Working out disability : identification and workplace health promotions.

Abstract

Using Scott, Corman, and Cheney’s structurational model of identification, and building on existing communication and disability scholarship, this study provides scholars and organizations with a deeper understanding of disability in the workplace and the ways in which workplace health promotions serve as sites of organizational disidentification. This research conducts twelve semi-structured interviews with persons with disabilities (PwDs) who work at organizations with existing health promotion programs. This study finds that PwDs disidentify with workplace health promotions by not participating due to physical ability and program design, which pushes them towards workgroup identification. The implications of these themes are that organizations need to create more inclusive WHPs and that workgroup identification is stronger than disidentification with WHPs. This study may be used to help organizations understand their members, enable workgroup leaders to better support PwDs, and create programs that are both inclusive and empowering of persons with disabilities.