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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 disabled persons and their entitlements. Findings indicate that the label of "disadvantage" was consistently used to portray the target employee. Alongside other narrative material suggesting, for example that the target employee was someone who required employment assistance, this label was supplied to external audiences to convert them into potential partners. This supply of narrative material further reinforced the portrayal of the target employee. Consistent use of this expansive label subsumed changing definitions of who is a disabled person, allowed for aggregations with diverse disadvantaged collectives, and accommodated changes in employment entitlements and ecosystem partners, thereby allowing the reading of change in stable narratives. The contributions of this paper lie in highlighting how the consistent use of an expansive label can cast narrative stability and change as complementary, and in suggesting that narrating a prototypical employee entails shaping the setting outside the employing organization toward employee categorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 passed away. Findings suggest that harnessing moral anger can facilitate social change through two mechanisms: disciplined collectivization wherein aggregated stakeholders can appraise injustice; and enabling collective enactment wherein they can redress injustice by choosing if, when, and how to effect change. Despite ongoing propriety breaches, moral anger can remain functional when stakeholders can balance their immersion across initiatives and can perceive change as a beneficial proxy for or an expansion of existing values. As such, the study contributes by drawing attention to the theoretical significance that a functional account has for expanding the literature on moral anger as it applies within the context of social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 analyse how actors engaged in solidarity processes of recognizing interdependences, reconfiguring spaces and re-imagining accountability to challenge exclusionary institutions and construct inclusive infrastructure at different scales. We foreground solidarity-making as an indispensable yet under-theorized aspect of institutional research on inequalities. We inform solidarity studies by illustrating how solidarity-making pulsates infrastructures with diverse webs of relations and spatial configurations. Overall, we advance a generative engagement with heterogeneity in institutional analyses and discuss the implications of solidarity-making to address infrastructural inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 understand which strategies PWD engage in to manage their careers proactively. Findings indicate that strategies include maintaining a positive mind-set; trouncing competence stereotypes by sensitizing people to their ability through learning and applying new skills, and by seeking feedback; engaging in disability advocacy to remove performance myths; and building, leveraging, and contributing to disability networks. We noted gender and tenure differences with regard to strategies employed. Findings imply that career objectives of PWD are not those traditionally expected or lauded by organizations, and motivations for career self-management are unique to PWD as compared to those without a disability. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 the case of the Beating Retreat ritual conducted daily at the India–Pakistan border. Findings indicate that institutional maintenance rests on (a) distantiation, which serves to create physical and social distance between collectives as ritual participants gain a sense of self and the "other," and (b) interpellation, which serves to reinforce institutional ideologies as ritual participants internalize and profess what is valued. I extend implications of present findings for social relations within work organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 behaviors in influencing organizational integration. We found that integration was most influenced by coworkers and supervisors. Organizational practices and employee proactive behaviors were less important. Respondent gender and tenure also influenced certain findings. Specifically, PWD with less tenure sought and accepted more help from coworkers and supervisors. Further, more men with disabilities than women with disabilities indicated that they were proactive in terms of obtaining training to make themselves employable, and more men with disabilities indicated that having coworkers with a disability helped them during socialization. We discuss both theoretical and practical implications as well as future research directions based on our findings. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 India. Respondents described lack of formal repatriation assistance, no contact person in HR to help with repatriation, and lack of re-entry culture-related training as characteristic of the repatriation process. Managing employees' expectations, along with creating a more sensitive, structured, and strategic HR function, are recommended to improve the repatriation process. From a theoretical perspective, results point to the multi-dimensionality of the repatriation construct and provide evidence of the context-specificity of HR practices. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 people with disabilities, the study outlines how employers have helped and continually aim to help those with a disability attain career success through certain human resource philosophies and practices. The present study complements prior research which has noted barriers to career success and outlines how employers and human resource practitioners can help develop careers of employees with a disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 research on this subject, our approach is exploratory and we seek to create a platform for further studies. A key finding of the study is the preference of agencies to engage in non-traditional and ad hoc approaches to build and showcase underutilized talent of those with a disability. Based on present findings and the contextual approach to talent management, a more comprehensive agenda for future research areas in inclusive talent management is outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 disregarded by employees in both national and multinational organizations. Respondents noted how even benign and momentary language switching can lead to the formation of language-based groups and cause negative consequences such as feelings of being devalued. Respondents also noted strategies that let them attenuate negative effects of multilingualism while simultaneously leveraging its benefits. Overall, the present study indicates that momentary exclusion based on incomprehensible language, when experienced on a daily basis, may have a far-reaching influence on individual and team functioning. Findings thus point to language use as a trigger that can activate social identity-based fault lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 organizations' annual reports for the year 2009–2010, we examined if these organizations spoke about recruitment and other organizational treatment of people with disabilities (internal focus), and if they engaged with issues related to disability in the realm of corporate social responsibility (external focus). We found that, despite no institutional pressures, organizations engaged with disability-specific issues both internally and externally. While we found differences with respect to organizational age and sector (public and private sector), we did not find any differences in the engagement and communication of activities based on organizational industry type and global presence. We discuss implications for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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 influence. The purpose of this paper is to add to this body of knowledge by examining reasons why social influence is a key factor in job choice decisions of relatively young job seekers. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on in-depth interview data from graduating seniors at an elite business school in India. Findings – Respondents did not see themselves as acting based on social influence as much as they perceived others around them to be. Reasons they noted for others' socially influenced job choice decisions were: peers and seniors are seen as more accessible and trustworthy than organizations; organizations do not share all and/or objective data, driving job seekers to other sources; job seekers are clueless and hence follow a "smart" herd; and job seekers make decisions for social status signaling. Respondents pointed to socially influenced job choices as being rational behaviors under certain conditions. Research limitations/implications – Generalizability of findings may be limited to young job seekers or to the Indian context, and the authors encourage replication. The authors also acknowledge the importance of individual difference variables in job choice decisions, a factor not considered in the present research. Practical implications – Given that job seekers rally around others' notion of an attractive job or an organization, the paper outlines several implications for managerial practice. Originality/value – This study, in a yet unexamined cultural context, points to the simultaneous and combined importance of normative and informational social determinants of job choice, bias blind spots in one's own job choice perceptions and decisions, gender specific socialization influences on job choices, and the notion of job fit in terms of fitment with expectations of important reference groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 from bystanders, can become dominant frames of a movement. Second, frame alignment processes may be directed by non-elites towards the elites. These findings diverge from prior literature which emphasizes roles of movement leaders and key actors in framing issues and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]