Organizational practices and their outcomes for employees with disabilities: A review and synthesis of quantitative studies

Purpose: This review and synthesis aims to answer the following question: what do existing empirical studies tell us about the relationship between organizational practices and their outcomes in terms of the performance, well-being and sustainable employment of employees with disabilities? Methods: This review builds on a scoping review of empirical studies of organizational practices aimed at the hiring and retention of people with disabilities. It focuses on a specific group of studies identified in the scoping review: studies examining outcomes of organizational practices for employees with disabilities (EWD). Additional selection criteria were: (1) studies focused on the performance, well-being and sustainable employment of EWD; (2) studies used quantitative methods; and (3) studies were published in high-quality journals. This resulted in 27 articles. Results: Three clusters of organizational practices received most attention in the articles: workplace relations and organizational culture; accommodations; and leadership. The studies found significant positive and negative relationships between practices in these clusters and the three outcomes mentioned above. These empirical findings were supported by the theoretical perspectives used in the studies. Although diverse, most of these theoretical perspectives share their focus on interactions between individuals and their (work) environment. Discussion: We recommend that future research into the outcomes of organizational practices for EWD should be both broader (examining more clusters of practices and their outcomes for people with and without disabilities) and deeper (examining similar practices-outcome combinations in different contexts). This will increase our understanding of what practices work for whom under what circumstances.