Mukta Kulkarni

• Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

The retirement of baby boomers along with a smaller cohort group of young people replacing them poses a challenge for employers in the future—where will they find the workers they need? One largely untapped source of human resources is people with disabilities (PWDs). Why have employers mostly ignored this large labor pool? This research used a sem...

Socialization has crucial outcomes for both the employee and the employer. Through an exploratory qualitative study conducted in India, we examined how people with disabilities (PWD) viewed various aspects of their socialization process. Specifically, we looked at the role of coworkers, supervisors, organizational practices, and employee proactive...

People with disabilities (PWD) tend to experience less career success than their counterparts without a disability, and their talent and skill remain underutilized. Disability literature also outlines various barriers to careers of PWD. Yet there are those who successfully manage their careers. Our aim in the present interview-based study was to un...

This study examined the identity work processes of severely disabled soldiers who faced discontinuous and involuntary career transitions. As these individuals engaged in rehabilitation and vocational training at a military-affiliated facility, their identity transitions were not marked by deletions of past identity elements or reference groups. Ins...

Human resource practitioners play a crucial role in promoting equitable treatment of persons with disabilities, and practitioner's decisions should be guided by solid evidence‐based research. We offer a systematic review of the empirical research on the treatment of persons with disabilities in organizations, using Stone and Colella's seminal theor...

Laura is the mother of a child with autism. She is also a university professor and a disability researcher. She reflects, alongside other disability researchers, on how she cares for her disabled child and simultaneously navigates academia. Laura initially complied with ableist norms by making her struggles invisible and trialled taking on a manage...

Disability is typically perceived negatively, and employees with a disability are viewed as a burden that requires accommodation. We draw from creativity theory to challenge this view and propose that disability can make workplace imperfections salient, can function as a situational cue that increases coworkers’ cognitive flexibility, and thus can...

Purpose This article aims to critically analyse and critique the impact of President Donald Trump’s second term on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the United States of America and beyond. It aims to document the policy changes enacted under Trump, explore the resulting consequences for various sectors (government, higher educat...

New roles birthed by organizational inclusion initiatives present an interesting puzzle. On the one hand, they hold the promise to foster inclusion objectives more directly through their formalization in the organizational structure. On the other hand, they tend to be ambiguous as to what occupants are expected to do and how to reconcile this with...

This article points to the mechanism that reinforces neurotypical norms and inequalities through the internalization of stigma associated with neurodiversity and social class within educational and occupational settings. We draw upon the literatures of neurodiversity, neurotypical norms and the internalization of stigma. We report on two studies co...

Current and future developments in artificial intelligence (AI) systems have the capacity to revolutionize the research process for better or worse. On the one hand, AI systems can serve as collaborators as they help streamline and conduct our research. On the other hand, such systems can also become our adversaries when they impoverish our ability...

In this commentary, we reflect upon twenty years of disability research in the Indian workplace and identify possibilities for new conversations and terrains of inquiry. We trace the key frames, theories, and methodological tendencies that demarcate this scholarship. We suggest that researchers can open new terrains of inquiry by situating disabili...

This study explores how heterogeneous actors produce solidarities to address institutionalized infrastructural inequalities. We trace fifteen years over which diverse actors constructed community palliative care infrastructure in Kerala, India. We analyze how actors engaged in three solidarity processes – recognizing interdependences, reconfiguring...

Drawing upon the functional account of emotions—the view that emotions can facilitate adaptive responses—I analyze how Javed Abidi harnessed moral anger to promote inclusion of persons with disabilities in India. The data comprise articles obtained from digital archives covering the period from 1993, when Abidi began his work, to 2018, when he pass...

Purpose The provision of accommodation devices is said to aid organizational inclusion of employees with a disability. However, devices that are meant to enable might only partially facilitate productivity, independence, and social inclusion if these devices are not accepted by the user's workgroup. The authors outline a conceptual model of accommo...

In this paper, I examine how an organization narratively constructs its prototypical disabled employee. Data comprise public narratives of the Government of India, the country’s largest employer of disabled persons. Narratives during 2008–2016 were considered as this timespan witnessed the design of inclusive legislation that emphasized defining di...

Although frequent role transitions have become a fixture of contemporary careers, the literature does not offer clear evidence on whether and how former career roles continue to be relevant to ongoing careers. We draw on data collected via 41 interviews with former military officers who voluntarily left the military, and we explore how identities i...

AOM 2022 Conference, Kulkarni and Baldridge Symposium Submission (11361) Discussant Comments (Susanne Bruyère, Adrienne Colella) Rethinking Workplace Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities Through Multiple Levels and Lens Discussant Comments: Susanne M. Bruyère, Cornell University Adrienne Colella, Tulane University At a time when diversity, eq...

Purpose Persons with disabilities (PWD) are among the largest and most diverse minority groups and among the most disadvantaged in terms of employment. Entrepreneurial pursuit is often advocated as a path toward employment, inclusion, and equality, yet few studies have investigated earning variation among PWD. Design/methodology/approach The autho...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe workplace disclosure dilemmas of individuals with hidden mental health conditions who have privately accepted their mental health condition (anxiety and/or depression), but have chosen not to disclose it in their respective workplaces. Design/methodology/approach Interviews were conducted with 15 in...

The fair and equal treatment of individuals across demographic groups represents both challenges and opportunities within domestic settings. Within international settings, where there is additional complexity and variety, the challenges and opportunities are heightened. This panel symposium will identify what makes diversity and inclusion (D&I) uni...

The present study outlines discursive work in a weak field mandate event. The case is a conference focused on assistive technologies that may help persons with disabilities gain better access to educational and employment spaces in India. Findings highlight three mechanisms which underpinned event-specific discursive work – discursive clarity, alig...

This round table is focussed on outlining barriers to digital accessibility, solutions, and possible next steps to ensuring digital accessibility. In setting the context of the round table discussion, the article first outlines what accessibility involves, accessibility standards and guidelines, and spells out barriers to accessibility, including t...

The present study examines ritual-driven institutional maintenance, or the reproduction of social order, in a case where ritual attendance is not mandated, conformity to the recurring ritual enactment is not expected, and where the ritual assumes meaning only as it is performed in perfect coordination with an assumed rival. The study is based on th...

Purpose Organizations are increasingly investing in disability-specific sensitization workshops. Yet, there is limited understanding about their hoped outcomes, that is, increased knowledge about disability-related issues and behavioral changes with respect to those with a disability. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness and bo...

In the present study we asked: how do institutional discourses, as represented in mass media such as newspapers, confer identities upon a traditionally marginalised collective such as those with a disability? To answer our question, we examined Indian newspaper discourse from 2001 to 2010, the time period between two census counts. We observed that...

Purpose In outlining the author’s experiences as a researcher and as an individual who engages with persons with a disability, the author wonders what meaningful research means when research subjects are people that society lumps together, largely views as stigmatized, and does not seem to understand. The author also notes how the research journey...

Through this interview-based study with 40 respondents in the United States we have outlined enablers of career transitions and sustainable careers for professionals who have experienced severe hearing loss as adults. To sustain careers after adult onset disability, respondents engaged in a quest for meaning and big picture answers to ‘who am I?’ a...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to integrate research on human resource systems with work on disability management practices to outline how multinationals across India and Germany are engaged in efforts to increase workplace inclusion of persons with a disability. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews with respondents from mu...

Adopting the view that career development can be influenced by the organization, the present study outlines employer initiatives aimed at developing careers of employees with a disability. More specifically, through 17 in-depth interviews – across five states in India – with human resource personnel in companies known for good policies in hiring pe...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how employers define overqualification and mismatched qualification and whether they are willing to hire applicants whose educational and work experience credentials do not match job requirements. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws from qualitative interview data from 24 hiring managers...

This chapter examines workplace discrimination faced by persons with (dis)abilities. It begins by discussing usage, meaning, and effects of the word "disability" and the related term "persons with disabilities." It then considers the diversity of conditions and experiences among persons with (dis) abilities by reviewing extant research on people wi...

In this article we examine the different kinds of institutional work that underpin the construction of a new form of organizing. Drawing on an in-depth, qualitative study of a community-based form of organizing for palliative care in Kerala, India, we identify five kinds of institutional work – robust interpretations, local experimentation, indigen...

In the present study we asked: how do institutional discourses, as represented in mass media such as newspapers, confer identities upon a traditionally marginalized collective such as those with a disability? To answer our question, we examined Indian newspaper discourse from 2001 to 2010, a period which represents the temporal space in between two...

This study seeks to outline activities of training and placement agencies in India aimed at employment of persons with a disability. We contend that persons with a disability are an underutilized human resource and that utilizing their abilities should be a key part of an inclusive approach to talent management. As there is little empirical researc...

The purpose of this panel symposium is to engage expert panelists, and audience members, in an interactive discussion about the impact of the context on the usage, meaning and effect of the word disability and the related term people with disabilities. Social models of disability underscore that the status of “disabled” is contextually dependent. I...

Many people with disabilities continue being unemployed or underemployed. One way to rectify this situation is through leveraging the services of disability training and placement agencies which can appropriately train candidates with a disability and then connect them with potential employers. Unfortunately, employers profess ignorance about the a...

Language-based diversity is a relatively understudied area within diversity research. Drawing upon the social identity-based fault lines literature, the present paper describes the effects of language-based diversity within organizations operating in India. Interview-based findings indicate that organizationally mandated languages are occasionally...

Organizations can be seen as amalgams of languages that can serve as a source of divisive tensions among employees. In our conceptual model, we draw upon social identity and social exclusion research to propose that linguistic diversity increases the potential for language-based exclusion in multilingual work settings. Language may cue listeners to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model for conducting research on how human resource and hiring managers form impressions of overqualified individuals and how these impressions affect their treatment of overqualified individuals during selection decisions. Design/methodology/approach – Given the central role of psycho...

Anchored in institutional theory, our aim in the present study was to understand how large and economically successful organizations in India engage with the issue of disability within and outside of their organizational boundaries, and communicate such engagements through their annual reports. Based on a qualitative content analysis of the organiz...

We explore the role of social networks used by people with disabilities for finding employment. In addition, we outline obstacles to network building for those with a disability. We contend that this group is often constrained and they underutilize their networks during job searches. Both factors are likely to result in negative employment outcomes...

We draw on an in-depth qualitative study of the palliative care sector in Kerala, India in order to develop a model of field emergence that links situated, everyday activities of individuals to macro-level institutional processes. We outline specific mechanisms by which proto-institutions are crafted and transmitted through everyday actions and int...

Our objectives in this article were to summarize research relevant to obstacles that people with disabilities face in the workplace and to identify directions for future research on the topic. We included review, theoretical, and empirical articles in management journals and those in psychology or rehabilitation journals if they had clear workplace...

Purpose Past research has largely portrayed job choice as a relatively rational and goal‐directed behavior where applicants make decisions contingent on organizational recruitment activities, or evaluations of job and organizational attributes. Research now informs us that job choice decisions may also be based on social comparisons and social infl...

We examine the emergence and evolution of collective action frames in the palliative care movement in Kerala, India. We do so by leveraging secondary data published over seventeen years as well as interviews with thirty movement actors. Our findings suggest two key themes: First, frames that emerge at the grass-roots level, and in many occasions fr...

Organizational experts have long touted the importance of delivering negative performance feedback in a manner that enhances employee receptivity to feedback, yet the broader impacts of constructive feedback have received relatively little attention. The present investigation explored the impact of constructive, critical feedback on organizational...

Although organizational social networks are known to influence career mobility, the specific direction of this influence is different for diverse employee groups. Diversity in organizational network research has been operationalized on various dimensions such as race and ethnicity, age, religion, education, occupation, and gender. Missing in this s...

The objective of this article is to provide a framework of contextual factors that affect help seeking expectancies and behaviors of people with disabilities. In particular, drawing on theories from disciplines such as social, cognitive, and educational psychology, I outline work unit norms (i.e., dependence, inclusion) and coworker perceptions (i....

Drawing upon in-depth interviews with forty-one respondents, the present study explores how different types of pre-entry relationships influence post-entry help-seeking of people with disabilities during the socialization period. Findings indicate that help-seeking is influenced by pre-entry relationships that persist post organizational entry and...

In the present paper we explore how employees with physical disabilities and their human resource managers perceive practices aimed at entry, integration, and development of disabled employees. The results indicate that both sets of respondents want to treat people with disabilities as ‘regular’ employees and take attention away from disability. Th...

As employees' international mobility has increased, implementing repatriation processes has become a significant human resource (HR) issue. Through an exploratory study using a semi-structured interview method, we examine repatriated employees' views about HR activities that facilitate and hinder the repatriation process in the emerging economy of...

As complex systems, organizations exist far from equilibrium where the ongoing interaction of system components leads to emergent and self-organizing behavior. What, then, is the role of leadership in systems where change often emerges in unexpected ways? In this paper, we build on the work of Marion and Uhl-Bien who suggest that in complex systems...

A decision to offer breakfast to homeless people led to radical change in a church and its environment. Existing theories of change do not fully explain observations from our qualitative study; however, complexity theory constructs suggest how and why such change emerged. We offer four key findings. First, the radical change was unintended, emergen...

Research on diffusion in social movements has largely emphasized the role of structural system level mechanisms, neglecting the more interpretive, cultural level framing processes. In this qualitative study, we remedy this gap by exploring the framing processes in the context of the palliative care movement in Kerala, India. Using secondary data ga...