Prelims

Half Title Page

HR INITIATIVES IN BUILDING INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE WORKPLACES

Title Page

HR INITIATIVES IN BUILDING INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE WORKPLACES

BY

SHALINI GARG

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, India

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2020

Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83867-612-4 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83867-611-7 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83867-613-1 (EPub)

Dedication

Dedicated to Papa …

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Boxes

Abbreviations

List of Key Terms

Accessibility

Ensuring that all aspects of the company are suitable for use by all persons. This includes the physical environment and methods of information and communication, as well as the company’s policies, processes, systems, and facilities.

Artificial Intelligence

The ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.

Assistive Technology

The tools, devices, accessories, or equipment that are categorically designed and used to enhance, support, or improve the occupational capacities of person with disabilities.

Assistive Technology Services Framework

Designing assistive technology framework/system and facilities for PWD user experience based on quality indicators such as needs assessment, implementation, evaluation, administrative support, evaluation and effectiveness, professional development, and AT in transition.

Astigmatic Vision

Eye condition that causes blurred vision.

Behavioural Modelling

Using available and relevant consumer and business spending data to estimate future behaviour.

Business Gains

Any economic benefit that is outside the normal operations of a business.

Competitive Advantage

Attribute that allows an organization to outperform its competitors.

Compliance

Responding favourably to a request offered by others

C-Suites

The group of officers of a business organization who have the word “chief” in their titles.

Disability

Any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being.

Discrimination

Any distinction, exclusion, or preference made on the basis of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction, or social origin that has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation.

Diversity Climate

Organizational Climate that values the diverse characteristics of its workplace.

Employee Relations

Part of HRM practices that concentrates on building collegial relationships between employer and employee.

Employee Retention

The ability of an organization to retain its employees

Employee Perception

The ability of employees to perceive objects

Equal Employment Opportunities

A workplace that is free from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, caste, colour, creed.

HRM Practices

A system that attracts, develops, motivates, and retains employees to ensure the effective implementation and the survival of the organization and its members.

Inclusion

The action or state of including or of being included within a group or structure.

Inclusion Climate

Organizational climate where all the stakeholders are equally valued, respected and celebrated.

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

A person’s voluntary commitment within an organization or company that is not part of his or her contractual tasks.

Organizational Climate

The shared values, beliefs, norms that govern employee’s behaviour in the organization.

Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling

Analytical tool that helps researchers to test and find relationships between variables. Multivariate Statistical Analysis technique for analysing structural relationships between variables and the constructs.

Pluralistic

Diversity of different ideas or people.

Racial Discrimination

Discrimination against individuals on the basis of their race.

Reasonable Accommodation

An adjustment made in a system to make it accommodating or make it fair for an individual based on a proven need.

Refugee

A person who has been forced to leave his or her country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

Role-Play

Changing one’s behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role or consciously to act out an adopted role

Pink-Collar Employees

Women employees referred as “pink collared” working in jobs traditionally considered suitable for women.

Sensitivity Training

A kind of training that creates awareness among people about their own goals, as well as their prejudices, and more sensitive to others and to the dynamics of group interaction.

Socio-Technical Systems

An approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction among people and technology in workplaces.

Training Manual

A book of instructions, designed to improve the quality of a performed task.

Universal Design

Vulnerability

The quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally

About the Author

A prolific scholar with 20 years of academic experience in Human Resource (HR) Management, Organization Behavior and Organization Development. She is currently employed as a Professor in the University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, India. She is intimately knowledgeable about the HR aspects of inclusion and accessibility, and her teaching and research focus on inclusion and accessibility and the integration of HR technology with social systems, with an emphasis on emerging economies like India. She holds membership in the Academy of Management and is on the editorial boards of national and international journals. She has published extensively in numerous journals and has presented her research to domestic and international audiences. She has developed a Training Manual: Framework for HR-enabled Inclusion and Accessibility Training (An Overview) and has also authored a module on “Organizational Inclusiveness – Gender, Special Needs and Disability” for Management School in IGNOU. For details: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-shalini-garg12345/

Preface

ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśhyati yo ’rjuna

sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ

Bhagavad Gita,* Chapter 6, Verse 32

*Bhagavad Gita is the best known and the most famous book of spiritual knowledge belonging to ancient Indian scriptures.

Translation: “One who sees the true equality of all living beings and responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were their own is considered the perfect and the highest.”

This timeless message on the “Equality of Vision” in the words of Lord Krishna to his disciple Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita refers to the inner battle between knowledge and ignorance, rigidity and transitoriness, discrimination and equality – and is a perfect answer for the modern-age illusions and dilemmas about the notions of pluralism, inclusion, diversity, accessibility, tolerance, acceptance, equality, altruism, and other issues.

Inclusion and accessibility, being a global challenge, has a tremendous scope of research and is not yet a saturated field of study. Diversity alone is not enough. It has to be accompanied by inclusive and accessible work practices and culture in order to triumph. Today it is a well accepted fact that inclusive and accessible practices make business sense and add both tangible and intangible value to the bottom line.

The changing demographics at the workplace pose an important global challenge to the successful management of employee relations for HR managers, business leaders, and management trainers and consultants. The inclusive growth and development of humanity are at the heart of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. This ambitious agenda became a call to action for all stakeholders for understanding the societal transformation needed to achieve inclusive growth.

Hence, being an avid academician and researcher and. above all, an HR enthusiast, I started this research journey in 2015 to understand the role of the corporate world in advancing inclusive and accessible workplace development through progressive HR initiatives.

The intended empirical research was centred around the following research issues:

• Investigating HR initiatives adopted for creating inclusive and accessible workplaces

• Understanding employee perception about inclusive practices adopted by their employers

• The relevance of a Training Manual for guiding successful policy making and implementation for workplace inclusion and accessibility

The research responses were collected and compiled in the Indian continent neighboured by Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, among others. The research findings were obtained using the PLS-SEM analytical tool, which is a modern and robust technique for research in management and the social sciences.

The research compiled in the form of this book has had immense global appeal as the responses were collected from the well-known MNCs (multi-national corporations with operations all over the world) across different sectors in India, employing a diverse mix of people belonging to different cultures and nationalities. The research further addresses the needs and gaps in HR-oriented inclusive and accessible practices and proposes a Training Manual.

This book has the potential of being a one-of-a-kind work, supplemented with a Training Manual: Framework on HR- enabled Inclusion and Accessibility Training (An Overview) for guiding stakeholders such as academicians, researchers, business leaders, consultants and trainers on the implementation of inclusion and accessibility–based HR initiatives highlighting areas of progress and areas where more actions need to be taken to ensure that no one is left behind.

Acknowledgements ^*

In this empirical research journey, I have had the privilege of working with many outstanding people in completing this three-year-long research effort and later compiling it in the form of a book. I take this opportunity to thank and appreciate the following:

I attribute all the learning and my personal development during this period to the divine grace of the lord and his blessings.

I am thankful to the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, India, for the award of a three-year major research project and financial assistance to pursue the work on “HR Initiatives in Building Inclusive and Accessible Workplaces” (2015–2018), the results and findings of which have been compiled in the shape of this book. I record my sincere gratitude and thanks to the officials and authorities of my employer university (Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University) and its on-campus management school (University School of Management Studies) for providing research facilities and infrastructure throughout the research tenure.

I would like to express appreciation and gratefulness to all the respondents who had participated, spared their valuable time, and shared their experiences during the research work. I wish to thank my worthy students and ex-students in the MBA program, participants in the consecutive National Inclusion and Accessibility conferences that I organized in the management school of the university, and the HR managers and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for their continuous support and relevant inputs in the research work.

My heartfelt thanks go to my research scholar, Ms. Shipra Sharma, Project Fellow Ms. Nidhi Sinha, and the office assistant, Ms. Shaili Verma, all of whose contributions have been invaluable to the successful completion of the research work and its culmination in book form.

I wish to thank the editorial team of Emerald Publishing UK, which understood the value of this research work to be compiled in the form of a book and who provided continuous support and valuable assistance throughout my progress on the book.

The credit for who and what I am today and my achievements goes to my Guruji (Shri Ojaswi Sharma), my parents (Shri S. L. Garg and Dr Poonam Garg), my ever supporting life partner (Mr Vineet Gupta), and my loving kids (Gauree and Kartikeya). I am indebted to my respected academic mentors, Dr P. P. Elhance (Maternal Grandfather and Earliest Mentor), Prof A. K. Mittal (Vice Chancellor, BBD University, Lucknow), the late Prof Udai Pareek (“Father of HRD in India,” Indian Institute of Health Management Research, with whom I guided/Supervised my first PhD), Prof K. K Aggarwal (Founder and Ex-Vice Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi), Prof Amarjeet Kaur (Director of University Centre for Disaster Mangement Studies, GGSIPU), and Prof V. K. Malhotra (Member Secretary, ICSSR, Delhi) for having shown faith in my capabilities, for continuous support and guidance, and for providing growth opportunities throughout my academic career.