Lisa Schur, Lisa Nishii, Meera Adya, Douglas Kruse, Susanne Bruyere, Peter Blanck

Lisa Schur, Lisa Nishii, Meera Adya, Douglas Kruse, Susanne Bruyere, Peter Blanck. (2014). Accommodating Employees With and Without Disabilities. Human Resource Management, DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21607.

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Efforts to recruit and retain employees with disabilities are often tempered by employers’ concerns over potential workplace accommodation costs. This study reports on accommodations requested and granted in intensive case studies of eight companies, based on over 5000 employee and manager surveys, and interviews and focus groups with 128 managers and employees with disabilities. Two unique contributions are that we analyze accommodations for employees without disabilities as well as for those with disabilities, and compare perspectives on accommodation costs and benefits among employees, their co-workers, and managers. We find people with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities to request accommodations, but the types of accommodations requested and the reported costs and benefits are similar for disability and non-disability accommodations. In particular, fears of high accommodation costs and negative reactions of co-workers are not realized; all groups tend to report generally positive co-worker reactions. Multilevel models indicate granting accommodations has positive spillover effects on attitudes of coworkers, as well as a positive effect on attitudes of requesting employees but only when coworkers are supportive. Consistent with recent theorizing and other studies, our results suggest the benefits from a corporate culture of flexibility and attention to the individualized needs of employees.