Disability Stigma at Work

Individuals with disabilities often face a variety of challenges in the workplace. In this chapter, we argue that many of these challenges stem from the pervasive stigma that is attached to disability and suggest a new way to conceptualize disability stigma at work. We propose a shift from viewing disability merely as a stigmatizing attribute that needs to be managed to adopting a relational perspective of disability stigma at work. This relational perspective highlights the importance of (1) identifying key supportive and stigmatizing audiences that shape the experience of disability stigma, (2) exploring the diverse interactions between disabled individuals and these audiences, and (3) explicitly considering the public sources and effects of stigma. In so doing, we suggest that this perspective enables scholars to holistically reflect on and examine disability in organizations. We conclude by outlining a research agenda for a relational perspective on disability stigma, aiming to pave the way for organizational and management scholars to study disability stigma in more nuanced ways in organizational contexts.