Factors that affect a firm's decision to employ persons with disabilities

• Main Authors: Adalid, Aileen G., Justiniano, Ma. Celine Angela D., Nayve, John Christopher A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: People with disabilities > Employment; Business Administration, Management, and Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/10716
• Institution: De La Salle University

This research examined the factors that affect the decision to employ persons with disabilities. The researchers proposed that law, cost, management, and social factors (independent variables) affect the decision to hire persons with disabilities with individual factors as an intervening variable. To test this proposition, the researchers interviewed seven private companies and one government-owned and controlled corporation from the National Capital Region. The research sample comes from the National Council on Disability Affairs 2006 List of Companies with Employed Persons with Disabilities, recommendation of firms, and online research. Interview questions corresponded to the independent and intervening variables. The analytical methods used were content analysis and cross-case analysis, wherein the researchers categorized the research participants responses per factor and thereafter, the group made a comparison among the firms to determine the prevalent factors that affect the hiring decision. Findings suggest the unexpected emergence of the individual factors as an influential factor for firms in the employment of disabled persons. This has proven the limitation of firms to accept persons with disabilities due to personal preferences, compatibility of skills to the job offered, and the inability of firms to accommodate other disability types. The law factors and cost factors had the least influence on the decision of firms whereas the social factors were the most prevalent as firms put value in social responsibility. However, an investment in social responsibility could be an avenue to enhance the company image, resulting to management factors having a secondary influence to the employment decision.