employees with disabilities. Similarly, it is essential to identify best practices implemented by companies in enhancing satisfying employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities to promote the replication of successful strategies.

Related Projects

BBI has undertaken a number of projects to study corporate practices and the employment of persons with disabilities. Exploration of these issues, through the development of scientifically rigorous and externally valid research standards, and company case studies derived from these standards, helps to address the gap in field research and strives to positively influence the employment of people with disabilities.

Disability Case Study Research Consortium on Employer Organizational Practices in Employing People with Disabilities

This project funded under a grant/contract supported by the Office of Disability Employment Policy of the U. S. Department of Labor, will conduct case studies of companies and identify how organizational structures, values, policies and day-to-day practices affect the employment of people with disabilities (e.g., with respect to recruiting, hiring, retaining, and promoting people with and without disabilities). A multi-case analysis and comparison will identify strategies and best practices across companies that promote the employment of people with disabilities and create inclusive cultures for all diverse employees. Case studies will be conducted in at least six companies, and importantly, establish a standard method of research for future case studies that will facilitate benchmarking.

Demand Side Employment Placement Models Projects

This project, funded by a five-year grant from the U.S Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), sets out scientifically rigorous and evidence-based methods to develop, identify, and evaluate employment demand-side models.

Source: https://bbi.syr.edu/projects/Demand_Side_Models/

Employment Model Research

Fall 2006, BBI received a $500,000, 18-month grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). The project, “Disability Case Study Research Consortium on Employer Organizational Practices in Employing People with Disabilities,” will investigate connections between corporate practices and the employment of people with disabilities.

The consortium consists of leading researchers at BBI, Rutgers University, Cornell University, Georgia Institute of Technology and West Virginia University.

The new initiative includes partners in Fortune 100 and smaller companies to develop a new approach to measures of corporate practices and employment outcomes for persons with disabilities.

Funded under a grant/contract supported by the Office of Disability Employment Policy of the U. S. Department of Labor, grant/contract #E-9-4-6-0107. The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee/contractor and do not necessarily reflect those of the U. S.Department of Labor.

YAI/BBI Fortune 500 Study – Replication and Extension Project:

In a seminal article, Levy, Jessop, Rimmerman, and Levy (1992) investigated the attitudes of executives in Fortune 500 industrial and service corporations towards people with severe disabilities prior to implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This research project, conducted in partnership with the YAI/National Institute for People with Disabilities, will conduct a replication and extension of this work post-ADA and 15 years later. It surveys executives in Fortune 500 companies and adds new attitude measures published since 1992. In addition, we propose to extend the research by broadening the sample, scope, and measures used to collect data, as well as employ BBI’s new survey center tools.

Social Surveys and Disability

BBI and colleagues at Rutgers University have added a set of questions to identify the disability status of respondents to the General Social Survey (GSS) and Maxwell Poll on Citizenship and Inequality. The inclusion of these questions will allow us to examine differences in attitudes and perceptions between people with disabilities and people without disabilities for a variety of the social issues, including perceptions regarding work, work benefits, and corporate culture. The added questions are the same questions that are used to identify disability status of respondents on the American Community Survey conducted by the Census Bureau.

The General Social Survey (GSS) is one of the National Opinion Research Center’s (NORC) flagship surveys and longest running project. The GSS started in 1972 and completed its 26th round in 2006. For the last third of a century the GSS has been monitoring social change and the growing complexity of American society. The GSS is the largest project funded by the Sociology Program of the National Science Foundation. Except for the U.S. Census, the GSS is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences.

The Maxwell Poll on Citizenship and Inequality is a nation-wide annual survey. The survey asks questions about engagement in political affairs and other aspects of civic life, as well as views on social and economic inequality in the United States.

Sources: Material cited from: www.norc.org/projects/General+Social+Survey.htm; www.maxwell.syr.edu/campbell/Poll/PollHome.htm.

Merrill Lynch Corporate Culture and Disability Symposium

A Blue Ribbon Panel Meeting Hosted by Merrill Lynch & Co-Sponsored by Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Workforce Investment and Employment Policy for Persons with Disabilities at the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center, University of Iowa College of Law on June 9th, 2003.

The objectives of the symposium were:

  1. Enhance dialogue and discussion among corporations, persons with disabilities, policymakers, and researchers; and
  2. Promote the study of corporate culture and the employment of persons with disabilities.

The symposium, moderated by Dr. Peter Blanck, included round-table panel discussions with experts on corporate culture and disability studies, corporate leaders, government representatives, and members of the disability community and their families.

Source: https://bbi.syr.edu/media/20030609_merrill_lynch/index.htm.

Case Report on Manpower Inc.

This report explored how Manpower Inc., credited as the world’s largest staffing agency at the time, generated and sustained competitive employment opportunities for qualified persons with disabilities. In-depth interviews, observations, and archival data sources were utilized for this examination. The findings presented in this report showed that the staffing industry could provide a critical means in offering competitive employment opportunities for people with disabilities, through job assessment services, temporary job assignments, and work skills training.

Case Study of Sears, Roebuck, & Co.

This study, sponsored by the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy Studiesexamined the pre- and post-ADA employment practices of Sears, Roebuck and Co., while focusing on the relationship of ADA implementation, communications policy, and information technology issues. Interviews, observation, and archival data were used as sources over a two year period. By studying the corporate behavior of Sears, the study aimed to:

  1. Stimulate discussion and debate about the communication issues that Sears and other companies faced regarding ADA implementation;
  2. Give hard data – much of which, including specific cost information on accommodations, had been compiled for the first time in the resulting report – and qualitative information resources to companies as they attempted to meet and transcend ADA compliance issues; and
  3. Identify the implications of Sears’s ADA-related experiences, policies, and philosophy relative to future practices in this critical employment area.

The findings included, among others, the advantages of universal design and access, benefits of creating fact-based disability awareness among managers and work force, and the potential of the ADA to create meaningful career opportunities for people with disabilities. A follow-up report was released with additional findings in 1996.

Sources: Material cited from: Communicating the Americans with Disabilities Act Transcending Compliance: A Case Report on Sears Roebuck and Co. by Peter David Blanck available online at www.annenberg.northwestern.edu/pubs/sears/. Program website: www.annenberg.northwestern.edu/.

Research and Publications

BBI researchers have been examining the employment of persons with disabilities and corporate culture for nearly two decades, and have produced a body of scholarly articles investigating the different aspects of these issues, disseminated through a wide range of peer-reviewed publications, newspapers, and magazines.

  • Corporate Culture and the Experiences of Employees with Disabilities (2007) – (forthcoming)
    Schur, L., Kruse, D. Blasi, J, & Blanck, P.
  • Employment of Persons with Disabilities: Twenty-Five Years Back and Forward (2007)
    Blanck, P., Adya, M., Myhill, W., Samant, D., & Chen, P.
    Minnesota Law and Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice 25, 323-353.
  • Workplace Accommodations: Evidence-Based Outcomes (2006)
    Schartz, H., Hendricks, D.J., & Blanck, P.
    Work 27, 345–354.
  • Workplace Accommodations: Empirical Study of Current Employees (2006)
    Schartz, H., Schartz, K., Hendricks, D.J., & Blanck, P.
    Mississippi Law Journal 75, 917-43.
  • Cost and Effectiveness of Accommodations in the Workplace: Preliminary Results of a Nationwide Study (2005)
    Hendricks, D.J., Batiste, L., Hirsh, A., Dowler, D. Schartz, H., & Blanck, P.
    Disability Studies Quarterlyem>, Part 1, available at http://www.dsq-sds.org/_articles_html/2005/fall/
  • Disability as Diversity in Fortune 100 Companies (2005)
    Ball, P., Monaco, G., Schmeling, J., Schartz, H., Blanck, P.
    Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23(1), 97-121.
  • Emerging Technologies and Corporate Culture at Microsoft: A Methodological Note (2005)
    Klein, D., Schmeling, J., & Blanck, P.
    Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23(1), 65-96.
  • Accessibility As A Corporate Article of Faith at Microsoft: Case Study of Corporate Culture and Human Resource Dimensions (2005)
    Sandler, L. & Blanck, P.
    Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23(1), 39-64.
  • Corporate Culture and the Employment of Persons with Disabilities (2005)
    Schur, L., Kruse, D., & Blanck, P.
    Behavioral Sciences & the Law 23(1), 3-20.
  • Special Issue: Corporate Culture and Disability (2005)
    Blanck, P. & Schartz, H.
    Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 23(1), 1-2.
  • Is it Time to Declare the ADA A Failed Law? (2003)
    Blanck, P., Schwochau, S. & Song. C.
    pp. 301-37, in What is Causing the Decline in the Employment of People with Disabilities? : A Policy Puzzle
    David C. Stapleton and Richard V. Burkhauser (eds.), UpJohn Institute.
  • Workplace Accommodations for People with Disabilities: National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplement, 1994-5 (2003)
    Zwerling, C., Whitten, P.S., Sprince, N.L., Davis, C.S., Wallace, R.B., Blanck, P., & Heeringa, S.G.
    Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 45(5): 517-525.
  • Calibrating the Impact of the ADA‘s Employment Provisions (2003)
    Blanck, P., Schur, L., Kruse, D., Schwochau, S. & Song. C.
    Stanford Law & Policy Review, 14(2), 267-90.
  • Employment of Persons with Disabilities in Information Technology Jobs: A Literature Review for “IT Works,” (2002)
    Schartz, K., Schartz, H., & Blanck, P.
    Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 20(6), 637-57.
  • The Emerging Workforce of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities: Preliminary Study of Entrepreneurship in Iowa (2000)
    Blanck, P.D., Sandler, L.A., Schmeling, J.L., & Schartz, H.A.
    Iowa Law Review, 85, 1583-1670.
  • Employment, Disability, and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Issues in Law, Public Policy, & Research (2000)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Northwestern U. Press, 201-27.
  • Employment, Disability, and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Issues in Law, Public Policy, and Research (2000)
    Blanck, P.D. (ed.)
    Northwestern University Press, 329-55.
  • Workers with Disabilities (1999)
    Blanck, P.D. & Pransky, G.
    State of the Art Reviews in Occupational Medicine: Special Populations and Occupational Health, 14(3), 581-93 (Hanley and Belfus Pub., Glenn Pransky & Howard Frumkin, eds.).
  • Job placement for Employees with Disabilities – Manpower Leads the Way (1998)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Employment Relations Today, 25, 57-65.
  • The Emerging Role of the Staffing Industry in the Employment of Persons with Disabilities – A Case Report on Manpower Inc. (1998)
    17. Blanck, P.D. & Steele, P.
    Iowa CEO and Law, Health Policy and Disability Center, Iowa City, IA.
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Emerging Workforce: Employment of People with Mental Retardation. (1998)
    Blanck, P.D.
    American Association on Mental Retardation, Washington, D.C.
  • The Economics of the Employment Provisions of The Americans with Disabilities Act: Part I – Workplace Accommodations (1997)
    15. Blanck, P.D.
    DePaul Law Review, 46(4), 877-914.
  • Attitudes, Behavior, and the Employment Provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act(1997)
    14. Blanck, P.D. & Marti, M.W.
    Villanova Law Review, 42(2), 345-408.
  • Transcending Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act: A Case Report on Sears, Roebuck & Co. (1996)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Mental & Physical Disability Law Reporter, 20(2), 278-86.
  • Communicating the Americans with Disabilities Act: Transcending Compliance – 1996 Follow-up report on Sears, Roebuck & Co (1996)
    Blanck, P.D.
    The Annenberg Washington Program, Washington, D.C.
  • Implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act: 1996 Follow-up Report on Sears, Roebuck & Co. (1995)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Spine, 21(13), 1602-08.
  • Implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act: A Case Report on Sears, Roebuck & Co.(1995)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Spine, 20(19), 2161-67.
  • Assessing five years of Employment Integration and economic opportunity under the Americans with Disabilities Act (1995)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Mental & Physical Disability Law Reporter, 19(3), 385-93.
  • Celebrating Communications Technology for Everyone (1994)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Federal Communications Law Journal, 47(2), 185-91.
  • Employment integration, economic opportunity and the Americans with Disabilities Act: Empirical Study from 1990 to 1993 (1994)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Iowa Law Review, 79(4), 853-923.
  • Communicating the Americans with Disabilities Act: Transcending Compliance – A case report on Sears Roebuck & Co. (1994)
    Blanck, P.D.
    The Annenberg Washington Program, White Paper, Washington, D.C. Reprinted (1996). InDriving Down Health Care Costs (J. Burns, ed.), pp. 209-241, Panel Publishers: New York.
  • Implementing reasonable accommodations using ADR under the ADA: A case of a white collar employee with bipolar mental illness (1994)
    Blanck, P.D., Anderson, J.A., Wallach, E.J., & Tenney, J.P.
    Mental & Physical Disability Law Reporter, 18(4), 458-64.
  • Empirical Study of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990-1993) (1994)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 4(3), 211-23.
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act: Putting the employment provisions to work (1993)
    Blanck, P.D.
    The Annenberg Washington Program, White Paper, Washington, D.C.
  • Empirical study of the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act: Methods, preliminary findings and implications (1992)
    Blanck, P.D.
    New Mexico Law Review, 22(3), 119-241.
  • The emerging work force: Empirical study of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1991)
    Blanck, P.D.
    Journal of Corporation Law, 16(4), 693-803)