Social Integration and Employees with a Disability: Their View

Abstract

Varied research has addressed social integration at the workplace of persons with disabilities. Goffman (1963) and others propose that disability interferes with ordinary social interactions, creating a class of stigmatized interactions. Whether perceived or experienced, stigmatization leads to negative outcomes for the recipient of stigma. Allport's Intergroup Contact Hypothesis (1954), expanded by Pettigrew (1998) specified conditions to ensure positive outcomes of intergroup contact.

The Modified Labeling perspective predicts that the greater perceived stigma toward people with disabilities, the less likely that an employee with a disability engages in workplace interactions leading to friendships. Allport's perspective predicts that newly-employed people with a disability are less socially-integrated than others. Over time, differences in social integration between the two disabled and non-disabled employees decline as contact leads to social comfort and a basis for friendship.

This study brings the person with the disability into the discourse. It measured social support, in general and in the workplace, for workers with disability, compared to non-disabled coworkers. It also compared perceived stigma toward persons with a disability held by both groups. The effect of length of time employed and its interactions with disability and perceived stigma were tested. Finally, it obtained respondents' expectations of making friends in the workplace.

The study found that individuals with disabilities had higher levels of perceived stigma than those without disabilities. Disability status did not affect social support in general or at the workplace, but perceived stigma did affect social support in general. Thus, disability affects social support by increasing perceived stigma. Length of time employed moderates the effect of disability on perceived stigma. For individuals with disabilities, but not those without, perceived stigma is reduced over time in these employment settings.