Evidence reveals that disabled people face discrimination during the hiring process. Nonetheless, knowledge is scarce about how employers and disabled applicants relate to the phenomenon of ...disability in job interviews. This article explores the understandings of disability emerging from actual job interviews for a company with an expressed diversity policy. By combining the analytical concepts of 'dialogism' and 'staring', the article illustrates the tendency to use an individualised understanding of disability, thus blocking affirmative understanding and the candidates' limited agency to perform the role of 'staree' in the job interview setting (i.e. advocating for disability as an asset). To facilitate more inclusive hiring practices, employers could explicitly link the diversity statements in their job listings to their inclusion policies in practice to show their concern about staff diversity and work-life inclusion to their candidates.
Disabled people are known to face discrimination during the job hiring process.
This article shows that even inclusive employers may use a person-deficit approach when talking to disabled applicants in a job interview.
Educators and employment service providers should educate employers on the different understandings that exist about disability to foster inclusive dialogues and work environments.
Educators and social workers should support disabled job seekers, as they strive to achieve self-awareness and build self-advocacy skills, which would enable them to inform potential employers about the assets of disability.
This book presents a critical account of how citizenship unfolds among socially marginalised groups in democratic welfare states. Legal, political and sociological perspectives are applied to offer ...an assessment of the extent and depth of citizenship for marginalised groups in countries which are expected to offer their members a highly inclusive form of citizenship. The book studies the legal and political status of members of a nation-state, and analyses how this is followed up in practice, by examining the subjective feelings of membership, belonging or identity, as well as opportunities to participate actively and be included in different areas of society. Showing how the welfare state and society treat citizens at risk of social exclusion and offering new insights into the conceptual interconnection between citizenship, social exclusion, and the democratic welfare state, the book will be of interest to all scholars, students and academics of social policy, social work and public policy.
This book presents a critical account of how citizenship unfolds among socially marginalised groups in democratic welfare states. Legal, political and sociological perspectives are applied to offer ...an assessment of the extent and depth of citizenship for marginalised groups in countries which are expected to offer their members a highly inclusive form of citizenship.The book studies the legal and political status of members of a nation-state, and analyses how this is followed up in practice, by examining the subjective feelings of membership, belonging or identity, as well as opportunities to participate actively and be included in different areas of society. Showing how the welfare state and society treat citizens at risk of social exclusion and offering new insights into the conceptual interconnection between citizenship, social exclusion, and the democratic welfare state, the book will be of interest to all scholars, students and academics of social policy, social work and public policy.
Using Work Training in Norway as a case, this article provides insight into motivation and structural factors that impact employer engagement with active labour market policies (ALMP) targeting young ...people. Drawing on mixed-methods data, we find a substantial proportion of Norwegian employers engage in Work Training. Both social responsibility and the economic interests of the company influence employers’ motivation for committing to Work Training. The findings reveal that the structural factors of business size and sector are crucial determinants of employer behaviour when it comes to hiring Work Training candidates. Although improved outreach activities by local job centres may be important, the article argues that efforts towards opening up sectors closed by sector-specific regulations on hiring, and increased awareness of structural constraints, are similarly important.
This article examines why employers struggle to include disability as part of their active diversity approach. Drawing on cross-national interview data from Norway and the USA, we point to the common ...finding of employers – who are the target of regulatory disability employment policies – typically falling into the passive employer category of employer engagement, with positive attitudes but negative hiring behaviour. As a partial explanation, we demonstrate the difficulty of identifying and demographically monitoring disabled people among job seekers and employees. We argue that these problems are linked to unique aspects of disability as a diversity category, and tie these to the significance of disability heterogeneity, lack of disclosure and the difficulty of acquiring information related to health. We conclude that organisations need to go beyond mere legislative compliance and be more proactive towards disability as a distinct diversity category.
To level the playing field in employment, the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities require state parties to ensure the provision of reasonable accommodation in the workplace. The ...international literature shows that barriers to workplace accommodation (WA) provision arise during recruitment, hiring, and retention. In this paper, we complement prior research by examining how WA is represented in policy documents targeting disability and employment in Norway over the past 50 years. Bacchi's policy analysis framework inspired the analysis and discussion. The analysis reveals a pattern over three time periods: 1) segregation, including the state applying a holistic approach and responsibility for WA; 2) integration, including an activation approach stimulating employer responsibility; and 3) inclusion, including holding employers more responsible. The results lead us to ask whether too much financial responsibility and work-inclusion efforts to increase employment among disabled people are currently left up to employers. Keywords: Disability, Employment, Policy analysis, Workplace accommodation
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the conditions under which learning and innovation occur within nursing homes by focusing on how the dynamics of the distribution and transformation of ideas ...and knowledge may be viewed as a prerequisite for innovation in both formal, planned learning situations and informal, everyday practices.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was produced via fieldwork, which included participant observations, conversations and research interviews with staff and managers at a Norwegian nursing home. The paper is inspired by situated learning theories and communities of practice, as the social context emerges as the site where learning and innovation are cultivated.
Findings
The nursing home sustains learning at the centre of its enterprise through managers’ and staff’s participation in planned learning situations and thereby highlights a focus on learning in their everyday practices. The conditions for the interplay between planned learning situations and everyday learning workplace practices are identified as the effort to create a joint enterprise and reflexive practices.
Social implications
The Global North is ageing. Consequently, there is an increasing need for facilities and adequately trained professionals to support an ageing population. Addressing these challenges will require an increased focus on developing supportive learning environments and furthering our knowledge about the interconnections between learning processes and innovation.
Originality/value
This paper contributes knowledge regarding nursing homes as professionally exciting places to work alongside conditions that allow for learning and innovation to be cultivated and thereby increase the quality of elderly healthcare services provided.
Bakgrunn: Norske kommuner er pålagt å tilby koordinator for å sikre kontinuitet og samhandling i oppfølging av familier med barn som har behov for langvarige og koordinerte velferdstjenester. I ...artikkelen utforsker vi koordinatorens rolle og handlingsrom til å mobilisere nødvendige ressurser for familien. Vi diskuterer koordinatorordningens sosiale bærekraft ved å rette oppmerksomheten mot koordinatorenes muligheter for å legge til rette for helhetlig og sammenhengende bistand til familier med funksjonshemmede barn. Metode: Artikkelen er basert på 18 individuelle intervjuer og fire gruppeintervjuer med kommunale koordinatorer. I alt har vi intervjuet 34 koordinatorer i seks norske kommuner. Funn: Analysene framhever aspekter ved koordinatorrollen som oppleves som utfordrende. Disse er rolleforståelse, ressurstilgang, stillingsstørrelse og profesjonsbakgrunn. Konklusjon: I lys av ideen om sosial bærekraft har vi identifisert utfordringer mot ordningens mulighet til å sikre likeverdig og rettferdig tilgang til tjenester. Koordinatorer står i et spenn mellom store krav og få ressurser. Koordinatorenes beretninger viser at de strekker seg langt for å tilby familiene hjelp. Funnene understreker et behov for å prioritere denne ordningen økonomisk og organisatorisk, slik at koordinatorene bedre er i stand til å ivareta familienes behov og samordne tjenester etter hensikten.
Preconditions for successful social innovation in nursing homes: Managers' perspectives - a qualitative interview studyIn this article, we investigate preconditions for social innovation in ...institution-based elderly care in Norway and Denmark. The article draws on two semi-structured interviews and one focus-group interview. The interviewees are managers in elderly-care facilities that are known to be proficient with regards to innovation. The analysis point to three principles managers describe as being pertinent to successful social innovation. Firstly, an overall theme across the interviews was that the managers underscored the importance of eagerness and willingness to change as a prerequisite for innovation. Secondly, the managers claimed that another crucial condition to facilitate innovation is to involve the employees in both the negotiation and the implementation of innovation. Thirdly, the managers reported that they strive to create a learning environment, arguing that learning and social innovation are interrelated terms and should be treated as such.
This article explores pathways into working life for Norwegians with mobility disabilities through a life span approach. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from 15 employed ...individuals with mobility disabilities to gain an insight into their interpretation of events and conditions over the course of their life as either obstacles or facilitators for entrance into employment. We identified three categories of narratives: the 'straightforward', the 'supported' and the 'barrier-prone' path narratives. Higher education appears to be the main facilitator to a smooth transition into employment while certain aspects of welfare service provision are the main impediments. The analysis also demonstrated that barriers to employment do not pertain to isolated events but rather are obstacles that the interviewees experience recurrently over time. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
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