Legal obligation or personal lottery?: Employee experiences of disability and the negotiation of adjustments in the public sector workplace
Abstract
This article ‘gives voice’ to disabled employees by documenting their experiences of negotiating workplace adjustments under the terms of the UK's Disability Discrimination Act, 1995.This ad hoc process of ‘negotiation’ is explored through in-depth interviews that reveal persistent problems with the character of legislation and its implementation in public sector organizations. Negotiations on adjustments were characteristically highly individualized and outcomes almost entirely contingent upon the knowledge, attitudes and goodwill of poorly trained line managers. The adjustment process itself often led to instances of bullying by managers, resulting in stress and ill health among employees.An analysis of managers' behaviour in the context of wider debates on power and organizational decision-making concludes that, even where outcomes are positive for employees, managers still choose to abdicate responsibility in this area. Such behaviour represents a form of non-decision-making that is essentially political in character and has wider implications for equality agendas.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Research in the UK indicates that even when adjustments are agreed upon, they are often delayed or inconsistently implemented.
“For example, research in the UK indicates that even when adjustments are agreed upon, they are often delayed [31] or inconsistently implemented [39].”
From Autistic adults’ views and experiences of requesting and receiving workplace adjustments in the UK (2022) · cites this paper as [31]
Research suggests that the process of negotiating workplace adjustments with employers can have dire consequences on employee wellbeing.
“This reluctance is not unfounded: research suggests that the process of negotiating workplace adjustments with employers can have dire consequences on employee wellbeing [31].”
From Autistic adults’ views and experiences of requesting and receiving workplace adjustments in the UK (2022) · cites this paper as [31]
Cites
Stigma; Notes On The Management Of Spoiled Identity
Defleur, M., & Goffman, E. (1964) · Social Forces · doi:10.2307/2575995 · Cited by 23,025 · see citing works
Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity
(1969) · Postgraduate Medical Journal · doi:10.1136/pgmj.45.527.642 · Cited by 14,251 · see citing works
A Social Psychologist Discovers Chicago Sociology
Schein, E. H., Hughes, E. C., Dalton, M., & Goffman, E. (1989) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258197 · Cited by 7,215 · see citing works
Lukes, S. (1974) · Power · doi:10.1007/978-0-230-80257-5_2 · Cited by 6,654 · see citing works
Bachrach, P., & Baratz, M. S. (1962) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.2307/1952796 · Cited by 3,575 · see citing works
Power and Poverty: Theory and Practice.
Keiser, R. L., Bachrach, P., & Baratz, M. S. (1972) · Man · doi:10.2307/2800984 · Cited by 1,222 · see citing works
The Concept of Oppression and the Development of a Social Theory of Disability
Abberley, P. (1987) · Disability & Society · doi:10.1080/02674648766780021 · Cited by 844 · see citing works
Barnes, C., & Mercer, G. (2005) · Work Employment and Society · doi:10.1177/0950017005055669 · Cited by 455 · see citing works
An Institutional History of Disability
Braddock, D. L., & Parish, S. L. (2001) · Sage eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781412976251.n2 · Cited by 314 · see citing works
Journal of Applied Management Studies
(2022) · Journal of Applied Management Studies · doi:10.51713/jamms · Cited by 294 · see citing works
Disability: Controversial Debates and Psychosocial Perspectives
Titchkosky, T., & Marks, D. (2001) · The Canadian Journal of Sociology · doi:10.2307/3341683 · Cited by 252 · see citing works
Equal Opportunities Policy and Practice in Britain:
Hoque, K., & Noon, M. (2004) · Work Employment and Society · doi:10.1177/0950017004045547 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Disability: controversial debates and psychosocial perspectives
(2000) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.37-4565 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
(1996) · In Practice · doi:10.1136/inpract.18.7.345-d · Cited by 170 · see citing works
Diversity and equal opportunities: room for a constructive compromise?
Liff, S. (1999) · Human Resource Management Journal · doi:10.1111/j.1748-8583.1999.tb00190.x · Cited by 148 · see citing works
Rules of Engagement: Doing disability research
Shakespeare, T. (1996) · Disability & Society · doi:10.1080/09687599650023380 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Disability and diversity – a difference too far?
Woodhams, C., & Danieli, A. (2000) · Personnel Review · doi:10.1108/00483480010324779 · Cited by 117 · see citing works
Cunningham, I., James, P., & Dibben, P. (2004) · British Journal of Management · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2004.00419.x · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Disability and employment: a comparative critique of UK legislation
Goss, D. M., Goss, F., & Adam‐Smith, D. (2000) · The International Journal of Human Resource Management · doi:10.1080/09585190050075132 · Cited by 86 · see citing works
Whitt, J. A., & Lukes, S. (1980) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2065624 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Room at the academy? People with learning difficulties and higher education
Boxall, K., Carson, I., & Docherty, D. (2004) · Disability & Society · doi:10.1080/0968759042000181749 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Barnes, C. (1992) · Personnel Review · doi:10.1108/00483489210021080 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Stone, C. N. (2006) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055406222561 · Cited by 49 · see citing works
Woodhams, C., & Corby, S. (2003) · Journal of Social Policy · doi:10.1017/s0047279402006979 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
Knowledge, Power and the Disability Discrimination Bill
CHADWICK, A. (1996) · Disability & Society · doi:10.1080/09687599650023308 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Toward a Sociology of Stammering
Acton, C., & Hird, M. J. (2004) · Sociology · doi:10.1177/0038038504043215 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Negotiating ‘difference’: Representing disabled employees in the British workplace
Foster, D., & Fosh, P. (2010) · British Journal of Industrial Relations · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8543.2009.00748.x · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Self-citationAutistic adults’ views and experiences of requesting and receiving workplace adjustments in the UK
Davies, J., Heasman, B., Livesey, A., Walker, A., Pellicano, E., & Remington, A. (2022) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0272420 · Cited by 65 · see citing works
William, L. C. (2016) · Industrial Relations Journal · doi:10.1111/irj.12143 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
- Authors
- Foster, D.
- Affiliations
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Foster, Deborah
- ORCID
- Foster, Deborah
- Venue
- Work Employment and Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2007-03
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 67-84
- ISSN
- 0950-0170 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8722
- OpenAlex
- W2072499671
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 7.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Work Employment and Society (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Education and Employment
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Disability Rights and Representation
- Social Sciences › Law › Discrimination and Equality Law
- Keywords
- disability discrimination, workplace adaptation, Disability Discrimination Act 1995, disabled workers, public sector organizations, management training, workplace harassment, management responsibility, organizational decision-making, organizational power, equality policy
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
